November 2024
This is the third post in a series on Manon’s experience learning and performing stand-up comedy.
by Manon Ceridwen James
What do you find funny?
In A Critique of Pastoral Care chapter about humour, Professor Stephen Pattison writes that “laughter is one of the things which makes life worth living”.
Laughter is cathartic and helps bond people together. However, the Christian tradition has always viewed laughter and humour with suspicion. St. John Chrysostom pointed out that although Jesus wept he didn’t laugh.
In a chapter in a forthcoming book called Future Faith: A Theology for the Contemporary World (edited by Andrew Todd and Graeme Smith), I explain how laughter and humour is part of a tradition of Christianity which is mystical, non-hierarchical and joyful as opposed to an ordered hierarchical Christianity which is keen to police boundaries and control people’s behaviour.
However, laughter and comedy is risky and dangerous because it is about boundaries, and the closer to the boundary a joke or a story is, the funnier it is. But because as Christians we have a reputation for being joyless and against humour, no one is interested in what we might have to say about humour.
The comedians I have got to know in the past few years on the north Wales circuit are amongst the most ethical people I know, passionate about issues such as poverty, disability and human rights and use their comedy to promote these topics. They make decisions about what is ethically acceptable to say and what is unacceptable with great skill and thoughtfulness. Nothing is just a joke.
In her powerful book The Laughter of the Oppressed, Jacqueline Bussie describes how laughter is subversive, empowering for the powerless and intimidating for the powerful. It’s not just about entertainment, a half-hour sitcom on a Friday night helping us laugh our problems away. (Though this is important). Humour is how we cope with difficult situations, gain a sense of agency, connect with others in similar situations and above all feel human.
it’s important that we engage with humour in an informed, thoughtful and open-minded way. Laughter, comedy and humour is a serious business.
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Manon Ceridwen James is an Anglican priest and contextual theologian based on the north Wales coast. She is Dean at the St Padarn’s Institute, the theological training institution of the Church in Wales, Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Trinity St David and Canon Theologian at Newport Cathedral.
Her research interests, teaching and writing are focussed on feminist theology, Welsh theology, theology and humour, as well as trauma theology. Her most recent performance of stand-up comedy was at the St Asaph Music Festival Fringe, and she has also published a poetry collection, Notes from a Eucharistic Life (Cinnamon Press).
Read previous posts: Why Stand-up is on my Bucket List and Stand-up: Balancing on the Edge
Ian Macdonald, Tutor in Mission here, will lead a course on preaching and stand-up comedy on 5 June 2025. Contact us on courses@sarum.ac.uk to be notified when tickets are available.
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