«Hvis jeg virkelig ville forandre verden, burde jeg nok ha gjort noe annet»: Standupkomikere om religionshumor

Norwegian stand-up comedy has been criticized for being unpolitical and harmless and Norwegian comedians are not considered risk-takers. Is this also the case when religion is on the agenda? This chapter examines how Norwegian comedians deal with the topic of religion. Based on interviews with nine comedians with different religious backgrounds and self-identifications, the chapter explores the comedians’ experiences of producing humor on religion and their views on acceptable and unacceptable humorous portrayals of religion. The findings show that although the comedians believe making fun of religion is fundamentally unproblematic, some religions are easier to make fun of than others; Islam, for example, is described as more challenging. The idea of the comedian as an uncompromising critic of religion and defender of freedom of speech is for some an ideal, although few of the comedians interviewed regard themselves in this way.

Humor hos to norske dominikanerpatre

For many decades Catholics remained a small, alien and somewhat unnoticed minority in Norway. Beginning in the 1950s, however, Catholicism became somewhat intellectually acceptable in academic circles, often in response to what was seen as the narrow-mindedness of Lutheranism, and as a result the Catholic Church gained a stronger foothold in Norway. In addition, shifting generations of Dominicans have influenced Norwegian society and public life with a self-ironic and open style of communication. Catholics currently represent one of the largest religious minorities in Norway, with a total membership of approximately 157,000 in a country with ca. 5.3 million inhabitants. This chapter presents a case study that includes a discussion on how humor is mediated by two distinguished representatives of the Dominican order in Norway who are also well known in the Norwegian media: Pater Kjell Arild Pollestad and Pater Arnfinn Haram. The two priests have published widely in books, newspaper columns and blogs, and both of them have been central representatives in different ways for Catholicism and the Roman Catholic Church in the Norwegian public sphere.

«Ånden som holdt på å le seg i hjel»: En studie av humor i alternativt religiøse magasiner

This study addresses the link between alternative religiosity and humour. Alternative religiosity is characterized by an openness to the spiritual world, focusing on various forms of practice related to meditation, therapy and self-development. It has been described as a pick-and-mix religion were individuals pick and choose beliefs from different religions and religious orientations, such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Western esoteric religiosity. This article looks at how humour is used as a tool in two alternative religious magazines. It describes the content of humour and in which contexts humour is found in these magazines. The aim of both magazines is to spread information about alternative religiosity, alternative lifestyles and different alternative treatment methods. Humour occurs in different contexts in the two magazines and changes over time. However, humour is a rather rare tool and has a subordinate function. It is often used to spread information about an alternative lifestyle. It also appears as part of alternative self-presentations and attempts to create positive communitive identity

Islam, muslimer og humor

Humour has always been prevalent in Muslim communities. This chapter examines various aspects of Islam, Muslims and humour with an emphasis on humour in popular culture today. The focus is on humour performed by comedians with a Muslim background rather than humour about Muslims from non- Muslims. First, a historical context from the Muslim world is presented, including the many humorous stories about the figure Mulla Nasruddin who lived 700 years ago in what is now Turkey. The main part of the chapter, however, concerns Muslim humour in a modern context, including both humour in the Muslim world today and Muslim humour in the West. Muslim stand-up comedians, represented by the American comedian group Allah Made Me Funny, and humour about and with Muslims in sitcoms, such as the Canadian series Little Mosque on the Prairie, are examined.

Jødisk humor hver fredag

For six years (2011–2017), the weekly newsletter of the Jewish Community of Oslo included «The Joke of the Week» on the last page. The present study of these jokes provides a) a mapping of predominant themes and b) expositions of jokes representative of these themes, addressing cultural and religious contexts and characteristics and employing – when applicable – the typology of Jewish jokes developed by Richard Raskin (1992). Predominant themes include marriage, family, dietary laws, holiday observance, God and the rabbis, biblical narratives and heroes, and intercultural and interreligious encounters. This collection of jokes reflects the international character of the Jewish community in Norway and confirms the common notion that Jewish humor typically is self- disparaging. Jokes at the expense of non-Jews are rare, a handful of slightly disrespectful jokes about Jewish–Catholic encounters being the main exceptions. Even the jokes about interreligious encounters usually make fun of the Jewish protagonist. Anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jewish cleverness, cunning and love for money appear prominently. There is striking silence, however, when it comes to topics that have sparked humor controversies in Norway: circumcision, the Holocaust, and Israeli military aggression and superiority towards the Palestinians.

