Human Nature, Humor, and God

Human Nature, Humor, and God

 

 

 

 

I could assume that God has absolutely no sense of humor, and frowns on merrymaking of any sort. As for getting more drinks when a wedding party runs dry? Horrors! (John 2:1-10)

Then there's Matthew 7:3 and Acts 9:11. Those verses have, I'm confident, deep spiritual significance. They also, I strongly suspect, had a funny angle that's still there for folks who are willing to admit my Lord's humanity. That's almost another topic.

I do not think that God gave humanity a sense of humor - and now intends to punish us severely for having a sense of humor. That just doesn't make sense. Not to me, anyway.

Still, I'm just "some guy with a blog," with no more teaching authority than any other Catholic layman. (And Now, for Something Completely Different: Catholics and Humor)

Phyllis Diller and - Dignity?

I've been meaning to write about the funny side of faith for a while now. The death of Phyllis Diller last month helped get this post started.

'Phyllis who?' I remember Phyllis Diller: but I also grew up in America; and remember the Apollo 11 landing, the first Earth Day, and the days when transistors were the latest cutting-edge technology.

I found short 'Phillis Diller' clips, "Embedding disabled by request." They're a pretty good introduction to her style of comedy.

I think they're funny, but your experience may vary. Also, the language and content of some jokes was typical of '70s America. You have been warned:

• "Phyllis Diller's Sink"
  CraigSD, YouTube (February 13, 2007)
  video, 1:21
• "Phyllis Diller - Fat Jokes 1977 ( Stand Up )"
  videolovereu, YouTube (June 30, 2012 )
  video, 5:56
• "Phyllis Diller and her bird legs"
  CraigSD, YouTube (April 8, 2009)
  video, 1:21

Phyllis Diller's comedy routines didn't exude dignity, but I think she helped establish dignity for women in America. That's going to take a bit of explaining.

First, saying that someone has "dignity" isn't the same as saying that the person is a stuffed shirt:

• Stuffed shirt
  • A bore who is extremely
    • Formal
    • Pompous
    • Old-fashioned
    (Princeton's WordNet)
• Dignity
  1. The quality of being worthy of
     • Esteem
     • Or respect
  2. Formality in
     • Bearing
     • Appearance
  3. High office or rank or station
     (Princeton's WordNet)

Stuffed shirts have "dignity," in the "formality in bearing and appearance" sense. They also, according to the Catholic Church, have the dignity that comes from being human: "the quality of being worthy of esteem or respect." (Princeton's WordNet)

I'm quite sure that when the Church talks about "dignity," it's that sort of basic respect.

I'm a practicing Catholic, so I have to embrace "...a Christian humanism that radically affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God...." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1676)

Comedy and Culture

Not all stand-up comedy "affirms the dignity of every person as a child of God," radically or otherwise. Sometimes, though, I think getting folks to laugh gets some of them to think: and can help change a culture.

As I've said before, I remember 'the good old days:' when "she's as smart as a man" was supposed to be a compliment; and one of my sister-in-laws shocked a school by taking shop class. 'The good old days' are gone: for which I am profoundly grateful.

Being a grimly serious social activist is one way to try turning a culture around. Another approach is to become a successful stand-up comedian:

"The Power Of Comedy And Phyllis Diller"
Liza Donnelly, ForbesWoman, Forbes (August 21, 2012)

"Phyllis Diller reminded me of my mother. I grew up in the fifties and sixties, and my mother and I loved watching comedy on television. Laugh-In and Sanford and Son are the two I remember us watching together, but in the years before that, we often saw Diller performing her wacky routines on the talk shows. My mother was of the post-war generation and was a homemaker. She really only got to express herself by decorating the house and cooking us dinners - I always thought she aspired to do more....

"...She understood that in order to break into the male world of stand-up, she had to play by their rules: don't vary from the stand-up format; and because you are a woman, act and look ridiculous. She needed to pretend she was not a successful at being a 'woman' (read: pretty, sexy, domestic, good wife and mother) because in 1950/60s America, 'real' women were not supposed to be funny...."

'Nice' Women, Culture, and Assumptions

I don't think Phyllis Diller's jokes transformed American culture - by themselves. I do think that

 

 

 

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