Humor in the Bible

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  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    So is the fact that his ass can see more than he can!
  • LeoLeo Shipmate
    Daniel 3 from, yesterday's evensong has, several times: when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble.

    I once heard an exasperated resder substitute, after the third occurrence: ‘the above mentioned instruments’
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Not exactly from the Bible, but based on a well known Bible story: Abraham and Isaac
  • FelafoolFelafool Shipmate Posts: 6
    I think one of the most amusing narratives (not a joke, but very funny) is John chapter 9, the healing of a man blind from birth. At first neighbours and others doubted that this was the blind beggar, despite his insistence that "I am that man!"
    Then he's carted off to the Pharisees because he doesn't know where the healer is.
    I imagine a scene where the Pharisees are pondering and pontificating the scandal of healing on a sabbath while the healed man is more or less ignored. Finally they ask him what he thinks of Jesus.
    Still not believing that this man was blind, the parents are summoned! They affirm the identity of their once blind son, and again I imagine a conversation going on ignoring the healed man. The parents finally say 'Ask him yourself, he's old enough!'
    The to and fro continues. All the man knows is that once he was blind, now he can see. All the Pharisees know is that they are not happy with what has just happened. It's a classic tale of stubborn unbelief in the face of incontrovertable evidence, and I think it is a very funny story.
  • The RogueThe Rogue Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    I would like to have been in the crowd when the Pharisees etc tried to trap Jesus with flattery and awkward questions only for him to realise what they were up to and turn the tables on them every time. That was funny.

    Oh, and Elijah vs the prophets of Baal.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    The Rogue wrote: »
    I would like to have been in the crowd when the Pharisees etc tried to trap Jesus with flattery and awkward questions only for him to realise what they were up to and turn the tables on them every time. That was funny.

    Oh, and Elijah vs the prophets of Baal.

    The bit where he mocks them or the bit where he goes all IS on them and kills them all?
  • tclunetclune Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    RdrEmCofE wrote: »
    Oh, and Elijah vs the prophets of Baal.

    The bit where he mocks them or the bit where he goes all IS on them and kills them all?
    I presume he is referring to when Elijah suggests that maybe Baal is taking a dump and so can't hear the priests call to him. I confess that I am not particularly amused by this all-too-common form of Bible humor. It depends on something like a wartime us-vs-evil-them mentality that few of us feel toward Baal worshippers any more. It does serve a purpose in reminding us how ugly we can be when our blood is up, but it hardly seems humorous to me.
  • The RogueThe Rogue Shipmate
    The bit where people set themselves up against God and fell flat on their faces. And the way Elijah played to the audience. That still makes me laugh.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    The story of Naaman and Elisha is hilarious. Read through it. I would say it is political comedy.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    I've got an idea. Go to a comedy club open mike and tell some of these supposedly side-splitting stories. I predict rotten tomatoes.

    None of these examples seem even remotely funny to me.
  • Mr SmiffMr Smiff Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    I've got an idea. Go to a comedy club open mike and tell some of these supposedly side-splitting stories. I predict rotten tomatoes.

    None of these examples seem even remotely funny to me.
    Well, fine, that’s the third time you’ve said that. And humour is completely subjective. But what’s the problem with people who do find these funny sharing them? Why not leave them to it?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Mr Smiff wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    I've got an idea. Go to a comedy club open mike and tell some of these supposedly side-splitting stories. I predict rotten tomatoes.

    None of these examples seem even remotely funny to me.
    Well, fine, that’s the third time you’ve said that. And humour is completely subjective. But what’s the problem with people who do find these funny sharing them? Why not leave them to it?

