Laughing Matters

Humour is a funny thing; it makes us laugh. And laughing lifts our spirits, humbles us, opens us up, and makes us vulnerable. Humour brings out the child in us, which, I suppose, is why we often call it “kidding”. It makes us more spontaneous, more receptive to novelty, and is, therefore, a powerful teaching tool, facilitating trust and deepening communication. This is why we often joke with strangers, and why we tease and “kid” with children.

It’s often been suggested that feminists and fundamentalists have no sense of humour, but this is quite untrue, at least about the feminists. Irina Dunn’s, comment, “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”, is very funny. And it works in all the ways that humour is supposed to work. It makes its point and makes us smile at the same time. And it makes us vulnerable to a new idea. Funny how that works.

But humour’s also dangerous precisely because it’s so liberating. As every teacher and class clown knows, it’s hard to get control of people who are laughing. And if the clown can get the teacher laughing the insurrection is complete. So it’s the controller who has no sense of humour; she can’t afford one. It’s the controller who has to keep it serious; he’s afraid to smile. If there’s a Nazi joke book somewhere, it’s anonymous and very short. And the Stalinist book of humour is distributed by Gulag Publishing.

And this, I think, is one of God’s great problems. As Voltaire said, “God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh.” And why are we afraid? Because too many of the god-folk among us: priests, nuns, rabbis, imams and pastors are controllers, and controllers make you afraid. These folk lead us to believe that God is no laughing matter, which is silly, of course, because everything that matters is a laughing matter. How else would we discover that what matters, matters?

But God is not a controller. If he were, he would never have created anything, and surely not apes, certainly not people, and undoubtedly not funny people. – Some controller-god-folk have suggested that George Carlin went to hell, but that just shows what sort of people they really are. How could a loving God do such a nasty thing to such a funny man as George, or to those poor folks in hell who really need to be afraid to laugh?

If you get what I’m getting at, click on Mr Deity . But, I warn you, if you're afraid to laugh this is going to be very scary.