Comedy: Good or Bad?

Modern comedians have encountered an ever increasing demand to be lewd and crude.  In order for stand-up comedians to make a living they are expected to degrade the decent moral people and glorify an immoral way of life.  Sure there may be some comedians that try to work against the flow, but that industry seems to be overrun with immoralities of all kinds.  This may lead many Christians to believe that comedy is bad. That it is flaunt with sinful thinking, but is it?

The films we watched in class on Tuesday brought us back to a generation where comedy was much more innocent.  Charlie Chaplin was able to humor his audience in a mild-mannered way.  Instead of endorsing an immoral lifestyle the Tex Avery cartoon, satirically criticized the overwhelming lust with the wolf's heart.

We can take this one step farther and examine The Gospel as a Comedy. Frederick Buechner raises the concern that we overlook the joyful humor in the Bible. God uses a donkey to talk to Balaam, God uses an old barren woman to generate a nation, God uses a dirty stable to be the birthplace of our Saviour. These stories show that God has a sense of humor.  More importantly, God created humor. He is the greatest comedian there is.