Religion and Comedy: What is the Relationship?

The idea of comedy walking hand in hand with religion has always been somewhat risky. For many generations the religious sphere has been almost intolerant to comedy. On the other hand, comedy in today’s culture and throughout history sometimes can seem to push away from religion. In many ways religion and comedy have their own identities, but they can relate to one another in other areas. Though comedy and religion often conflict and are known as separate spheres, they actually can co-exist, and even go as far as refining, critiquing, and informing one another.

Throughout human history, comedy and religion seem to conflict and even keep away from one another because their tones are completely different. For example, the tone of the Christian church is seen being serious, enforcing orthodoxy and disciplining the sinful. Though Christians themselves may not see it this way, non church-goers sometimes do. As a result of this paradigm of the church, non-religious people feel as if they cannot freely express their sense of humor and be who they are. From the perspective of most Christians, the church should be a place where people can come and be who they are. This belief is seen in John 3:16 in the Bible, which says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” From this verse, Christians believe that God loved the entire world, meaning every single person, which is one reason Christians believe the church should be a place of welcoming for all people, just as they are.

Some researchers have even gone as far as saying that religion hinders comedy. In the scientific research experiment, Does Religion Affect Humor Creation? An Experimental Study, researchers Vassilis Saroglou and Jean-Marie Jaspard (2001) of Universite catholique de Louvain, Centre for Psychology of Religion in Belgium tested a select group of people’s individual ability to create humor. In one trial, they had the participants watch a humorous video before testing their ability and for the second trial they watched a religious video. The results proved that the religious material did in fact hinder their ability to be humorous (p. 36). A similar experiment was done on substance abuse patients, and concluded that religion had a very negative result on the patients, versus very positive results of the humor. Their survey “found no relationship between religious fundamentalism and humor” and aimed at researching how religious fundamentalism and humor affects the success of the treatment and the ultimate success of substance abusers in treatment (Holcomb & Ivey, 2017, 499). When looking at this perspective of non-religious people on humor and religion, it is easier to understand why there has been a conflict between religion and comedy.

Additionally, comedy has its own tone that conflicts with religion, specifically the explicit content of much of today’s comedy. Due to humor having a tendency to rely on explicit and vulgar content and the church leaning more toward purity, the church can seem to veer away from humor altogether. This idea is stated in Ephesians 4:29, “Don’t let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (NIV). Additionally, in Mental Health, Religion & Culture, researchers Joanna Collicutt and Amanda Gray (2012) confirmed this hypothesis by saying that the church has reservations about comedy because “some types of humour [are] profane or dirty; cynical humour [is] incompatible with faith; . . . [and] humor [is] subversive of authority and incompatible with true humility . . . “ (p. 766). When observing historically how Christians interacted with comedy, this theme of conflict is still seen. As author and Professor of English at the University of Buffalo, Andrew Stott (2014) explored what defines comedy and humor in his book Comedy. In this book, he gave historical examples of religion and humor being separated. In “Christian Laughter,” Stott (2014) described early Christians in Rome with “opposition to the luxurious and debauched lives of their pagan masters” (p. 172), and wrote that instead, “Christian theology actively rewarded simplicity and poverty, . . . privation and self-control” (p. 172), completely contrasting the pagan culture of that time. Again, from the perspective of the non-religious, and even sometimes the religious person, people freely express who they are as humans through jokes and laughter, however explicit they may be, resulting in some religious people separating themselves entirely from the comedic crowd.

