Sometimes It's Hard To Be Funny

For those who are new to the Playground, weekends are the time for Comedist sermons from Irreverend Steve. For an introduction to Comedism, the new religion; passages from our holy book, The Comedist Manifesto; Comedist support for evolution and gay marriage; how Comedism was founded; and a note on the War on Comedy, see these links.

This week we pick up on a comment by Kerry a few weeks ago in the thread about ethics and religion. Kerry argues that

faith doesn't make moral decision-making easier. It actually makes it both complex and sometimes excruciating.

This is true, not only for other faiths, but righteous Comedists also. For example, when The Wife was just TheGirlfriend and I first met her family, he who would be TheFatherInLaw was discussing over dinner a pileated woodpecker he had seen earlier in the day. He remarked that it was the largest one he had ever seen, almost two feet tall. The expedient thing would be to smile and nod. But he or she who is a true Comedist in his heart must take the hard path and say, "Wow, that's quite a big pecker you have there." The girlfriend is wonderful in every way. You want to make a good impression on the family. But to be a true Comedist, you must do what you have to do, complex and excruciating, when the Cosmic Comic sends you a set up it is your Comedist duty to bring home the punchline.

Perhaps the most admirable are those who used their last words before meeting Saint Shecky to serve the humor of the universe. Here are a few...

French radical Georges Jacques Danton to the executioner at the guillotine: "Show my head to the people, it's worth seeing."

Thomas de Mahay, when handed his death warrant on the way to the gallows said, "I see you've made three spelling errors."

Saint Lawrence was condemned to death by being roasted over coals, when asked on the gridiron if he had any last requests, he said, "Turn me over, I'm roasted on one side."

Spanish playwright Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, "Alright, then, I'll say it, Dante makes me sick."

Mexican bandit, Pancho Villa, "Tell them I said something."

Finally, there are the final words of the seer Nostradamus. He said, "Tomorrow, I shall be no longer." Well, at least he got one right.