    I personally think we're desperately trying to find humour in the Bible (for what reason I don't know) when it isn't there. Perhaps people could explain what is actually funny about the examples cited?
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    I personally think we're desperately trying to find humour in the Bible (for what reason I don't know) when it isn't there. Perhaps people could explain what is actually funny about the examples cited?
    It seems to me, Karl, that you are under the impression we are saying that there is contemporaneous modern day humor (hence your insistence that it would not raise a smile on a modern TV program or at a comedy club). But that is not the issue. The question is what was originally written and meant to be humorous to the target audience at the time. As I commented above
    Humor, of course, has always been highly subjective, and trying to discern what was meant as a joke when reading a document that is a couple thousand years (and more) older and coming from a different culture and in a different language is bound to be difficult. But that does not mean the humor isn't there.
    Most of the stuff identified in this thread seem likely to have been originally intended as funny--to at least cause a smile on the lips of the original audience. Recognizing that helps with our understanding of the Bible. I agree there isn't modern-day sophisticated humor in the Bible--why would there be? But that there are passages that were meant to be read as humorous seems to me to be undeniable. Actually, there may be a lot more humor that we do not grasp--for example, a play on words that simply doesn't translate (possibly the camel-and-needle's-eye is an example of this--it is hard to say).

    That an ancient culture's concept of humor does not completely tally with our modern day concept of humor does not lead to the conclusion that the ancient culture had no sense of humor.
  • Mr SmiffMr Smiff Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Mr Smiff wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    I've got an idea. Go to a comedy club open mike and tell some of these supposedly side-splitting stories. I predict rotten tomatoes.

    None of these examples seem even remotely funny to me.
    Well, fine, that’s the third time you’ve said that. And humour is completely subjective. But what’s the problem with people who do find these funny sharing them? Why not leave them to it?

    I personally think we're desperately trying to find humour in the Bible (for what reason I don't know) when it isn't there. Perhaps people could explain what is actually funny about the examples cited?

    In a large part, what Hedgehog said above (although I think the claim many of us who've contributed to this thread are making is that we do find these things funny today - I do find Peter's "it's only 9 o'clock in the morning" riposte on Pentecost amusing - perhaps I'm just weird... this wouldn't be the only symptom of that...).

    However, it also seems to me that what you're saying is based on what you find funny, and what you think others would find funny. But that's such a subjective thing to say, that I don't think you can say that we're trying to find a sense of humour which we know isn't there really, as if we're fooling ourselves and desperately trying to prove otherwise.

    Most of the rest of my family seem to find Michael McIntyre hilarious and his observations about life spot-on; I don't agree on either of those things and often wonder if there's something I'm missing - doesn't mean there's no humour there? Me and my dad will quite happily quote Airplane! one-liners at each other, because we're sad like that, to which my mum and everyone else will roll their eyes and try and ignore us - is Mum right that there's no humour there?

    I'd probably agree that most of these would get you chucked off the stage of a comedy club - but that doesn't mean there's no humour there, just a kind of humour that doesn't appeal to your average comedy club audience, not least because, as Hedgehog said, it's humour springing from a culture that's very distant in terms of geography, time, customs etc. (That's not meant to be disparaging to comedy clubs or their audiences; just to note that there are differences between the humour they would laugh at and the sorts of humour we're saying might be found in the Bible.)

    I think you'd need stronger evidence than "I don't find this funny and neither do others" to prove that we were all knowingly kidding ourselves about the humour we see in the Bible.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited May 2018
    That it may have been funny to its original audience I can believe; what's stretching my credulity is that modern readers are genuinely finding it funny, which some people seem to be claiming. I know humour is subjective, but even with stuff that doesn't work for me I can generally see why it might work for someone else. But the examples here - not at all.

    Humour me - what's funny about the drunk in the morning bit?
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    That it may have been funny to its original audience I can believe; what's stretching my credulity is that modern readers are genuinely finding it funny, which some people seem to be claiming.
    I am close to agreeing with you on this. The potty humor does not amuse me, although I recognize it was meant to be funny. A few other things mentioned in this thread did not move me either.

