The document discusses Mormon humor, censorship, and taboos. It provides context on humor from insiders versus outsiders and examples of Mormon jokes that were shared on social media and in other contexts. The examples illustrate how humor can be used to both strengthen group identity from the inside or reinforce stereotypes from the outside. The document also discusses how religious jokes can build understanding across denominations when handled carefully and inclusively.

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2. WARNING ABOUT MORMON HUMOR, TABOOS, AND CENSORSHIP
In selecting examples of Mormon (LDS) humor we have tried to be edgy, but
not offensive, but consider the following:
CENSORSHIP FROM THE RIGHT: Blasphemy, Obscenity, Profanity, Swear
Words, Vulgarity, Mention of Body Parts, and Body Functions
CENSORSHIP FROM THE LEFT (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS): Age,
Disabilities, Gender, Ethnicity, Belief System, and all other marginalizations.
Mormon humor tends to be in the vernacular. It is colloquial, and
ungrammatical and unpretentious, but it is also often “vulgar” because it is
in the language of the common people (compare “Vulgar Latin”).
We’ve tried not to use offensive examples, and we hope we have succeeded,
but remember that what is not offensive to one person might be very
offensive to another person. We apologize in advance if any of our examples
are offensive.
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3. Articles of Faith
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4. Book of Mormon
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5. BYU Computer Animation Team
BYU Computer Animation Team:
http://nyti.ms/ZfAFon
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6. Orson Scott Card, LDS Novelist
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7. Erin Chambers and Rachel Emmers:
Errand of Angels, The Movie
Errand of Angels, the Movie:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=errand+of+angels+trailer+video&view=d
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8. Jesse Crisler & Chris Crowe
LDS Authors for Young Adulte
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9. Chris Crowe, LDS Novelist
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10. Bruce Dana
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11. Fast Sunday
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12. Nicole Gibbs and Cindy Beck
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13. Shannon Hale, LDS Novelist
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14. Kimberly Heuston, LDS Novelist
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15. Joey Kaplan
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16. Lehi’s Dream
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17. Stephanie Meyer, LDS Novelist
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18. Louise Plummer, LDS Novelist
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19. Janiel Miller’s New Book:
Mormons Say (and Do!) the Darndest Things
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21. Moroni
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22. P-Day
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23. Patty Perfect and Peter Priesthood
Patty Perfect lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she is married and has
ten children.
She’s a stay-at-home mom who gets up every morning around 5:30 AM,
and reads nine chapters of the scriptures. She then jogs twelve miles,
but makes it back home in time to make a hearty, healthy breakfast and
oversea the practicing of musical instruments by her children.
Peter Priesthood is from Provo, Utah and is married to his high-school
sweetheart. They have eight children and his wife is pregnant. He is the
1st
counselor in the Bishopric and a seminary teacher.
During his lunch hour, and after work each day, Peter makes a number of
welfare visits.
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24. Primary Songs
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25. Janette Rallison, LDS Novelist
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26. Kristen Randle, LDS Novelist
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27. Andrew Rannells in The Book of Mormon Musical
Book of Mormon, the Broadway Musical:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+book+of+mormon+musical&vie
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28. Eric Snider
Eric Snider at the Piano:
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+eric+snider&&view=detail&mid
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29. Beatrice Sparks, LDS Novelist
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30. Ryan Stoker
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31. Helen Vick, LDS Novelist
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32. Jack Weyland, LDS Novelist
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33. Mark Geoffrey Young and Dick DeBartolo
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34. An Allusion to Star Wars
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Last fall, we had a teaching and
research fellowship from ASU’s
Honors College and ASU’s Emeritus
College.
•As part of the fellowship, we taught a
class called “Humor across the
Disciplines” to students in the Honors
College.
•Here are some of the things we
learned.

36. First, there are lots of confusions
about these initials.
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37. Second, our students from the East
Valley have lots of LDS friends.
• Several asked us about
the new Temple in
Gilbert.
• They told us that at one
high school the LDS
kids wore a T-shirt like
the one pictured here.
• It facilitated informal
and humorous
conversations.
