I think Ray Romano is funny as hell but he has no problem poking fun of his own religion. I think more Christians (and Atheists for that matter or anything else) should have more of an ability to laugh at themselves like that.

Um, and his costar too. Have you seen Patricia Heaton’s new show? Funny as hell. She’s been funny through three sitcoms now and really proves her salt in “The Middle” as far as I’m concerned and does it looking like a real person instead of glammed up. And read her IMDB bio. She’s even anti-abortion. (boo hiss, but she’s still funny.)

The other costars are all funny but I don’t know if they’re Christian or not. IMDB shows that Peter Boyle was a monk before turning to acting but he certainly went irreverant in his acting between “Young Frankenstein” and playing a crazy who thought he was Jesus in “The Dream Team”. If you haven’t caught that do. It’s hilarious as all get out and Boyle’s portrayal of Jesus is freaking hilarious.

Larry the Cable guy is a fundamentalist and, I think, quite funny.

Regarding the first part of this statement – I think you’re confusing “redneck” with “fundamentalist”. As for the second – I won’t comment.

As for Dane Cook’s atheist sneeze ‘joke’, I don’t know anything else of his stuff, but the reason that ‘joke’ isn’t funny is that humour requires a touch of truth behind it. His portrayal of the atheist isn’t a strawman, it’s more of a ’tissue-man’.

Plus he might not be a good comedian at all for all I know.

Also, the Jewish thing, remember that there are cultural Jews as well as religious ones. Stephen Fry, for example, is both Jewish and an atheist (and a genius, but I digress).

An atheist is walking in the woods, when suddenly he’s jumped and pursued by a grizzly bear. He tries to run but the bear is right on top of him and in a fit of panic he shouts, “Oh God! Help me!” Time freezes and a bright light appears and the voice of God says, “Now wait a minute. You spent all your life refusing to believe in me and now you want me to help you? Does that seem fair to you?” So the atheist says, “Well, could you at least make the bear a Christian?” There’s a poof and flash of light and time restarts, and the bear stops attacking, and takes the man by the hand. Then the bear places his hand between his own clasped paws and says, “Dear Lord, thank you for this meal I am about to eat…”

K, I’ll wait til you recover from the vapor-lock laughter you’re experi-… oh. Right. You’re done.

Compare that to George Carlin’s “Religion is Bullshit” bit. I mean hello.

As to Dane Cook’s “atheist sneeze”… dude Dane Cook is not, was not, never will be funny.

You certainly can’t be a fundamentalist and be funny. The best humor takes irony as its theme. Andy’s comment is germane; Jewish humor relies almost exclusively on it.

As is old news by now, fundies have no sense of irony. Evangelical humor is like the humor of pre-adolescents.

Can anyone name a devoutly religious comedian who is also very funny?(“Devout” meaning someone who doesn’t merely self-identify but actually practices the religion seriously as a true-believer. And yes, I realize “very funny” is subjective.) Angus might be onto something.

It seems to me that a comedian has to have a less common perspective on certain things in order for them to come up with funnier jokes about things. Hence why atheist comedians, with their different perspective on religion, tend to come up with better jokes about religion than religious comedians.