Humor can be for entertainment, or it can be a great tool. Sometimes I think it's a bit of both as it was for Samuel Clemens. Samuel Clemens made some famous jokes about Mormon polygamy. He also found humorous ways to mock the combination of Christian beliefs and the practice of slavery. I think the way he delivered his message was more effective at letting people see their own silliness and possibly re-evaluating their beliefs than a profane attack is. That is, however, my taste. My world still has room for Dennis Leary and his famous song about driving really slow in the ultra-fast lane among other rude things.
That's General Leo. He could be my friend if he weren't my enemy. eritis sicut dii I support NCMO
Humor can be for entertainment, or it can be a great tool. Sometimes I think it's a bit of both as it was for Samuel Clemens. Samuel Clemens made some famous jokes about Mormon polygamy. He also found humorous ways to mock the combination of Christian beliefs and the practice of slavery. I think the way he delivered his message was more effective at letting people see their own silliness and possibly re-evaluating their beliefs than a profane attack is. That is, however, my taste. My world still has room for Dennis Leary and his famous song about driving really slow in the ultra-fast lane among other rude things.
It's like complaining that a painting is too flat, unlike that great sculpture of David you just saw.
Parley P. Pratt wrote:We must lie to support brother Joseph, it is our duty to do so.
Buffalo wrote:It's like complaining that a painting is too flat, unlike that great sculpture of David you just saw.
I guess it's dependent on the context. For me this thread has the context about discussing the philosophical problems with the song. I think the rest of the mockery gets in the way of that. However, that certainly may not have been the comic's intent or concern.
That's General Leo. He could be my friend if he weren't my enemy. eritis sicut dii I support NCMO
I'm with Buffalo on this one Abestos. Patton Oswalt is a stand-up cracking jokes. He's making a point with some of those jokes, but that's not mutually exclusive with making fun of the band's name. It's a routine, not a sustained thesis. It's funny, and that's what counts.
I brought it up here because I take it as almost self-evident that the idea that the kid's misfortune is really some lesson for the narrator in the song is an incredibly selfish thought that portrays God as capricious and evil. Yet, while I think most people can see that here because the example is so extreme, I think this kind of thinking does infect a lot of religious people I know. Hence, the thread.
EAllusion wrote:I'm with Buffalo on this one Abestos. Patton Oswalt is a stand-up cracking jokes. He's making a point with some of those jokes, but that's not mutually exclusive with making fun of the band's name. It's a routine, not a sustained thesis. It's funny, and that's what counts.
I brought it up here because I take it as almost self-evident that the idea that the kid's misfortune is really some lesson for the narrator in the song is an incredibly selfish thought that portrays God as capricious and evil. Yet, while I think most people can see that here because the example is so extreme, I think this kind of thinking does infect a lot of religious people I know. Hence, the thread.
To give the devil his due, I think you are being too harsh regarding this primary criticism. The story implies God caused the kid and the grouchy shopper to cross paths to teach the grouch a lesson, not that the primary reason God put the kid and his monther into their situation was to teach the grouch a lesson.
Not that the song isn't omni-suckish for any number of reasons...
It’s relatively easy to agree that only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast. You could never convince a monkey to give you a banana by promising him limitless bananas after death in monkey heaven.
Buffalo wrote:It's like complaining that a painting is too flat, unlike that great sculpture of David you just saw.
Yes. David is not flat. See his uncircumcised front side.
- Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message. - Umberto Eco - To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. - Cardinal Bellarmine at the trial of Galilei