Many years ago, Wendell Ashton — then publisher of the Deseret News — called me into his office. His first words let me know I was in trouble.

"Jerry," he said, "I like humor. I really do."

I had written a column that chided the Public Service Commission. I thought it was hilarious. Wendell thought it was actionable.

Everybody claims to have a sense of humor — whether they do or not. The problem is the reasons that we laugh are often as personal as the reasons we grieve. Humor comes down to a point of view.

Diana Mahony, professor emeritus of psychology at Brigham Young University, knows all this. She has spent a healthy chunk of her life studying Mormons and the things that make them laugh.

"After awhile I was getting so many questions about humor in the church," she told me, "things like 'What's the decibel level of loud laughter?' and 'Is it OK to make a joke in sacrament meeting?' So, I decided to do a book."

"God Made Us to Laugh" is the result — a book that gives the who, what, where, when and how Mormons chuckle. She talks of how humor can be used to teach doctrine, to forge our identity and get us through tough times. Like family, humor pervades LDS life. If you doubt it, just look in the book's index at all the topics under the letter "A": Adam, Adultery, Age, Allen (Woody), American humor, Angels, Animals and Apostles. Laughter is our oxygen.

Mahony writes about laughter in sober tones. Fortunately — like ice cream shops that offer dozens of toppings — she sprinkles hundreds of humorous stories and jokes throughout to lighten the analysis. This epitaph from a New England headstone, for example:

Open wide ye heavenly gates

That lead to the heavenly shore;

Our father suffered in passing through

And mother weighs much more

And Woody Allen's line about his quest for God:

If God would only give me a sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.

But the moments with staying power for Mormons are the rib-ticklers dropped by leaders and lay people when least expected. Some of these tidbits have been in circulation for a while — the "change a light bulb" jokes and some of the pulpit gaffes are part of the Mormon Grain now. But more than a few stories are fresh — at least to me — and will quickly put a daisy in your day. This anecdote, for example, about President Spencer W. Kimball:

President Kimball and his counselor, Nathan Eldon Tanner, had called two of the apostles in to give them an assignment. President Tanner said, "I can't think of two finer men for the job." One of the apostles grew modest. "Surely you can do better than us," he said.

President Kimball didn't miss a beat.

"Would you mind going ahead," he said, "while we are looking for two better men?"

At the end of her book, Mahony prints dozens of quotes about laughter. Let me end with one, this from poet Maya Angelou:

My life has been one great big joke,

A dance that's walked,

A song that's spoke.

I laugh so hard I almost choke

When I think about myself.

View Comments

Been there.

Still doing that.


Jerry Johnston is a Deseret News staff writer. "New Harmony" appears weekly in the Mormon Times section.


E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com

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