Some of my best friends are Bahai. Seriously.

I'm not judging your friends. But I have to ask, hoping the answer is yes: are they funnier than that link?

Speaking as a Baha'i, as a group, we tend to like to laugh a lot. But these "jokes" I don't even think would get a titter in my circles. But hey. Maybe Baha'is elsewhere are a little more starved for comedy.

Good to hear, Phil. (Answering Machine Phil? Let me know.) I posted the link because it kind of seemed weird. I figured there were three kinds of people who would write such an encyclopedia article:

1) A non-Baha'i who wants to discredit the Baha'i for some reason with a propaganda piece, but doesn't have anything stronger to say than "Look at these lame jokes they tell," or
2) A Baha'i who is actually proud of his faith's humor tradition, and was genuinely enthusiastic to share it with encyclopedia readers.
3) A non-Baha'i who fancies himself an amateur scholar on Baha'i humor traditions, who isn't very good at it because this is the best he could come up with.

All three hypotheses intrigued me enough to post the link. My money would have been on number 2, but if what you say is true, then maybe it was just a number 3 who could benefit from hanging out with Baha'i more before he goes and writes an encyclopedia article.

Heya Nate. Yes, it's Answering Machine Phil - You've got yourself a fan from North Carolina. So, update more. :-) Reading over my previous comment, I realize that it might have sounded like I took offense. That's not the case. I was just rushed when I posted...

Anyway, My guess would also be #2. I'm saying that cuz:
1 - Many of the Baha'is that are in my community are Persian. Like off the boat or one generation removed. I think that in America, we tend to be over-stimulated with entertainment... So, jokes like these wouldn't really appeal to us. But from someone from another country, they might be Fuh-nee. (Kind of a strech though...)

2 - They seem more like kid's jokes. Again, we're not really the target audience. I'm reminded of a time in Catholic school when my teacher held up a pencil with erasers on both ends and said "This is like life without Jesus - No point." Everyone giggled, but now... not so much.

Anyway, yeah. Not sure how you came up with that link, but kudos for finding the *most* random site on the web. For more information on Baha'i comedy, see Baha'i stand up comic Omid Djalili. I can't really vouch for his comedy, but you might have seen him in The Mummy (he was the fat dude who got eatten by the jewels that turned into beetles - hey everyone's gotta pay the bills, right?).

I wish I could retrace my steps and figure out what article linked to the article that linked to the article that linked to...etc....that linked to the article that led me to Baha'i humor.

The best I can say is that it was just through idle wikipedia wandering. Once in a while I just search for something there, and then see what happens when I click on the most interesting sounding link within the article, etc.

Lewis Black said it best--what is missing from all religious extremists is a sense of humor. Humor keeps life in perspective and humbles all of us. This is the word. I'll definitely check out Omid Djalili!

Phil--who did you play in Answering Machine?

Mike - I gotta tell you, I think that Lewis Black is one of the best stand up comedians on the circuit today. I saw him live once. Really good set. Except that he kept twitching. (If you watch on the Daily Show, you can see that he leans on his arms a lot - so as not to twitch quite as much.) I'm wondering if he's got Parkinson's Disease or something. I sure hope not...

Anyway, I agree with the anti-fanaticism sentiment completely. In fact, the Baha'i faith categorically condems fanaticism. Check out this article:

http://www.planetbahai.org/articles/2003/ar080103a.html

So, you'd think that there would be better sources of joke, right? :-)

To anwser your question, in Answering Machine, I played the narrorator - the dude in the black bathrobe for the entire play, except for the freak out scene. But that's an entirely different story...

Heh, at the moment you posted that last night, I was probably jumping around on the street cursing Lewis Black's name. I had just gotten the phone call and found out that our Tuesday show was being taken away from us. Long story short is that Lewis Black suddenly got on the bill, and he's a guy that gets to decide who opens with him, and he ain't never heard of us.
Obviously, there's no reason to take it personally, and I'm a little bit less mad about it after sleeping on it. But still, at that moment, it made me feel better to say awful things about him.
But yes, I hope he doesn't have anything serious, because he's great, and because I hear a lot of stories about what a nice guy he is.

Phil-

Well done in Answering Machine--it was a great moment in No Refund Theatre history!

Concerning Lewis Black, I love the guy. He's a truly gifted comic, and he cultivated such a great forum for himself on the Daily Show, where he can actually dig into issues that matter to a large audience that really cares. Me, on the other hand, I just use the internet to make scatalogical fake Harry Potter reviews. Shame!

• Home
• News and Shows
• Meet AWOK
• Blog
• Photos
• Videos
• Press
• Links
• MySpace
• Contact