A woman once came to visit a local UU church not knowing much about it before she arrived. When the time for the sermon came, the woman listened quietly and attentively but as it went on, she became increasingly agitated and upset. Finally, the woman sitting next to her asked if she was OK. The visitor leaned over to the concerned congregant and whispered: “It’s this sermon,” she said. “I can hardly believe what I’m hearing.” “Oh, good,” replied the neighbor. “You’ll fit right in.”
We are living in a challenging time but the truth of it is that all times are challenging for someone. It seems there is never a good time to laugh and yet - we must! If we allow these times to crush us, if we feel obligated to live our daily lives in despair and despondency, if we give in to the pressure to conform and comply, then we have lost the fight and we have given up hope. To laugh in the face of domination is to deny the fear and reclaim our own dignity and power. It is said that when St. Lawrence was being martyred by being roasted alive on a spit, he quipped, “Turn me over. I’m done on this side.” Or, take the classic joke: Knock Knock… You know how this works. Knock Knock (who’s there?) Death! (Death who?) … (silence)... Um, that’s the end of the joke.
Laughter has been called a mature defense mechanism by those who spend a lot of time and money to get fancy letters put after their name so they can use big words like mature defense mechanism. The idea is that we use laughter to help us manage stressful situations like when we check our pockets as we pass through the metal detector at the clothing store even though we bought nothing, or when we see the police officer making a U-turn in our rear view mirror, or when we look at our watch in the church service and notice the minister has another 15 minutes left for the sermon. A short and quick comical statement can help to relieve the sudden anxiety.
As it turns out, laughter is an alternative to crying. Both are reactions and physical adjustments to sudden incongruencies or conflicts. If we can adapt to the inconsistency, we laugh. Otherwise, we cry. It is like being hit in the face with a snowball. If you are not hurt and can recover, you may laugh about it but if you are hurt or damaged, you may cry or turn those tears outward and become angry. It is similar to the game of Peek-A-Boo that we play with small children. When you cover your face, a small child does not know that you are still there so there is a moment of panic but when you quickly remove your hand and the child sees that you are still there, they feel safe and laugh off the discomfort. Comedians do the same thing. They set up an expectation as you might set a train on a track but then they yank the train off the track in a non-threatening way and we laugh off the sudden change in perspective. We laugh so that we may come to terms with a new reality. Consider some of these recent comical acts of resistance:
A sticker of the President placed on a gas pump with a hand pointing to the high price of the gas and a text bubble that reads, “I did that!”
A sticker of Elon Musk raising his hand in a salute that seems strangely similar to a Nazi salute placed on Tesla cars.
An AI generated video of The President kissing the feet of Musk while saying “Long Live The King!”
A T-shirt that reads “Build a wall around The President and I will pay for it” or another that reads “God sent The President because he ran out of locusts.”
Humor is always based on relating to something we understand and then violating the norms associated with it in a non-threatening way. It’s sort of like what we UUs do in the realm of religion in this country. Consider how we push the barriers of theology in these jokes that start with the statement: You might be a UU if…
The money you sent to the Sierra Club last year was more than you spent on your mother at Christmas.
You think the Holy Trinity is "reduce, reuse and recycle."
You think a Holy day of Obligation is your turn to do coffee.
You always read ahead in a hymn to decide if you can sing it.
You think “whatever’ is a valid theological point.
You think putting heaven into people is more important than putting people into heaven.
Humor pushes the boundaries and forces us to see things in a different light. It can often speak hard truths with a soft punch. It is often used to speak truth to power. Consider these political jokes:
Politicians and diapers have one thing in common: they should both be changed regularly… and for the same reason.
If con is the opposite of pro, then is Congress the opposite of progress?
The NSA: a government organization that actually listens to you!
Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what you can prevent your country from doing.
Humor is one of many effective tools for rebellion and non-violent resistance. Dictators hate political satire because you can jail or intimidate a person but you can’t arrest a joke. For example, Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, has been on a campaign to ruin the lives of comedians who satirize his government and many have been forced to leave the country. U.S. President Lyndon Johnson once called the TV Network who sponsored a comedic duo known as the Smothers Brothers at 3 am after they skewered him and his policies on the Vietnam War. During the Serbian presidency of Slobodan Milošević, the resistance group called Otpor fought against anti-democratic legislation often through comedy. In one event they put Milošević’s image on a large tub and invited people to take a whack at it. Though the police eventually arrived they could not arrest anyone for beating up a barrel.
In closing I will offer you this one final thought. One Sunday morning a minister began a sermon as usual. On this Sunday, however, the minister was seen with a band-aid on his face. After the service, one of the parishioners asked the minister about the bandage. The minister said, “I was thinking about my sermon this morning while I was shaving and accidentally cut myself. The parishioner smiled in a seemingly sympathetic way and then said, “Next time think about your face and cut the sermon.”
Sources
Article
Not Just a Punchline: Humor and Nonviolent Action https://www.usip.org/blog/2019/05/not-just-punchline-humor-and-nonviolent-action
Books
The Elements of Humor - Scott Dikkers