On the other hand, when taking a more focused and less assumptive look at this topic, religion and comedy seem less like separate spheres, and more like they really co-exist with one another. For example, comedy and religion can be seen co-existing when humor is researched in the Christian scriptures. Rather than having clear examples of humor in the form of jokes, the Bible focuses more on a person’s laughter being a result of joy. Two main instances are found in the Bible where God laughs — when God is rejoicing and when he, as stated by Kruger (2014) “[shines] upon” his people in many chapters of the Psalms, Nehemiah, and Deuteronomy (p. 8). Though the source of God’s laughter is not comical or humorous in these instances, there are other places that humor or laughter can be found in the Bible. The story of Abraham and Sarah is an example of humor shown throughout the Christian scriptures. When God tells the old-aged couple that they will have a son, Sarah laughs because of how ridiculous that suggestion sounds. However, Stott (2014) pointed out that “when the prophecy comes true, she laughs again, this time in wonder” (p. 172). In Genesis 21:6 “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me’ (NIV). On the other hand, verses are scattered throughout the Bible that talk about laughter being related to foolishness, but when laughter is not coming from a foolish or meaningless source, such as drunkenness, sinfulness, or to cover up one’s despair, it is in fact pure. One example of pure humor that does not involve this foolishness comes from Christian comedians like Tim Hawkins and The Skit Guys. Tim Hawkins’ website reads that his works have “ . . . 300,000,000 video views online and over 100 sold-out concerts every year . . . “proving that he has successfully combined his Christian religion with his career as a comedian. Rather than mocking God, Hawkins mocks the people of the church, yet not in a cruel way, but in a light-hearted and loving way because he is also mocking himself. Another example of Christian comedians is The Skit Guys, Tommy Woodard and Eddie James. These Christian comedians partner to create skits with witty dialogue, but deep themes. For example, one of their funnier videos titled “Running the Race” gives the Bible lesson about Christians running the race of faith with perseverance, while causing people to laugh at their relatable jokes at the same time. While they have many humorous videos, there are also videos such as “God’s Chisel” which really tugs on people’s heart strings and gets across a powerful message of God’s sanctification of Christians.

Additionally, humor can bring growth to the religious atmosphere and community. In the article Gossip, Humor, and the Art of Becoming an Intimate of Jesus, a differentiation is made between gossip and rumors (Capps, 2012). Gossip is defined as a positive way of telling stories (Capps, 2012, 102) and is hypothesized to be the main way the gospels were written and transferred (Capps, 2012, p. 109), while rumor has a more hateful underlying tone (Capps, 2012, p. 101). As the author stated, “A false rumor can create enormous havoc in a town . . . whereas the social effects of gossip occur within the family, the church, the school, or the workplace, and are therefore of lesser importance. . . . ” (Capps, 2012, p. 106) and earlier stated, “the word gossip originally had a positive connotation” (Capps, 2012, p. 102) and even a strong connection with friendship (Capps, 2012, p. 102). This means that gossip in its true form is not something evil or bad, until it becomes a falsified version of itself which is a rumor. Capps (2012) went on to connect humor with gossip in three different ways saying both “are sources of pleasure. . . . take narrative form” and “please the imagination” (p. 111). Not only can a connection be made between humor and gossip and gossip helping form the gospels, but it can be taken a step further to say that the social bonds made in the atmosphere of gossip and humor help strengthen relationships, including those in the church (p. 106).

Not only do religion and humor co-exist, but they even go as far as refining, critiquing, and informing one another. The major way in which humor critiques religion is through satirical comedy. Authors Eric Shouse and Todd Fraley (2010) of East Carolina University inquired about and evaluated the popular music video “Hater Jesus” in which Jesus is apparently shown partaking in very vulgar activities (p. 202). The main conclusion of the observations of “Hater Jesus” is that the video is meant to call out the militarization of Christian youth and show, in a very vulgar way, that Jesus wants Christians to act in a way of acceptance toward anyone and everyone (Shouse & Fradley, 2010, p. 213–214). In this particular situation, the creators of this video are critiquing religious culture with hopes of refining it in a humorous and satirical way.

