Friday Humor (3)

It was originally my intention to use my Friday humor blog for what I consider to be humor in the Hebrew Bible.  Instead, last week, I inserted a joke.  A number of years ago, I had to sharpen my joke skills, because in one of my classes, we established a joke a day.  It was a fun way to begin class.  So, I will attempt both.  A joke, and then an analysis. Here's the joke:

A traveling salesman's car breaks down in front of a farm.  He asks the farmer if he can use his phone to call a towing service (this was before cell phones).  As he is waiting for the tow truck, he sees a pig with three wooden legs.  He asks the farmer about it.

The farmer explains that one day his daughter was at the pond and fell in.  The pig jumped in and saved her.  Another day the baby was playing with a ball that rolled into the road and the baby went onto the road after it.  A truck was coming and the pig pulled the baby back.  Another time, the barn was on fire and the pig rushed in to save his son.

The salesman said the pig was clearly incredible, but why the wooden legs.

The farmer said, "A pig like that you don't eat all at once."

Is there humor in the Bible?  Or am I just reading that into it, because I like humor?  I cannot answer that objectively since humor is so subjective.  But here is one story that if I was directing it, I would try to make it come across as funny.  It is the story of Adam and Eve.

First, God and Adam are playing hide and seek.  Since it was the first time they played, Adam did not quite know the rules, and even though he was hiding, when God said "where are you", Adam said here.  God has a bad habit of not explaining the rules clearly enough.  We see that in the death of Nadav and Abihu which I discussed in the previous blog.  God does not tell Aaron that the high priest can only go into the Holy of Holies one day and year until after his sons died.  If Nadav and Avihu entered it and died as a result, then the rules were not very clearly expressed.

Second, when Adam and Eve are punished, I see a comic scene.  Adam, Eve, and the snake are in line.  When God confronts Adam, his arm immediately points to the woman.  In his defense, Adam blames both God and the woman.  The camera shifts to Eve who immediately points at the snake and blames it.  Unfortunately our snake has no arms to point to anyone.  The snake is not given a chance to defend himself like Adam and Eve, but I would love to know what he would say. 

It is not a belly-laugh type of humor.  To me, it is funny.  Am I convincing.  Time will tell.