When Faith Meets Funny

This week on Interfaith Voices:

 

Two women. Two comedians. Two religions. One Marriage

Meet the El-Salamons – Eman El-Husseini and Jess Salomon – who fell in love with comedy and each other. The couple, who moved from Canada to New York to pursue careers in stand-up, find that they’re most sought after as a duo. Eman is a Palestinian Muslim woman and Jess is a Jewish woman. Their marriage is their life, but it’s also good fodder for their act. They share their best jokes, wedding stories and approach to hecklers.

Watch the El-Salomons on stage here.

 

Ordained for Comedy: An Evangelical Pastor Discovers A Second Calling

Dennis Swanberg spent more than two decades in the pulpit. But then the Baptist preacher found that he could spread the Gospel another way. Swanberg takes church seriously, but he also finds it funny, and makes fun of everyone from the choir to the preacher to the people in the pews. We ask him to share some of his favorite jokes — and also his impressions. He does a wicked Billy Graham – and even did Graham for the famed evangelist himself.

Watch Dennis Swanberg in action here.

 

Divinely Drawn: How The Simpsons, South Park and Family Guy Handle Religion

There’s a whole lot of religion in three of the most popular animated series ever to hit television. Sociologist David Feltmate, a professor at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama, and author of “Drawn to the Gods,” explains why it’s important not only to get the religion jokes on these shows, but the reasons why they’re funny. From Bible-thumping Ned Flanders on The Simpsons to the anti-Semitism of Cartman on South Park, Feltmate lets us know where he thinks these show get religion right, and where they fall short.

David Feltmate, professor of sociology at University of Alabama at Montgomery and the author of Drawn to the Gods


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