Many researchers have acknowledged the importance of satirical comedy that addresses religion (Scott, 2011; Feltmate, 2013). In It’s Funny Because It’s True? ‘The Simpsons’, Satire, and the Significance of Religious Humor in Popular Culture, David Feltmate (2013) of the Department of Sociology at Auburn University in Montgomery wrote the importance of religious humor and satire in American history and culture by stating, “The Simpsons is used to satirize its subjects, revealing hypocrisy through individual characters who act as extended commentaries on American religious life” (as stated in Feltmate, 2013, p. 225). He sought to explore the satire of the evangelical character, Ned Flanders, in The Simpsons by exposing both positive and negative aspects of this character, mainly his fundamentalist point of view. The Simpsons portrayal of an evangelical Christian is a perfect example of the use of humor to inform religious people of their downfalls by showing them how the rest of the world views them. As a response to and continuation of Feltmate’s (2013) article, the author of Religiosity in ‘South Park’: Struggles Over Institutional and Personal Piety Among Residents of a “Redneck Town” compared the comedy in the television show South Park with The Simpsons (Scott, 2011). Scott (2011) points out that South Park seems to have a lot to say about religion, specifically that private, personal religion is better than institutionalized religious practice (p. 154–155). One way in which Scott’s (2011) article adds to the idea that humor tries to refine religion, is that the show often features Jesus answering, as Scott (2011) wrote, “important theological questions,” specifically representing “the ultimate appeal to religious and cultural authority on questions facing humanity” (p. 156). In other words, the show uses the character of Jesus to directly challenge and critique the religion of Christianity in this humorous show. In similar ways, Muslims today are facing harsh militarization of their religion by ISIS and they often use satirical comedy as a way to critique, and even attack ISIS propaganda (Al-Rawi, 2016). Ahmed Al-Rawi (2016) of Concordia University wrote that when ISIS released propaganda videos on YouTube, Muslims began to poke fun at these videos through satirical comedy which helped separate themselves from these radical people. This shows another example of humor critiquing not only the Christian religion through satire, but other religions as well.

From the other side of this relationship, religion also critiques and refines which comedy practicing Christians participate in. For someone who is assumedly a practicing Christian, his or her religion will change what type of comedy he or she is going to partake in because his or her faith changes who he or she is as a person. For example, a practicing Christian will usually try their best not to make fun of others because of what Ephesians 4:29 says. Another verse where Christians pull this discipline from is James 3:11 which says “Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?”

Overall, comedy and religion can often conflict and be separate spheres because of the individual tones that religion and comedy have, but they do co-exist and fall into many categories together. Humor, specifically laughter and joy, is found in the Bible, and examples of modern day Christian comedians directly bring these two topics beautifully together and humor helps the religious in social bonds with each other through “gossip.” Humor and religion even go as far as refining, critiquing, and informing one another. Humor refines religion through satire toward not only Christians, but other religious groups, and religion refines humor for Christians to help them determine what kind of jokes they should or should not partake in. Finally, religion and comedy do co-exist because, if these two topics did not, the conversation about the relationship between religion and comedy would not even exist. The main goal or idea of this conversation is to open up people’s minds and start the exploration of topics like the relationship between religion and comedy. Are they truly sworn enemies, or can they live among one another? Like any relationship, there is still conflict, but when taking a look at every side of the relationship between comedy and religion, it is obvious that both refine one another and do go hand in hand.

References

Al-Rawi, A. (2016). Anti-ISIS humor: Cultural resistance of radical ideology. Politics, Religion & Ideology, 17(1), 52–68. doi:10.1080/21567689.2016.1157076

Capps, D. (2012). Gossip, humor, and the art of becoming an intimate of jesus. Journal of Religion & Health, 51(1), 99–117. doi:10.1007/s10943–010–9382–3

Collicutt, J., & Gray, A. (2012). A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: Humour, religion and wellbeing. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 15(8), 759–778. doi:10.1080/13674676.2011.630385

Feltmate, D. (2013). It’s funny because it’s true? the simpsons, satire, and the significance of religious humor in popular culture. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 81(1), 222–248.

Holcomb, W. R., & Ivey, W. S. (2017). Religious fundamentalism, humor, and treatment outcomes in individuals in court-mandated substance abuse outpatient treatment. Psychological Reports, 120(3), 491–502. doi:10.1177/0033294116687270

Kruger, H. A. J. (2014). Laughter in the old testament: A hotchpotch of humour, mockery and rejoicing? In Die Skriflig/in Luce Verbi, 48(2), 1–10. doi:10.4102/ids.v48i2.712

Saroglou, V., & Jaspard, J. (2001). Does religion affect humour creation? an experimental study. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 4(1), 33–46. doi:10.1080/13674670010016756

Scott, D. W. (2011). Religiosity in south park: Struggles over institutional and personal piety among residents of a ‘redneck town’. Journal of Media & Religion, 10(3), 152–163. doi:10.1080/15348423.2011.599650

Shouse, E., & Fraley, T. (2010). Hater jesus: Blasphemous humor and numinous awe: (An antidote for) hatred in jesus’ name? Journal of Media & Religion, 9(4), 202–215. doi:10.1080/15348423.2010.521086

Stott, A. M. (2014). Comedy (2. ed. ed.). New York [u.a.]: Routledge