Christian Philosophy of Comedy: The Satire Paradox

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In my online searches, I have come across the idea of the "satire paradox." The satire paradox is, essentially, when satire backfires by resulting in its audience embracing, instead of rejecting, what it was designed to mock. This concept leads us to two application-related questions: 1) how can the satire paradox refine Christian satire and 2) how can Christians apply the satire paradox to inoculate themselves and their fellow Christians from anti-Christian satire?

First, how can the satire paradox refine Christian satire? Realizing that every person has a god (i.e., an object of ultimate trust and ultimate love) leads to another realization: every religious community (i.e., every community whose members are united by a common god) has its humor fundamentally shaped by its belief-system and affection-system. In order to make humor that both glorifies God in the eyes of the world and edifies Christians, we must keep this fundamental fact about humor in mind.

Second, how can Christians use the satire paradox to inoculate each other from anti-Christian satire? Those who truly trust the Lord have His mind (1 Corinthians 2:16). So, they have the perspective of Jesus Christ. To nullify the effect of ungodly satire on believers in Christ, you must clearly and effectively show them how the metaphysical, ethical, and aesthetic assumptions underlying such satirical works are false from God's perspective, the perspective of the One who is Truth itself. In the cases of anti-Christian satirical works that attempt to utilize Biblical ideas to undermine Christianity itself, you should 1) clearly and effectively show how the ungodly satirist's worldview actually undermines the very Biblical ideas they are making part of their central thrust against Christianity and 2) clearly and effectively demonstrate how Biblical teaching, in the context of the Bible's entire metanarrative, sufficiently upholds those Biblical ideas that the anti-Christian satirist is stealing, whereas that own satirist's own belief-system is the actual one that undermines those ideas. Perhaps this can be best accomplished through Christian counter-satirical works!

This is how knowledge of the satire paradox can be applied (this application being a form of wisdom) to glorify God!