What makes Mormons laugh

Abstract

Abstract As a minority in the USA and globally, Mormons (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is also known as the ‘Mormon Church’, and its members are typically called ‘Mormons’, ‘Latter Day Saints’ or ‘LDS’. This paper uses its preferred abbreviations – ‘the Church’ and ‘Latter-day Saints’) and their distinctive religious doctrines/practices have for 190+ years been publicly ridiculed. Typically, they have responded to mockery with tolerance and, occasionally, good-natured humor of their own (Hale, Adrian. 2021a. Do Mormons think The Book of Mormon is funny? HUMOR 34. 659–677, Hale, Adrian. 2021b. Mormon reactions to The Book of Mormon. Comedy Studies 12(2). 186–202). However, little is known about Latter-day Saints’ humor, and they have a reputation for being conservative, dour, and pious (Wilson, William A. 1985. The seriousness of Mormon humor. Sunstone 10. 6–13). This paper views this situation as regrettable, since humor can function as a great social leveler, and knowing more about minorities’ humor practices can generate social bridges. This paper therefore seeks to overturn some preconceptions by reporting on an exploratory survey (The survey received Institutional and National ethics approval: HREC Approval Number: H14364) of 131 Latter-day Saints across various nations, to find out what makes them laugh. Results indicate that the Latter-day Saints’ sense of humor seems to be, like the membership itself, livelier and more diverse than their reputation might suggest.