Rome Newsroom, Jun 8, 2024 / 08:11 am (CNA).
It’s no joke: Pope Francis will take the mic in front of over 100 comics, stand-up comedians, and humorists, including Americans Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon, at the Vatican next Friday.
Jim Gaffigan, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Tig Notaro, and Whoopi Goldberg are the other U.S. comedians expected to take part.
The June 14 meeting was organized by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and Dicastery for Communication and “aims to establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists,” according to a June 8 press release.
As of June 8, a list of 105 comics and humorists from 15 countries had confirmed their participation in the papal audience.
The Vatican said the encounter intends “to celebrate the beauty of human diversity and promote a message of peace, love, and solidarity, and promises to be a meaningful moment of intercultural dialogue and sharing of joy and hope.”
Most of the comedians and humorists slated to participate — 67 — are from Italy, while six are from the South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, and 22 from European countries other than Italy. Two comedians from Mexico — Florinda Meza García and Chumel Torres — will also take part. The only Asian country represented is East Timor.
Jesuit Father James Martin is also slated to attend. Martin is the former chaplain of “The Colbert Report” and appears to be the only clergy member listed among participants in the June 14 encounter.
The audience, which will take place in the Apostolic Palace, occurs almost exactly one year after Pope Francis addressed a group of approximately 200 prominent artists in the Sistine Chapel — an event also organized by the Dicastery for Culture and Education.
The 2023 meeting notably included figures such as U.S. film director Abel Ferrara and U.S. photographer Andres Serrano, creator of the controversial 1987 “Piss Christ” image, a photograph of a plastic crucifix submerged in urine.
Pope Francis previously met actress and daytime talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg in October 2023.
Another notable attendee is the Roman street artist Mauro Pallotta, who goes by the name “Maupal,” and is known for his 2014 depiction of Pope Francis as superman, “Super Pope.”
In its announcement of the papal meeting with comedians, the Vatican highlighted the words of Pope Francis in a 2016 interview with the Italian Catholic television channel TV2000.
On that occasion, the pontiff said: “A sense of humor is a grace that I ask for every day, and I pray that beautiful prayer of St. Thomas More: ‘Give me, Lord, a sense of humor,’ that I know how to laugh at a joke … it’s beautiful, that prayer, isn’t it? Because a sense of humor lifts you up, makes you see the temporariness of life and take things with a spirit of a redeemed soul. It is a human attitude, but it is the closest to God’s grace.”
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Oh, good heavens! The punch lines write themselves!
Never mind the uncanny resemblance between Bergoglio and Stan Laurel of Laurel ‘n’ Hardy.
Anyone old enough to have seen the Ed Sullivan Show in the sixties should get this one:
I’m wondering if Bergoglio will do his impression of the pontifical Italian mouse, Popo Gigio.
Good ones, Briney, but frankly, Hardy fills Imbroglio’s shoes better since he is the heavier half of the two.
It’s one thing to enjoy a joke, or to even take a joke, but it’s quite another to be a joke. Of course court-jester James Martin “is slated to attend.”
Did they invite Krusty the Clown? Oh veh! Who’s paying for all this? It’s a boondoggle for bozos.
Should be a great time for a clown Mass. They might even get the Pope to preside again. Maybe Fr. Martin will wear a rainbow wig?
Maybe the comedians could cram into Cardinal Burke’s apartment, like a Fiat. And the circus performers could be called back to join them. Together, they could hang around to run the Synod on Synodaling II, providing a fitting finale to this pontificate.
That clown finale would resound and re-echo. If only the echo would end the show Speaking of sound. Deleting the “S” leaves “Ynod” and “Ynodaling.” Don’t those sound just like “Yodel” or “Ya Know”?
Onto the pope musing on music. Who knew? Wikipedia defines yodeling: “…
repeated and rapid changes of pitch between the low-pitch chest register (or “chest voice”) and the high-pitch head register or falsetto. The English word yodel is derived from the German word jodeln, meaning “to utter the syllable jo” (pronounced “yo”).
YO!
I’ve said before on this site that the Bergoglian Anti-papacy is akin to a circus. Now we have more proof that Bergoglio is assembling his fellow clowns. I suggest a theme song for this papacy: Judy Collins singing “Send in the Clowns.”
I’ll wait for the likes of Robert Royal and Gavin Ashenden to comment on this latest Francis move.
Comedians are serious guys. They cannot be taken lightly. Through their comic stuff, comedians provide joy to fellow pilgrims on common journey.
Indubitably Dr. C., the comic stuff of comedians is serious. 🧐
!!!BRAVO!!!
I’m wondering whether Jay Leno will cop a red beanie when all is said and done!
He’d surely do a better job than the rest of Bergoglio’s cardinals!
And maybe Bergoglio and Jim Carrey will do a scene from “Dumb and Dumber”! (With a nod to our esteemed commentary colleague, God’s Fool.)
“Just when I think you couldn’t be any dumber, you go and do something like this, and totally redeem yourself!!!”
LOLOL!
Nicely done, dear Fool! You always have the apropos bon mot!
Isn’t this the best all-time story from the Bergoglio Imbroglio?
So funny! So fitting! So absurd!
God is good to us!
Putting it all into the proper perspective as only He can!
Aha! Now I understand!
This entire Bergoglian papacy has been an extended exercise in schtick! Jorge is just a Borscht Belt holdover whose buddies call him “Shecky.”
And Tucho’s problem isn’t that he’s a heretic. It’s just that he’s stepped over the line by airing his blue material during matinees.
Cupich? McElroy? Hollerich? Martin? Stowe? Paglia?
They’re not really serious about excusing sin and condemning orthodoxy.
They’re just Uncle Bergie’s Vat Pack, trying to get a chuckle from an admittedly sedate and backwardist audience.
So ease off, you Rad-Trad retreads! Don’t forget to tip your servers, and the Vat Pack will be here all week!
Given to speed read, I saw “comic” as “con.”
This show “aims to establish a link between the Catholic Church and comic artists…”
Because con art is good for the Church.
And Briney: That rad-trad retreat was the best! As was the VAT pack!
The gathering won’t be complete if it does not include Fr. Guido Sarducci.
If the Pope really wanted a laugh, he should have invited America’s #1 late-night comic, Greg Gutfeld, to mix it up with Whoopi and Colbert.
No question. Bergoglio’s will be remembered as…
The Papacy With The Big Red Nose.