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Illustration: Abraham’s Counsel to Sarai, by James Tissot, c. 1900 (Jewish Museum, New York)
Pope Francis’ address to comedians
Clementine Hall – Friday, 14 June 2024
“If you can bring a ‘knowing smile” to the lips of even one spectator, you are making God smile“
Dear friends,
I am pleased to welcome you all and to express my gratitude to those of the Dicastery for Culture and Education who have organized this meeting.
I have high appreciation of you as artists who express yourselves through the language of comedy, humor, and irony. Of all the professionals who work in television, cinema, theatre, print, song, and social media, you are among the most loved, sought after, and popular.
Certainly, this is because you are very good at what you do, but there is also another motivation: you have and cultivate the gift of making people laugh.
In the midst of so much gloomy news, in the midst of so many social and even personal emergencies, you have the power to spread peace and smiles.
You are among the few who have the ability to speak to all kinds of people, from different generations and cultural backgrounds.
In your own way, you bring people together, because laughter is contagious.
It is easier to laugh together than alone: joy opens us to sharing and it is the best antidote to selfishness and individualism.
Laughter also helps to break down social barriers, create connections create people, and allows us to express emotions and thoughts, helping to build a shared culture and create spaces of freedom.
You remind us all that homo sapiens (the wise man) is also homo ludens (the man playing)!
Because play and laughter are central to human life, to expressing ourselves, to learning, and making sense of situations.
Your talent is a precious gift.
Together with a smile, it spreads peace in our hearts and among others, helping us to overcome difficulties and cope with everyday stress.
It helps us find relief in irony and go through life with humour.
I like to pray every day with the words of St. Thomas More: “Grant me, O Lord, a good sense of humor”.
I ask for this grace for every day because it helps me approach things with the right spirit.
You also work another miracle: you manage to make people smile even in the midst of problems and events, great and small.
You denounce abuses of power; you give voice to forgotten situations; you highlight abuses; you point out inappropriate behavior.
You do this without spreading alarm or terror, anxiety or fear, as other forms of communication tend to do;
You make people think critically by making them laugh and smile.
You do this by telling real-life stories, by recounting reality from your unique perspective; and by talking to people about problems, big and small.
According to the Bible, at the beginning of the world, when everything was being created, divine wisdom practised your form of art for the benefit of none other than God himself, the first spectator of history.
This is how it is described: “I was beside Him, like a master workman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always, rejoicing in His inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men” (Prv 8:30-31).
Remember this: If you can bring a ‘knowing smile” to the lips of even one spectator, you are making God smile.
You, dear artists, know how to think and speak humorously in various forms and styles; and in each case the language of humor is suitable for understanding and “feeling” human nature.
Humor does not insult, humiliate, or put people down according to their faults.
While communication today often generates conflict, you know how to bring together diverse and sometimes opposing realities.
How much we have to learn from you!
The laughter of humor is never “against” anyone, but is always inclusive, purposeful, eliciting openness, sympathy, empathy.
I am reminded of the story in the book of Genesis when God promised Abraham that he would have a son within a year. He and his wife Sarah were old and childless.
Sarah listened and laughed inwardly. Abraham must have done the same.
However, Sarah conceived and bore a son in her old age, at the time that God had set.
Then Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh at me” (Gen 21:6).
So they called their son Isaac, which means, “he laughs”.
Can we laugh at God?
Of course, we can, just as we play and joke with the people we love.
Jewish wisdom and literary tradition are master at this!
It is possible to do this without offending the religious feelings of the faithful, especially the poor.
Dear friends, may God bless you and your art.
Continue to cheer people up, especially those who find it hardest to look at life with hope.
Help us, with a smile, to see reality with its contradictions, and to dream of a better world!
With heartfelt sentiments, I bless you; and I ask you, please, to pray for me.