La oss sammen le! Om bruk av humor i presters forkynnelse ved gravferd

Is it appropriate for a priest to use humor in funeral services? And if so, how can they use humor in their sermons to comfort mourners and preach the Christian gospel? In this chapter I analyze 110 funeral sermons delivered by priests from the Church of Norway. The main finding is that priests use humor only minimally in their preaching, and those who do tend to employ humor when addressing difficult topics in their sermons, such as disease, life crises and conflicts. I claim that this is an example of tension-relief: humor makes it easier to address these difficult themes. The priests do not use sarcasm or irony in their preaching, but they do to tell humorous stories about the deceased and their relatives. These stories are interpreted as a harmless form of humor, and have most likely been conveyed by relatives in conversations with the priest prior to the funeral. As a theological argument I claim that humor can be interpreted as hope’s last defense in the face of death and grieving, and that humorous preaching can produce hopeful and relation-oriented images of God.

«My God, that’s funny»: Religionshumor i amerikanske og britiske komedier

This chapter discusses different approaches to religious satire from the context of the Anglo-American cultural sphere by exploring various television comedies, such as The Vicar of Dibley, Father Ted and the work of Monty Python in the UK, and The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy and Curb Your Enthusiasm in the United States. From stand-up jokes, cartoons and sitcoms about priests and men of faith to satires of the contemporary culture clash between Christians, Jews and Muslims, humour about religion in the United States, Britain and the pan- Scandinavian context operates from the same premise: identifying and negotiating the contradictions between our own Christian traditions and the challenges of religious pluralism and freedom of speech in an increasingly globalised world.

Äntligen tacofredag: Om komedi i kyrklig extern kommunikation

This chapter looks at the use of comedic elements in external church communication and reactions to this use. The main example is a tweet from the Church of Sweden. Different possible functions of comedy in church communication are discussed. The most fundamental function of religious comedy is the establishment of a sense of community among the group who understand the joke. Some religious comedy clearly requires religious competence. One major reason for resistance to religious comedy from some Christian circles is that jokes that are too accessible to the general public fail to serve this purpose of creating community and drawing a boundary between «us» and «them».

Humor og religion — et umake par?

This chapter provides an overview of the research field and the empirical context of humour and religion with a specific focus on Norway. It presents relevant theoretical perspectives which informed the project on which this book is based, including theories regarding the resurgence of religion in the public sphere, the mediatization of religion, and theories of humour. In addition, we introduce the thirteen chapters. The book is divided in two parts, namely religion in humour and humour in religion, and the chapters offer insight into the various ways religion and humour intersect, including the production of humour about religion and religious humour, media representations of humour and religion, as well as responses and attitudes to humour and religion. While the relationship between religion and humour has long been considered contradictory, this book offers examples of how religion and humour are in continuous dialogue, negotiating ways to relate to each other.

Humanistisk og ateistisk humor: Om humor hos (og om) livssynshumanister og ateister

In this chapter, we wanted to examine aspects of atheist and Humanist comedy and humor, as these genres have been plagued with a superior attitude and an exclusionary nature. While criticism of religion and iconoclasm have been a hallmark of atheism and Humanism since time immemorial, the relatively new addition of condescending and belittling humor has caused rifts between believers and non-believers in recent years. We examined this trend by looking at the defining characteristics of representative humor and comedy that appear in atheist and Humanist circles and juxtaposing these with the defining characteristics of humor in general and observing what these discrepancies mean. While blasphemous and taboo humor have long been commonplace, intentionally ridiculing or belittling a group of people for the sole purpose of garnering laughs does not conform to the Humanist ideal of upholding human dignity, so this would be an important question to resolve. For the purposes of this inquiry, we decided to identify the defining features of good atheist/Humanist comedy and see how these correspond to what can be construed as ill-intentioned comedy. We also examined stereotypes and prejudices among atheists and Humanists with the express purpose of using these to establish a humoristic baseline for these cultures to identify with.