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38. “The Funniest Play on Broadway”
• The students were especially
impressed when they told us about
reading the official LDS Church
response to the hit Broadway show,
BOOK OF MORMON. It went
something like this, “Enjoy yourself for
an evening and then come and get
acquainted with the real Book of
Mormon and enjoy yourselves for the
rest of your life.” 38

39. “The Book of Mormon”
The Musical on Broadway
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40. The students made us feel so comfortable that we
found ourselves confessing that how we remember our
license plate number is by thinking of Brigham Young
and his 45 wives.
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41. One of the main things our students were interested in
was why a joke is different when told from the inside
vs. from the outside?
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42. Some scholars say that humor is “the great
social corrective,” which means…
• If someone from the inside is telling a mildly critical
joke about themselves or their group, their goal may
be to push the boundaries outward, i.e. to change
group attitudes.
• But if someone from the outside is telling the same
joke about your group, the effect may be to
strengthen the stereotypes, i.e. to tighten
boundaries, because an outsider doesn’t have the
kind of power that insiders have to influence a
group’s attitudes.
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43. Another difference is that insiders prefer
jokes that put their group in a good light.
• Mormons—especially in our generation—were justifiably
proud of our agricultural skills.
• For example, in the 1970s, ASU’s Department of
Agriculture was known as “The Mormons.”
• Before Ezra Taft Benson served as our Church President,
he had been the United States Secretary of Agriculture
under President Eisenhower.
• When we went to Afghanistan to teach English between
1967 and 1969, we were amazed to find an LDS branch
organized by a University of Wyoming Agricultural team.
They were there to teach Afghan farmers how to irrigate.
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44. That’s why we know the joke about Satan leading newcomers on
a tour of Hell and swearing when he comes upon a lush, green
area is a “Mormon joke.” We tell it to compliment ourselves.
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45. Have you heard the story about St. Peter taking
newcomers on a tour of Heaven?
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• Both of us heard it from our Sunday School
teachers when we were kids.
• “Shhh….,” says St. Peter when they come to a
certain section of Heaven.
• “Tiptoe past this section. It’s the Mormons and
they think they are the only ones here.”
• Since our Sunday School teachers told us this
joke, we assume the goal was to teach us about
not being self-righteous.

46. Maybe because we remembered it, we noticed a
cartoon in the BYU newspaper that showed a campus
policeman helping a bloody and battered student.
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47. • Because it was published in the BYU newspaper, we
judged it to be a continuation of our old lesson
against Mormon self-righteousness.
• But if it had been published in the University of Utah
newspaper, with all the participants still dressed in
their “Y” clothing, it would have been an accusation
—rather than an encouragement to change.
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48. One of the best examples of recent Mormon humor
came from a Deseret News story about General David
Petraeus’s speech at BYU (3-26-2010)
Here are some of the most succinct—and
therefore the funniest—of his “Top Ten
Reasons that BYU grads make good soldiers.
•They have already been on many a mission.
•Army chow is no problem for folks accustomed to
eating green Jell-o and shredded carrots.
•It’s no problem if they don’t know someone’s rank
because they can always just say “Brother or Sister so-
and-so.”
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49. More Reasons
• They never go AWOL—They just call it being
“less active.”
• They will seize any objective swiftly if you tell
them refreshments will be served.
• They always have a year’s supply of
provisions on hand.
• They are the world’s most reliable designated
drivers.
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50. Everyone recognized these as “Insider”
Jokes, and since General Petraeus is not
LDS, they conjectured:
• He must have had a Mormon speech
writer.
• Or, maybe he had really experienced
these things with LDS soldiers.
• Or, as one jokester wrote in “He’s
actually (secretly) LDS like Steve Martin
and Elvis Presley too.”
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51. Of course there were lots of comments, but the
funniest was this parody—a hoax—which went
unrecognized as a joke for three days.
• This clown is supposed to be in charge of
our milatery? What a bufoon. I hope he
relizes the offence this kind of humor inflix
upon the saints. This is the most inapprate
invited guest to byu since billy jole played
the marriottcenter in the 90’s and made fun
of the holyer-than-thou atmosphere of provo.