    But, true story: back when I was in college (late '70s/early '80s) I was attending Mass when the Pentecost selection was read with the "not drunk, it's only 9:00 in the morning"--and I, in fact, chuckled. Now I am sure I had heard the passage before, several times, without cracking a smile. But that day it struck me as funny. Why? I don't know. Maybe it was just where my head was that day, or maybe it was just the way the reader read it. It's like the old phrase "It's not the joke, it's the way he tells it!" But I did, in fact, think the same thing Mr Smiff mentioned: Peter was not suggesting that they were never drunk--just that they wouldn't be at that hour. And it made me laugh.
    Humour me - ...
    Okay, now THAT is funny!

  • Mr SmiffMr Smiff Shipmate
    KarlLB wrote: »
    Humour me - what's funny about the drunk in the morning bit?
    Good question. All sorts of things, I guess. The implication (intended or otherwise) that, if this had happened later in the day, they might have had a point, like the only thing stopping it being true is that it's too early. The fact that Peter doesn't answer with a "how dare you defile God's Holy Spirit that has come amongst us," but with something that leaves room for that implication. To me, it seems incongruous with everything else that's gone on, and with the seriousness of the rest of Peter's sermon in a way that makes me at least chuckle.
  • The RogueThe Rogue Shipmate
    I find some things funny. Other people find other things funny. We are all different. Me trying to analyse why something tickles me is as pointless as someone else trying to analyse why it doesn't tickle them so I won't ask you to do that, Karl.
  • It seems to me that there are two questions here:

    What do I find funny in the Bible?

    What, in the Bible, was intended as humorous?


    Clearly, tastes in humour change, so what was intended as humour may not seem funny to us today and some of the things that we find funny may not have been meant in that way originally.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Maybe some of the stories listed here would not be funny in a comedy club setting, but maybe in a seminary setting? There are comedians who have used Biblical jokes in their routines.

    As pointed out, humor is quite subjective, but I started this thread to allow people to look at passages in a different way. I think the thread has accomplished that goal. I know I will never look at the story of Adam and Eve taking fig leaves to cover their nakedness in the same way.
  • I still love Proverbs for fun. When I was younger I used to do cartoons of some of the verses for our church mag. But what is funny in one culture and context may not be in another or needs to be re-written. That's why cultural b/ground as well as direct translation is so important with the Bible.

    Now I wonder if I am a dripping tap (nagging wife) or am I just a leek - living in Wales!!!
  • HedgehogHedgehog Shipmate
    Possibly you are an olive plant around the table?
  • RdrEmCofERdrEmCofE Shipmate
    What IS funny? Humour does not even cross the Atlantic very well. Most British comedies are completely re-jigged for American audiences, because they just don't get the jokes or see what is supposed to be funny. The same the other way, but we sophisticated Brits can switch to Americanese more successfully because Hollywood Humour has infected the world, more epidemically than 'Life of Brian', 'Monty Python' or 'Faulty Towers'.

    So, yes, there IS humour in the Bible, if you look for it, in its original context. Much has been 'translated out' of it by squeamish translators unwilling to use the original common and sometimes derogatory terms used in the original Hebrew or NT Greek. Can't have ladies and little children subjected to naughty words or innuendo can we? So they 'cleaned it up and sanitized it'. The KJV was a little more robust.

    I find the Wedding at Cana quite amusing. Apparently, reluctantly Jesus solved the 'running out of wine problem' by producing about 120 to 180 gallons, or about 680 litres. The guests had already consumed all there was previously. Then they get an extra 180 gallons. That's 912 standard 750ml bottles of best Vintage Beaujolais, 14.5% by volume. What a piss up that must have been!

    God doesn't do anything by halves! No one organizes a piss up better than Jesus. And here were no fights, no abuse, no barfing up, and no complaints! Or at least none are mentioned.

    What's not to like.
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Alan just posted something in another thread that probably made the disciples laugh. It is really a hyperbole, that if you have a seed the size of a mustard seed you can command mountains to jump into the sea.
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