Curations: Revolutionary Jokes

Most of y'all know I love dad jokes. Like, What is the largest ant on earth? An elephant.

Or this classic...

And while I can see you rolling your eyes through the screen, I love what poet and psychoanalyst Nuar Alsadir says about jokes (and laughter) in her book, Animal Joy: A Book of Laughter and Resuscitation:

I love her take on jokes, because they do have a way of pulling us from the established order of our day-to-day lives. An outburst of spontaneous laughter is "an eruption from the unconscious" that expresses a drive to break free from external constraints. It moves us - if only for a moment - beyond the expected to the surprising. Or, to put it another way,

Laughter shakes us out of our deadness.

Jesus did this same thing not with jokes, but with parables - turning expectations on their heads, and creating implausible (and often ridiculous and laughable) scenarios with his stories that shattered expectations. It was a way of breaking people free from the deadness of their religion and their lives.

And if a story, or a joke, or laughter can shake us out of our deadness, then it might not only be a revolution, but maybe even a sort of resurrection.

So take a moment to laugh today. In fact, share your best jokes - corny or not...just try to keep them clean :) - so we can all share a laugh. And as we do, perhaps we can catch a glimpse of something beyond our day-to-day...maybe even the abundant life and joy of God.

- GJD