Sep 22
Divine comedy and black humour
Lingamish wants us all to be miserable buggers, and seems to think it’s what God wants to. I’m not entirely sure where his tongue is in relation to his cheek in some of what he says:
It might be disturbing for you to find that a good belly laugh is unbiblical. But that’s just tough. I would like to recommend that we all start practicing the habit of not laughing
Perhaps David should go and join the monks of The Name of the Rose, who sought to destroy a missing book of Aristotle’s Poetics because it discusses laughter.
Suzanne McCarthy digs up some additional biblical quotations to say something more positive about laughter, balancing “Woe to you who are laughing now” (Luke 6:25) with “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh” (Luke 6:21).
But while David ponders whether he should visit sites like Ship of Fools and The Onion perhaps he ought to take a good look at the humour of the Bible, sometimes wryly sympathetic as in the comedy of Jonah, and sometimes seriously black as in the comedy of the Exodus:
God turns the river into blood.
“You’ve ruined our water supply” say the magicians, “but that’s nothing special, we can ruin it more”
And they do.
God brings a plague of frogs.
“There are so many frogs that we can’t move for squelching them” say the magicians, “but that proves nothing, we can make even more”
And they do. (Exodus 7:17 – 8:7, drastically summarised)
Perhaps doing a serious word-study of the word “laughter” is not the best way to enjoy a comedy.
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:17 pm
I like your translation. A little bit on the free side for my taste but that doesn’t matter.
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:19 pm
[...] Divine comedy and black humour [...]
September 24th, 2007 at 2:50 am
I’ve always thought Jesus had a particularly keen sense of humour. Picture someone with a beam in his eye, taking a mere speck out of someone else’s eye; or a pious religious fellow blowing a horn before dropping a bill into the offering plate; or a blind man guiding another blind man.
You know, the man was funny. He must have approved of at least a good snigger.
September 25th, 2007 at 7:42 am
Humor doesn’t translate well. But you’re right that hyperbole in the New Testament is a form of humor.
September 25th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
[...] this post, share a Biblical reference and tell why it’s funny. Should be easy, right?. . . [...]