Those who think that wisdom and whimsy are mutually exclusive have neither. It's vitally important to do the right thing when the consequences are dire, and to do a whole bunch of utterly frivolous silly dumb shit when it doesn't matter what you do.
Often, the wise thing must be disguised as silly frivolous dumb shit in order to actually work
Iroh explaining his actions to Zuko during exile:
Wound Man is so interesting and incredibly tragic to me. What if your town was poisoned by a large corporation? Everyone in town is numb, they can’t feel anything and so you ask for help, for someone to stop the poisoning from happening. Your poor wife, she didn’t even feel the fire as it melted he alive, may not have even stirred her from her sleep. And so you search, and nail, and stab, and pray to find pain, to find hurt, to find something. And only after filling your body with nails and metal do you realize all you can do it save others from your fate, all you can do is make sure others can feel the pain that you can’t.