Comic Belief: How Religion Became a Laughing Matter in Modern America

How humor turns the spotlight on our changing religious landscape

In modern America, religion is funny. Not only have skeptical comedians, from George Carlin to Sarah Silverman, lampooned hypocritical preachers and what they see as illogical doctrines, but many religious Americans have satirized unsavory aspects of their own traditions. In Comic Belief, Joshua Wright presents a surprising cultural and intellectual history of the changing relationship between religion and humor in the United States from the early 20th century to the present.

The past century has seen both an explosion of commercial comedy and a significant transformation in the stature and shape of American Christianity. Comic Belief explores a wide range of characters and sources, from iconic stand-up comedians like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, to the evangelical humor magazine The Wittenburg Door, to films like Angels in the Outfield and Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Wright reveals how both fervent critics and defenders of American Christianity have used comedy and satire to express a widespread, simmering discomfort with overly formal institutional religion. While humor has been instrumental in the rise of the religious "nones" and the "spiritual but not religious," it has also played an important though underexplored part in the story of the growth of conservative evangelicalism.

Comprehensive and deeply engaging, Comic Belief provides a groundbreaking exploration of religion and humor over the last century.