» From Heber K. Romney
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52. The next big joke that friends alerted us to was
“How Mormon is Mitt Romney” posted in
September of 2011
• In answer to a political accusation that Mitt Romney was
“not Mormon enough,” Joanna Brooks posted an on-line
question on what she called the TWITTERNACLE “So,
How Mormon is Mitt Romney?” Hundreds of people sent
in witty replies. People from most community-based
churches could probably relate to such comments as
“Mitt Romney is so Mormon that…
• …He asks donors to stack chairs after fundraising
dinners.
• …He will put strips of masking tape on all the Pyrex 9x13
pans at the White House with his name written in Sharpie.
• …He will require every state to have an official casserole.
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53. But most comments were understandable only
to Mormons. Our favorites included:
MITT ROMNEY IS SO MORMON THAT…
•…he is going to rename the 101st
airborne “The
Stripling Warriors.”
•…he will ask the Elders’ Quorum to move him into the
White House.
•…he will ask the Senate to “sustain” his appointees
by manifesting with an upraised hand.
•…he will commission a presidential motorcade made
entirely of 10-passenger family vans.
•…he is installing two basketball hoops at the
inaugural ball so there’ll be a place to hang the
decorations.
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54. Many religious oriented jokes can be
appreciated across denominations as
with “The First Senior Moment”
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55. At our Humor Conferences Biblical scholars
talk about such humor as…
• The story of Jonah being
a satire on a reluctant
prophet.
• The elderly Sarah and
Abraham laughing in
surprise and joy when
God tells them they will
have a son.
• And in Psalm 126-2
“When the lord restored
the fortunes of Zion…
Then our mouth was filled
with laughter and our
tongues with shouts of
joy.”
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56. Professor John Morreall, Chair of Religious Studies at the
College of William and Mary, was on campus a few years
ago, to talk about religion and humor.
We heard him tell this story about John the Evangelist and
the importance of play.
• The people were scandalized at finding John at play with
his disciples. He asked one of the questioners, who
carried a bow, to shoot an arrow.
• When this had been done several times, he asked the
man whether he could keep on doing so continuously.
• The man replied that the bow would break. Whereupon
the blessed John pointed out the moral that “So, too,
would the human spirit snap were it never unbent.”
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57. Here is a precocious missionary who
taught his cat to pray. His mother was
so charmed she took a photo. But later it
wasn’t so charming when the boy
decided it was time to baptize the cat.
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58. A Happy Surprise!
• Once when Don forwarded a really funny letter
to our relatives and to people in our ward about
“wicked things” and “wicked punishments” as
outlined in various Old Testament scriptures,
especially Leviticus and Exodus, Alleen made
him send out an apology for his irreverence.
• We had a good laugh when the choir director in
our ward telephoned to say that her brother was
the author and “It sounds just like something
James would write.” We’ve been good friends
ever since.
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59. Alleen taught the 16-18 year-olds in our ward
and she found that her classes went better
when she started with some kind of humor.
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60. But the kids needed to “do something” with such
jokes. Sometimes, she gave them out to small groups
so they could choose their favorite to share.
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61. Alleen’s biggest success in teaching the teenagers in
our ward was to have them not only explain, but
illustrate, their assigned scriptures.
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62. When it comes to funerals, we have a theory that
humorous people get longer obituaries and bigger
funeral attendance.
• Yogi Berra’s advice might have something to do with this:
“Always go to other people’s funerals, or they won’t come to
yours.”
• Morris Udall, grew up in St. Johns, Arizona with a strong
Mormon heritage. He was a successful Congressman and a
not-so-successful candidate for President. When he came in
second in seven state primary elections, a political writer wrote
that he was “Too funny to be President,” a phrase Udall later
used as the title for his autobiography.
• When he first entered politics, he inherited his father’s
notebook of humorous stories he had collected to tell “for
every occasion.” One section was entitled “Funerals.” Another
was entitled “Funerals, Special.”
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63. Edginess is an aspect of humor, which is why it is
often considered “dangerous.” But even edginess is
okay if we follow these Humane Humor Rules.
1. Choose jokes that target people’s
strengths, not their weaknesses.
2. Avoid laughing at things people
cannot change.
3. Use humor to empower people, not to
put them down.
4. Use humor for bonding, rather than for
competition.
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65. In humor as in other
realms, the most
important question to
ask is…
What would Jesus do?
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