So, with that, let’s get back to our original question: what can be the subject of humor and what can’t?

It seems to me that a good term to use for that which cannot be the subject of humor is “solid ground.” But when I say solid ground, I don’t mean “the parts of a culture that are most justified,” but “the parts of a culture that we use to make meaning.” And ironically, that means “solid ground” is the least justifiable parts of the culture—its myths. As Stephen C. Taysom wrote, “Because myths function as the foundation and legitimator of a culture, people invested in that culture will naturally want to somehow place their myths outside the reach of critique.” So, solid ground is the aspects of a culture that have no justification but must remain solid for the culture to function. In Mormonism’s case, if we are to take Sunstone’s humor as our guide, solid ground is things like the inviolability of upper church officials, Jesus, and the temple.

Ah, yes. The temple! You may or may not have noted that there were no temple jokes in any of the cartoons I’ve shown. That was because I could only find two temple jokes in our back catalog. One was an Onion-like article called, “Provo temple liftoff successful.” And in that case, the joke was about the temple’s architecture, not the rituals that go on inside of it. And then there is this one that takes place inside a temple foyer.

But we’ve never gone inside the temple with anything resembling loud laughter. Or even a snicker.

So, solid ground is the immovable point we use to measure life’s meaning. It’s likely that the reason why even Sunstone’s readers were unwilling to let Jesus be the object of humor was because he was foundational to what they felt the meaning of life was. And since general authorities are considered to have a direct line to Jesus and to God and act as their representatives, and since so much rides on their decisions, they are given a place outside of humor. The temple also has that distinction partially because of frequent warnings to not reveal the signs and covenants, which spills over onto everything else that goes on in the temple. But also because the temple ordinances are considered to have a literal effect on your salvation. Therefore, they are solid ground—outside of humor.

So, we’ve made this distinction of solid ground from inside Mormon culture. But what about from outside the culture, where this solid ground looks ephemeral and ludicrous? Can we make an argument that there should be such a thing as solid ground? Interestingly, I think there is. For two reasons. One is cultural, and one is humorous.

We’ll explore these in the next post.