My favorite was in Real Life, not media. Back in the day (circa 1970) the Tony & Susan Alamo Christian Foundation cult rounded up Los Angeles area stoners, love-bombed them, and sent them out (under supervision) to give holy tracts to pedestrians. Elton John sang of them:
“♫ Jesus freaks / Out in the streets / Handing tickets out for Gawd ♫” (The first MrsRico was a tiny dancer, but that’s another story.)
So, the hilarious routine. I was walking near Hollywood & Vine when a scraggly longhair grasping a handful of tracts stopped me. The God Squad’s usual line was, “Repent or perish, sinner!” But this guy was good. “Hey man, I used to be all fucked up on drugs. Now I’m all fucked up on the Lord. Wanna hit?”
Jerry Clower is a southern comic who has done a number of routines that make fun of thee Christian South, never offensive to believers. I consider him one of the funniest men alive.
Man walks into a bar.
The bartender points at the door and says “You’re barred! Out!”
Another patron asks “Wasn’t that Jesus? Why is he barred?”
“Every time he comes in, everyone orders the free water!”
Background: I live extremely* close to a major amusement park in Orange County, CA (no mice are implicated, but there is a beagle associated with the park). One fine Fifth of May (Cinco de Mayo), the park announced that admission to the park and all attractions could be had for the paltry sum of FIVE CENTS (the typical one-day admission price was in the neighborhood of forty dollars, IIRC).
Welp, they probably should have consulted the Buena Park Police Department before they decided to do that, because the streets surrounding the park were virtually impassable for the entire day. Businesses were disrupted, and school truancy spiked as 33,000 people descended upon the park (typical weekday attendance in the park was 4500).**
Anyway, the church: This church is about half a mile up the street from my apartment complex. The clusterfuck had happened on a Wednesday. As I drove home from work on Friday afternoon, I was greeted by their sign reading “SPECIAL THIS SUNDAY: ADMISSION TO SERVICE FIVE CENTS.”
*walk one mile north from my apartment complex, then one mile west, and you’re there
A Baptist walks into a bar. Bartender says “Now hold up! There is drinking going on here, and smoking and gambling, and if you were to go into the backroom, there’s probably some fornicating as well!” The Baptist looks around and says “Well, just as long as there’s no dancing…”
A Lutheran walks into a bar. Bartender says “We don’t serve Lutherans in this establishment.” The Lutheran replies “How about some food then? I’ve been on a strict Diet of Worms!”
A Unitarian walks into a bar. Bartender sez “Get out! We don’t serve Unitarians in this bar!” The Unitarian replies “Eh. I sort of half believe you.”
A Catholic walks into a bar. “Get out!” says the bartender. “We don’t serve Catholics in this bar.” So the Catholic replies “I’m too busy to listen to that, you should talk to one of my intercessors.”
A Methodist walks into the bar. Bartender sez “Get out! We don’t serve Methodists in this bar!” The Methodist replies “Oh c’mon. Open hearts, open minds, open bottles…”
I grew up watching some Mark Lowery, who is actually a singer from the Gaither Group.
He wrote the song “Mary, did you know?” that plays all the time at Christmas, but the truth is that his comedy is what I grew up hearing.
Here he is in 1996. The truth is, he has some great moments and probably could have succeeded as a comedian if he went that route. I think he focuses on music and speaking more, though.
He tells a hilarious story about when he and his wife banned their kids from using the bathroom during the church service. Next week, he was in church and had to pee big time. He could not hold out, so he left(wife seething at him for setting a bad example). He snuck back in ashamed and sat down. He could feel his wife’s rage next to him, so he put his arm around her and gave her a little “shoulder hug”. She pulled away and he knew she was furious.
Then he looked and realized…his wife was two rows behind him and he had been sitting next to and hugging a stranger. Everyone around him and his wife were busting up laughing.
Milton Jones from Mock the Week has a series of church joke books. He’s a Christian and tells many churchy type jokes when not on Mock the Week.
I still would not categorize him as a Christian comedian because his comedy plays, I think, mostly to anyone at all and not specifically to Christians.
But, yes, Jim and his wife are Catholic.
My favorite line from him on this is, “Hey, if you haven’t been to mass in a few years…don’t worry, it’s still going!”
Bombeck’s chosen medium was print, books and columns. Chondra Pierce is most definitely a stand up comic. Just because she tells stories and not Henny Youngman one-liners doesn’t make her a humorist and not a stand up.
I think anyone who has to put a descriptor before the word “comedian” is a terrible comic who has to pander to an existing audience to sell. They have “sports comedians” who would just make jokes about local sports teams and they would sell out 50 seat rooms all the time in my local area a decade ago.
This is somewhat true, in that a lot are just clean comics who are behind the times, but the best Christian comedians will actually make comedy based on common ground, i.e. knowing the Christian myths, our common experiences, and such. Not trite jokes like from a joke boo, though.
I actually recently ran into a Mormon comedian I enjoyed, which I was recommended after watching Melissa Villasenor’s live standup during the lock down. At least, I think this bit is funny.
I tend to agree. There are clean comics like Gaffigan or Brian Regan who are among the best around and they don’t feel the need to put any additional descriptors.
Jim Breuer is a great storyteller and comic and he works clean… He does talk about religion because his wife is born again but it’s only in the context of talking about his life.