Back around 1950 there was a movie, My Son, John, about a man whose mother found out he was a Communist.
The biggest publicity shot for it was a photograph from the scene where his mother was angelically on her knees with his hand on a Bible held by her, swearing to her that he was NOT a Communist.
Back then this was instantly funny, even to college graduates. Everybody knew that a Communist’s oath on a Bible means nothing, and the old lady was funny for being convinced by it.
Today, I do not think anyone would actually GET THE JOKE.
Yes, everybody KNOWS that Communists are atheists.
But for it to be FUNNY, that is, for the reaction to be a guffaw, everybody has to SEE that Communists are atheists. For humor, it has to be a gut reaction.
To me, the difference is that back then people SAW that Communists are real, practicing atheists. Today the reaction to that picture would probably be a thoughtful frown.
#1 by Coniglio Bianco on 03/06/2012 - 1:19 pm
>Bible
>Communist
lol
#2 by herrMajor on 03/06/2012 - 1:21 pm
Well, that’s funny Bob.
I was under the impression that Communism WAS a religion.
When the state owns your labor, when it owns your loyalty, when it owns your arms, and your life. You are a slave.
Communism IS a religion that WORSHIPS slavery.
#3 by BGLass on 03/06/2012 - 3:31 pm
when it f’s with family ties, pathologies the most normal things on earth & even gets into little kids’ sexuality, whether illustrating technical contraptions designed to stop masturbation or telling them gayness is the height of sophistication— when they get a ‘sex czar’— then you know it’s R-eligion, capital R, for sure.
#4 by Harumphty Dumpty on 03/06/2012 - 5:31 pm
Back then being an atheist meant something. Today, with our culture disintegrating and a hundred other cultures sticking their noses in every window, there’s little that fails to clash with anything else or arouses much note when doing so. It’s a wonder humor survives at all today!
#5 by Harumphty Dumpty on 03/06/2012 - 5:38 pm
And everything clashing with everything leaves no solid field against which events, attributes, etc. can be viewed. When one lives among muslims, hindus, wiccans, goddess worshippers, etc. (I live in the SF Bay Area), “atheists” seem almost quaint if noteworthy at all!