The importance of comedy relief

Every writer knows you cannot recreate Romeo and Juliet without Mercutio.

Comedic interludes relieve tension in a story. They are the distractions that keep the drama boiling without boiling over. They sustain catharsis when our more dour emotions would otherwise become too much to bear in one sitting.

I've always related to the Mercutios of the world because I see so much emphasis on the serious things of this world as if God were not in control. I love to make people laugh because it distracts them from the sorrow that is our sinful state, and hopefully reminds them how silly this world is.

People -- even Christians -- spend so much time dwelling on things they could never possibly understand. This is why I think Douglas Adams is a genius.

There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
- Douglas Adams

I do not mean to confuse laughter with the joy of the Lord. The joy God gives us is a welling-up of the soul, and is not something we can create or manipulate. It comes from knowing things are settled and our responsibilities are much less than they appear to be, because God carries our otherwise enormous burden for us.

But even laughter is God-ordained. In Ecc. 3:4, He has set aside time for both weeping and laughter.

Neither is this to say all laughter is spiritually clean. There is a perversity of laughter that mocks the things of God, that takes license with God's nature and revels in the things of this world.

But laughter by itself is not against the nature of God. Even Jesus took delight in children and condemned the actions of the apostles who attempted to scurry them away.

There is no record of a court jester in the Kingdom of God, but in this world, I'd like to think that is part of my role as servant of man. I do not wish to take your eyes off God, but if they are already averted to an elsewhere gaze, allow me to shake you out of your trance and remind you that you are under no obligation to bear the weight of this world.

Allow me to remind you that you are not God and it's generally in bad form to immitate Him in that manner.