Isaiah Langford - Comedy and Absurdity as Key to the Serious - 2/6/2026

  In his book Heaven in Stone and Glass, Bishop Robert Barron looks to the gargoyles that surround cathedrals in the Gothic style as emblematic of a certain humor intended to refocus the person who views the cathedrals, cutting through the serious design of those churches and allowing the visitor to find time to laugh; as he mentions, G. K. Chesterton saw the core tenet of the Christian faith, that God took on human flesh, as the supreme jest or joke, in its absurdity thus being grasped on the human level by the one who contemplates the mystery. In a similar vein, the movie Cold Fever sees the protagonist encounter numerous absurd obstacles, like the American robber couple with sock puppets, in an attempt to perform the memorial rites for his parents, which is usually considered a serious or solemn duty; or, as another example, the protagonist himself points to the absurd as an outsider at the funerals Laura “collects” in Iceland. In all these circumstances, whether through architectural design or the choices made by filmmakers and photographers, the juxtaposition of the hilarious against the backdrop of the serious provides the audience with the ability to deeply connect with the storytelling fabric that underlies every human narrative; comedy and absurdity, by their very nature opposed to drama and tragedy, highlight the human tendency to find light in the dark and attempt to make connections, something at the core of humanity’s success in telling stories. Without the absurd to compare with the serious, we would be unable to understand on a psychological level the actual meaning of myth and ritual, which are often solemnized to a point of superstition, but by maintaining the human elements of comedy, we can ensure these beautiful obligations are carried on for the thriving of humanity.