18 May 2014

Is God Funny?

Religious 14 Comments

Since I’m such a wiseguy, I would like to think this activity is encouraged (if it’s in good fun of course), but it’s not obvious that it is. Here are some of my quick reflections on the question of whether God is funny:

==> If God is funny, His humor is definitely of the deadpan variety. (On Facebook I once imagined meeting God after death and asking, with all due humility and respect, if He could explain His plan which had made no sense on Earth. God replies, “Oh that? I was just trolling you guys.”)

==> Jesus was obviously very clever–look at His battle of wits with his interlocuters–but He didn’t really walk around cracking jokes, at least not in His recorded sermons. Now maybe that’s because He would warm the crowd up with observational humor, then hit them with the really deep stuff, and the people writing the gospels obviously focused on how to get into heaven, rather than remarks on the difficulty of making a level table. But I also recall Oscar Wilde’s line: “If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.” Since Jesus’ mission was to provoke the religious leaders into plotting His death, He couldn’t really be a standup comedian.

==> There are different roles for the Jester versus the King. Just because the King doesn’t crack jokes doesn’t mean he has no sense of humor; if he keeps around the Jester, we think he does.

==> And on that note, let me make my final observation on the issue of whether God has a sense of humor: Look at the group He made His chosen people.

14 Responses to “Is God Funny?”

  1. Z says:

    Found this joke online:

    A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened.

    Then he decided to write God a letter requesting the $100. When the postal authorities received the letter addressed to God, USA, they decided to send it to President Obama.

    The President was so impressed, touched, and amused that he instructed his secretary to send the little boy a $5.00 bill.

    President Obama thought this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy.

    The little boy was delighted with the $5.00 and sat down to write a thank you note to God, which read:

    Dear God,

    Thank you very much for sending the money, however, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through Washington D.C. and, as usual, those crooks deducted $95.00.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Of course He does! He created atheists & agnostics didn’t He?

  3. laughing says:

    Is Santa Claus funny?

    Is the Easter Bunny funny?

  4. Gamble says:

    “Oh that? I was just trolling you guys.”

    That was a good, Bob. Thanks for the laugh.

  5. Grane Peer says:

    He sure ain’t a standup but when it comes to practical jokes and eternal face palms, he truly is king of kings

  6. Innocent says:

    Sure God has a sense of humor… He created you.

  7. Matt M (Dude Where's My Freedom)) says:

    If he’s funny, it’s probably more of the “Jackass” variety where people are set up in situations for the rest of us to laugh at that aren’t very funny to them at the time at all.

    Like, “HA-HA, totally made you think you were about to murder your son! Psych!”

  8. Harold says:

    Wouldn’t God having a sense of humour be like tickling yourself? At least for the joke sort. Humor often works by confounding expectation – the punch line juxtaposes with the set-up. God already knows all the punch lines.

  9. Tim Miller says:

    Well, there is Job 8:20-21

    Look, God does not reject a person of integrity, and He will not support evildoers. He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with a shout of joy.

    So, he can make people laugh…does that count?

  10. Anonymous says:

    He may have let out a sense of humor by raising up Persians to destroy the Babylonian empire. His handwriting on the wall said, “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.” Numbered, weighed, and divided. (Farsi being the language of the Persians.)

  11. Carl says:

    Is God funny? What a preposterously stupid question. Bob thinks that the creator of the universe has a human personality and it is known to us through bronze age writings. Just too absurd for words.

    • Bob Murphy says:

      Just too absurd for words.

      And yet you used them nonetheless.

      • LvM says:

        He didn’t use any words that convey the absurdity of it all. Such words don’t exist after all.

    • Gamble says:

      Carl,

      Similar to people saying they will see so and so in heaven, etc. IF we are anything like ourselves when we get to Heaven, then we will muck that place up too. Somehow we have to substantially change, otherwise it will be no heaven at all…

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