I love stand up comedy. The whole goal of making people laugh is a very good one. We take ourselves WAY to seriously in America now-a-days, and plus, so many people are just downright depressed. (I know you cannot have true joy without Christ, but that is a topic for another time. And yes, I'm going to be like Herodotus and just die before I can actually come back and address something that I promised you all I would address).
But with stand up comedy going the way it is now, well, I am presented with an interesting dilemma. So much of the comedy scene is populated by downright dirty, smutty, vulgar jokes. Dane Cook is a great example. He certainly has a stage presents, he is one of the best paid comics in the world, but boy is he vulgar! "F***" replaces "like" as the standard verbal tick when he's on stage.
Then you have people like Jim Gaffigan. Clean, really funny... but then I started stumbling upon some of his more blasphemous routines and became very uncomfortable.
Even worse is Lewis Black, who is as vulgar as Dane Cook, and has all the passion of Richard Dawkins. Outspokenly Jewish, Black goes on to rail against the Old and New Testament and how evil the God of the Old Testament is. Blasphemy to the nth degree.
You're left with comics like Brian Regan holding the bag, as far as good family friendly comedy goes. He does an admirable job, but it's not enough. He's a good comic, but not an excellent one. But if he and his kind are not supported, we won't see many more, if any, clean comedians take the stage and make the masses laugh harder than they have ever laughed before.
Is there a need? Yes, I would say so. We need more really solid Christians playing the comedy circuits. If I'm so adamant about it, why don't I go? Fair question. Safe to say... I am seriously considering it. (Or would that be funnily considering....? Nevermind.)
In the meantime, here's a clean comic doing the routine I stole in my last post: "On a chair... IN THE SKY!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOtEQB-9tvk
In Christ, with laughter, though war,
JSTT
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About Me
- Josiah Truax
- Va Beach, VA, United States
- Husband, son, brother, friend, box-kicker, Christian and writer of profound non-sequiturs.
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September 20129 years ago
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Unity (Part I)11 years ago
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In Which the Author said "Yes!"13 years ago
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Wouldn't you be?13 years ago
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Oh look. I found a funny video...14 years ago
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Capt Jack had it Made!16 years ago
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3 comments:
Why is there a "need" for Christians to play the comedy circuits? At what point do we as believers say, "No, that is a part of the culture we're not going to try to reclaim because there is nothing in it worth redeeming? It would be utterly foolish to say, "We need more Christian strippers in order to maintain a godly influence in our oversexed culture." At what point along the continuum of the entertainment world do we draw the line and say, "No further. At this point Christian ministry and the entertainment culture must part ways,"?
Mr. Truax, you are correct in saying that there is a tipping point - at some boundary, there is nothing worth redeeming. However, it is not a gradient; a sub-atomic difference strikes between comedy and pornography. Humor, at it's very heart, is virtue. There is nothing inside a stripper pole but satan (lowercase letter is the middle finger of grammar). It is not a matter of which is better or worse, but rather a question of the essence.
Isaiah - Perhaps I was unclear. The example I used was purposely extreme and not intended to be comparative. The point is that, somewhere, there is a line as to where Christians must diverge from forms of entertainment because there is nothing in them to be redeemed. The debate, therefore, is on where we draw the line and how we draw that line. Do we need to talk about comedy itself, or should we discuss more broadly we, as a culture, want to be entertained so consistently? There are a myriad of rabbit trails within the topic. On this one, though, is it good & necessary for Christians to be on the stand-up circuit with vulgar, blasphemous comics, or should they be elsewhere, apart from them? Douglas Wilson & Christopher Hitchens can tour together debating because of a level of mutual respect they hold for one another. Perhaps a Christian comic could do something similar, tour with heathens with whom there is some mutual respect, but I think that would be a rare case. What say you?
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