No jokes from the pulpit!!

When I was a kid, someone in my family had a book called “It’s the Law!” with examples of stupid laws from around the country.

Some of them were just silly, like some jurisdiction where it was against the law to whistle underwater, but some of them made you wonder — like this one. In some county it was against the law for a preacher to tell a joke from the pulpit.

Your initial reaction to that is probably that it was some Puritan thing. You know, “a Puritan is someone who is constantly afraid that somebody somewhere is having a good time.” (Which is a historically inaccurate jibe against Puritians, but … nevermind.)

That law came the mind the other day when I saw some story about John Oliver.

I think John Oliver is a snarky jerk who’s wrong about most things. I haven’t heard him often, but when I have, he’s always struck me as the guy who is talented at misrepresenting an issue in an amusing way. It’s a little frightening to think that some people get their perspective on “the news” from people like Oliver.

That made me think of the law about preachers.

After listing to somebody like Oliver, it’s easy to imagine someone thinking that the world would be a better place if serious subjects weren’t the subject of comedy.