Seriously? Pagan Humor

“Do you think God has a sense of humor? Look at a platypus. I think you’ll think he might.”

Robin Williams, Live At the Met (1986)

One thing about Pagans, we take our Deities and our Traditions seriously, but we’re not above a joke at their (and our own) expense. Even when I was a practicing Catholic, I loved a good Catholic joke. (Ever hear the one about the Cajun who went to Confession? See, I can poke fun at my own heritage and the religion to which I belonged.)

Maybe it’s just me. More than likely it’s my family. My dad loved a good practical joke and we always managed to find some humor in most of our situations, even the tough ones. More than one funeral ended up with many of us having fits of giggles among the tears.

And it’s probably one of the things I like about Paganism. I take my faith, and my right to practice it, very seriously. But I love that Paganism has a sense of humor. And I love that people who know me know that I have one, too.

One of my groups of friends is a group of ladies who were all pregnant at the same time as I was. We got to be close and all of them knew I’m Wiccan. During tough times, whenever someone needed a bit of good luck, the running joke was to send out an email for good thoughts and prayers, which inevitably included a line or two extolling me to sacrifice a chicken for my part. Hey sure! No problem! Popeyes for lunch it is!

I understand that jokes about ethnicity or creed can be offensive and you really do have to be careful. But it doesn’t take a trained psychologist to figure out that the people who are most offended are the people to whom a joke may hit too close to home. Maybe they have issues with their own sense of faith. Maybe they question it but feel they aren’t supposed to.

Or maybe their sense of humor just got checked at the door to their place of worship.

Personally, I have absolute certainty that the Gods and Goddesses have a sense of humor. They ought to, given the frequency of times that I do something that can only be characterized as “screwball” and provide them with material!

So here’s to laughter with others, and especially at ourselves!

And my new favorite Pagan joke is…..

What’s one thing you’ll probably never hear at a Pagan gathering?

“Everyone’s here early, so let’s get started.”