Toward a Comic Solemnity

“A Paradox, a Paradox, a Most Ingenious Paradox, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, a Paradox!” - Sir William Schwenck Gilbert

There exists a paradox between sanctity and atonement. The ground this paradox stands on is God’s sense of humor.

The other day I encountered (yet again) someone chortling a variation of the claim, “Well God must have a sense of humor, just look what He’s done with my life.” In this view, God’s sense of humor explains every inconvenient thing from romantic breakups to the Holocaust. Humor as theodicy… hmmm… People usually share this claim non-seriously. They don’t really think God’s sense of humor extends to royally screwing up someone’s life just for laughs. That would violate principles of atonement (specifically charity). God is love – not irony.

On another occasion, a woman removed from me by a generation offered a serious alternative to this non-serious view of God’s sense of humor. She suggested that God could have a sense of humor in a manner similar to the way parents enjoy the innocent foibles of their children. In this view, God enjoys the occasional chuckle at viewing His children floundering about innocently – like we might enjoy for a moment the way a kitten rummages around in a paper sack trying to get out. Silly kitten, bags are for groceries – heh heh heh… So God could laugh, but like above, this kind of sense of humor relies solely on condescension. Not in the sense of coming down voluntarily but in the sense of deigning. Not in the sense of interactive humor but in the sense of laughing from a distance – the objects of humor unaware that Someone is laughing at them. A humor consisting of condescension and nothing else also violates principles of atonement (specifically reconciliation), for it forever relies on a stratified relationship between those who get to laugh celestially and those who are laughed at.

If God has a sense of humor, He must be able to laugh at things on His own plane of existence. This would salvage charity, reconciliation, and other principles of atonement. For in a celestial sphere, Everyone laughed at is also in on the joke, for Everyone is of one heart and one mind. So if God has a sense of humor, then the things within His realm of humor include things which exist on His level. These include heaven, eternity, charity itself, prayer, the Temple, ordinances, scripture, revelation, family, the Holy Ghost, even Heavenly Mother.

But this begins to get uncomfortable, for are not some things simply sacrosanct? Untouchable – even unapproachable – except through serious solemnity? (as if comic solemnity were an oxymoron and not an actual possibility)

Hence the paradox between sanctity and charity. If God has a sense of humor, one of a few conflicting possibilities may be true. First, God laughs at things too sacred to laugh at (thus salvaging principles of atonement). Second, God laughs only at things which are not sacred (i.e. only things below His level of existence, thus limiting principles of atonement).

I see two solutions to this paradox.

First solution: God does not have a sense of humor. Since humor is all about contexts and frames of reference, and because God’s frame of reference is the sum total of everything that was, is, and will be, God simply does not have a sense of humor. This I find especially hard to believe, if only because humans are created in the image of Heavenly Parents. Humans clearly have a sense of humor. We are literally children of God – Gods in embryo. God clearly exhibits a wide range of other passions and emotions – why not humor? Plus, much of humor evolves not just through conflicting contexts but from the ability to appreciate multiple contexts even if those contexts are intimately familiar. This is why Monty Python and the Holy Grail will always be funny. Indeed, this is why I’m convinced even God laughs at Monty Python jokes. Our resistance to the idea of God having a robust sense of humor probably stems from the same cultural resistance we have to viewing God as having an active sex drive (i.e. what happens behind heavenly doors should stay behind heavenly doors; likewise, there are some things so sacred that they simply CANNOT ever be funny – I just don’t buy it).

Second Solution: God exists in a state of perfect moderation; therefore, anything in the right context can be funny. This is the most palatable to me for a few reasons. God could laugh on occasion like we do at a kitten in a paper sack, but then God could also laugh at John Cleese’s brilliant eulogy at Graham Chapman’s funeral. If God really appreciates humor in this way, then this removes the furtive guilt I sometimes feel when I enjoy something gloriously sacrilegious. There is a time to laugh. Exaltation is probably too serious to be taken too seriously.