Who is popular today?

The good comedian mocks the powerful. And is there anything or anyone more powerful than God? I don’t think so What subjects, if any, should be off limits for comedians? For Jimmy Carr, Ricky Gervais and particularly Dave Chappelle, the answer appears to be “nothing”. But for the rest of us (because, while I’m hardly in the their league, I am, for my sins, a comedian as well as a vicar) the golden rule is “Punch up, not down”. In other words, it’s OK to mock the powerful but laughing at any minority group, as old-school comics such as Bernard Manning used to do, is a form of bullying.By that logic, God, the most powerful being in the universe, is a legitimate target for humour. Pope Francis himself said as much last week. Continue reading...