by Andrea Theisson

Created on: January 05, 2011   Last Updated: March 09, 2011

Oh yes!   We simply are meant to laugh! Proof of God’s humor includes the amazing platypus, Murphy’s Law, herding cats, rain on our parades, the George Burns movie  Oh God!, and all the daily ironies, quirks and surprises that make us laugh at ourselves.  It’s a built-in way to keep us humble, no doubt, or possibly sane.

Humor is as old as humanity, having accelerated considerably as life became more complicated and society’s bit of free time, or unemployment, more prevalent.   This coping mechanism is hard-wired into humans, as the Creator planned.  Seemingly, some animals have their own sense of humor and are natural clowns, yet humans are the only animal who laughs, or needs to! 

While God most likely has a sense of humor, many formal theologies do not.  There is little true humor in the wording of old Bibles, Testaments and Doctrines, Papal bulls or mission statements.  Verbal history, song traditions and religious writing differ on this. Yet, there is a time and place for humor, as with all things.  Hey, that’s even in the Bible…for everything there is a season, right?  The warm-hearted priests and pastors of the world are more than likely to generate a bit of humor to get a point across or to sooth the ruffled feathers of a congregation.  It is a good way to get people’s attention.  It’s good to break the ice.  It can de-stress ideological differences, as long as “the priest, the pastor and the rabbi” get equal pokes.

Historically, the shamanic pre-Christian and early Christian kingdoms’ “silly” Fool was an advisor and companion of the Sovereign.  In Jungian mythology, this archetype symbolized the ineffable God-presence advising the Self, or Inner-Consciousness which was often depicted as a King or Queen.  Some Native cultures have a Kokopelli, as the Navaho tradition, or a similar humorous figure that keeps everyone on their toes, ready for the absurd happenings of life. This is a cross-cultural phenomenon.

The Gods Are Crazy is a charming old movie about acceptance and human nature, reverence and a bit of silly cultural commentary – a Coke bottle is thrown out of an airplane and an African tribesman picks it up, believing he needs to return this piece of litter to the Gods.  This digresses into a journey of almost slapstick comedy, yet it is incredibly sweet and evokes a cross-cultural

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