The company of fools may first make us smile, but in the end we always feel melancholy.

Easy company is genuinely pleasant for an evening. Nothing is asked of you, nothing serious gets said, and the laughing is real while it lasts. The flatness afterwards comes from having spent hours near people without any of you being known. Amusement and company are different appetites, and one cannot be fed with the other for long.

Look at the flat feeling on the way home rather than blaming the hour or the drink. Then choose one conversation this week where you say the true thing instead of the funny one, and see how you feel walking away from that.