Welcome to Gaia! ::

In which the authors trawl the annals in search of the joke's earliest antecedents, then run away screaming.

But what relevance does this have to Satanism? The archetype of the jokester, the Gods of Mischief and their modern spawns, the clowns.

Of course, at this point I presume the majority of you are bloody confused as you're lacking the headnote. The Naked Jape is the first book by British comedian Jimmy Carr and his friend, Lucy Greeves, wherein they "find out what's funny and why". Now, the initial reason I wanted this book was because I am quite a fan of Mr. Carr and plan to see him in April when he has a show at my local theatre. So I received the book for Christmas.

In the chapter mentioned in the title of this topic the authors look at one of the oldest known sources of comedy: the trickster deities. First covered is Elegba of the Yoruba people of ancient Nigeria. The story would commonly go that Elegba would commit a crime with witnesses. However, the witnesses wouldn't be entirely consistent. For example, those who saw his hat from the North would swear his hat was green whilst those from the South would stake their lives on it being red. Thus an argument happens. And what happens in this argument? The wonderful magician Elegba proceeds to do whatever the ******** he likes as nobody is paying him any attention and he loves the confusion, presumably. Now, Elegba is also represented in a significantly Satanic fashion as he is 'always represented naked, seated with his hands on his knees with an immensely disproportionate phallus' if A. B. Ellis is to be believed.

The Hopi, Zuni and Anasazi tribes of Native Americans have a similar god in the form of Kokopelli; a hunchback with a big sack of seeds, a flute up his nose (hey, why not?) and sporting a spiffy erection. The Winnebago tribe also have their own version of the trickster god but with a detachable rape stick which is carried around in a box. A popular tale is told by the authors thusly; "One popular tale of the Winnebago Trickster has him sending said organ to play with a chief's daughter who is playing in a lake. His p***s goes skimming merrily across the surface of the water like a little fleshy jet-ski. 'No, Little Brother! Come back! She'll be frightened if you rush up to her like that.' And Trickster ties a stone to the p***s and sends it forth again. This time it sinks to the bottom. On the third attempt, he finds a stone of just the right weight, and the pink torpedo stealthily approaches the chief's daughter and lodges firmly in her aft porthole. All laugh mightily, particularly on realising that our collective unconscious also contains an archetype of the vibrator".

The authors then proceed to describe more trickster gods located around the world all with similar concepts. However, there were a few (The Greek Hermes, for example) who carried gifts with their madness. This made me consider that some of the core aspects of the Satan symbol were carried far, far earlier than Christianity and Biblical fan-fiction in which a jokester has caused society to progress further through actions which are considered chaotic, something all Satanists should, if I interpreted and remembered LaVey's words correctly, be trying to accomplish in their lives (although not to the extremes some of the gods took it).

So, despite this topic is a massive plug for a great book by a great comedian (and his friend), I'm wondering how intrinsic laughter and joking is to the Satanist.

Don't bother discussing sex with small children. The rarely have anything to add - Fran Lebowitz

Post-Script: And, as I come to the end of this post, I promptly remembered LaVey's essay on the subject ('T'Ain't funny, McGee, Satan Speaks, page 8) and that rendered my curiousity moot. So I had to think up a new one before clicking Submit. And my new curiousity is just the opinions of you fellows.

Your anthropology professor is a boring, soulless individual and could easily write a joke book in a vain attempt at understanding humour.