FunnyIndian.com: Indian Comedian / Desi Comedian Rajiv Satyal

How We Write Jokes

August 22nd, 2009

Sometimes the best way to come up with new material is to bounce it off of my friends, who might be more expert in a certain field than I am. After all, what generally gives us creative license to talk about sensitive topics, beyond a disclaimer (which ironically is both the easy way out and yet often doesn’t work), is to demonstrate ample knowledge of said topic. If the crowd gets the sense that you have intimate knowledge of a subject, it’ll give you a lot more leeway than if it appears you only have a superficial understanding of it and are just cracking jokes only to ridicule and not educate.

I wanted to do a joke about Jesus being crucified so I turned to my best friend, a Christian. I found the email exchange to be funnier than the potential joke. I edited the string so you can read it top-down instead of bottom-up. We sent one more email each – I to ask permission to post (and to quote George Costanza, “THIS should be the show”) and he to grant such permission.

I may still tell it onstage but right now I think it reads better than it sounds. Hope it doesn’t make you… cross.

—–

From: Rajiv Satyal
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 6:03 PM
To: Jon Langdon
Subject: Christianity Question

hey, langs – is there any significance to the fact that Jesus was crucified and that He was a carpenter?

am i missing something or is this a huge piece of irony?

i’m not trying to be funny – yet – i’m really asking to know.

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On Aug 7, 2009, at 12:03 AM, Jon Langdon wrote:

I’m not sure I follow. What’s the irony? He’s a carpenter and was crucified on some contraption made of wood?

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From: Rajiv Satyal
Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 10:49 PM
To: Jon Langdon
Subject: Re: Christianity Question

ha yeah… that’s the irony. that it appeared they used his profession against Him.

like if He were a surfer they’d have water-boarded Him or something.

so, i’m asking you for the historical accuracy piece.

separately is the precedent (has this been done before?) and the humor (is it funny?) piece. i welcome your POV on both of those, of course, but i’m asking you about the accuracy part.

(if this turns into a bit, i’m going to say i’ve been respectful b/c i capitalized all of His pronouns.)

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On Aug 10, 2009, at 1:05 PM, Jon Langdon wrote:

I see where you’re coming from but I don’t think it’s as specific of an example as the surfer one (which is good). Now, if a mason was stoned to death, that’s ironic, but again, the trade in that case is more specific. Most people are going to make that connection much faster than a carpenter and the cross. So, while I suppose it’s almost the same (carpenters build stuff out of wood) for some reason I don’t see people making the connection quickly. However, that depends on the setup, maybe you’ll help them there. Dunno.

I haven’t heard a bit about this before, but I’m not all that well-traveled when it comes to stand-up. Give me the whole bit and I’ll tell you if I think it’s funny.

Regardless, if you do the bit you’ll burn in hell. Which is ironic, because your family is from India, and India can be hot.

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