The church of funny

The reason there was such a knee jerk reaction to Zapiro’s latest cartoon has nothing to do with his intention to purposefully offend Hindus or not.

 

The reason one gets upset is because of how intimately linked to your religion or God you are. In short, a joke about your “God” is a joke about you. But hang on, if you’re a blonde then a disparaging blonde joke is also about you personally - but I don’t see you picketing outside parliament with signs reading: “Down with blonde jokes.”

 

We both know that you’re blond and we both know that it is a ‘joke’ and we both laugh and move on. Why then is it that when Jesus or Mohamed or Abraham is invoked, there is such an affront?

 

I think that the disconnect arrives because of the difference in the knowing and the believing. In the case of the blonde joke, we both know that you are a blonde and both know that it is a joke. But with religion, we don’t together, you and I, “know” that there is a God and the only proof is that you believe there is one.

 

So when I joke about it, I am saying that I don’t subscribe to your belief system and that your “believing” is laughable and this is where it is a personal insult. Your sense of self is so intertwined with what you believe that an attack on your belief is an attack on you. For the same reason, two Christians telling a Christian joke is okay because there is no attack on the belief. It’s like the blonde joke: “We know we’re Christian and we know it’s a joke and we move on". 

 

Take this Christian joke:

 

A man is talking to God. "God, how long is a million years?" God answers, "To me, it's about a minute." "God, how much is a million dollars?" "To me, it's a penny." "God, may I have a penny?" "Wait a minute."

 

When a Christian tells this joke to a fellow Christian they laugh together because the belief isn’t threatened.

 

When an atheist tells it to a Christian there is risk that the Christian will take offence.

 

Eg: “Are you saying my God is fickle or inconsistent or a liar?”

 

Which brings us to the age old truth; that offence can’t be given, only taken. Injury only arises when you choose to take offence. So in actual fact, it all comes down to choice. We are afforded the choice to believe or not to believe in God/Allah/Buddha/Vishnu/Yahweh/Ra…

 

We also have the choice to take offense or not.

 

So if you immediately launch into offence without taking into consideration your choice to do so or not, what you are actually doing is removing your own right to that choice. You thrust yourself into the realm of is and is not. And that is not a place we want to venture into, is it?

 

This morning on The Breakfast Stack the general consensus was that followers of Hinduism feel that Jonathan Shapiro has a personal vendetta against Hindus and Hinduism. I don’t believe this to be the case at all. Below you can scrutinize at your own leisure a selection of Zapiro using all manner of religious iconography and not targeting just one.

 

 

 

 

 

The reason the rift between theists and atheists is getting bigger is not because the one is right or the one is wrong, it's because we take it all so personally.

 

There may or may not be a God, but the one thing that is for certain and is a non-negotiable is that we have each other.

 

- Darren