Quakers are hilarious!
Audrey Chamberlain reflects on a light-hearted look at Friends
Among non-Quakers and (‘I hope so’) Quakers too, it’s widely considered to be a good thing to be able to laugh at yourself. With this idea in mind I went on a literature search to see if I could find anything which self-parodied Quakers. I was pleased to discover a number of examples and, in particular, a book – Quakers Are Hilarious!
The commentary on the author/editor, Chuck Fager, says that he lives in North Carolina and that he’s spent more than forty years among Quakers. I immediately warmed to him when I saw: ‘When not writing, he has been known to work for peace, justice, and other hopeless causes.’
But, being a non-American, I found Chuck’s American take on ‘humor’ didn’t generally tally with my ‘across-the-pond’ British, even English, ‘humour’. In spite of that, I stuck with him. At times it was difficult to keep going, such as when I (over?) reacted negatively in feeling many examples were just ‘too corny’. But I put this down to being a ‘Brit’, or, even more extremely, being English. So, I doggedly continued to search for some kind of corporate approach to ‘discernment’, given our common allegiance to Quakerism.
I very much enjoyed this book: it made me laugh a lot. I recommend it as ‘a good read’. But I’m left with some ‘buts’: such as, there is what seems to me to be an over-emphasis on contributions from Early (and Earlier) Friends, rather than Friends of today. In doing that, I feel it’s all too easy to poke fun at what we might call the ‘thee’ and ‘thou’ generations of Quakers, implying that nowadays we’re somehow more spiritually grown-up than they were. (Something, personally, I do frequently wonder about.) Many of the quotes are lengthy, so it seems to take an age before you feel you’ve got to the end and got (or not got) the point. Many are not dated, which I found irritating because context seems to me to be vitally important.
The book has many cartoons, but here are a few written examples of the humour that, to quote that much-loved Quaker saying (or favourite piece of jargon, depending on where you’re coming from), ‘spoke to my condition’:
- ‘Peace Committee changed its name to: “Concerned Friends for Conflict Transformation With Justice, Sustainability and An Overall Commitment For Constructive Social Action – CFCTWJSAAOCFCSA.
- ‘I’m Losing My Mind!’
- ‘I’m Not Part of Organized Religion, I’m A Quaker.’
- ‘Friends! I hesitate to interrupt after the minute is written… but have we really gone far enough?’
- ‘Mother, has thee cut all thy wisdom teeth?’ ‘I think so, son, at least in a way. After all, in the same year I served on nominating, overseers and finance committees, and married thy father.’
- ‘Told ‘em I was from Nominating Committee. Cleared the place right out.’
- ‘Hey, I’m not sayin’ you’re the wrong kind of Quaker. But I will hold you in the Light til you find the right way…’
Quakers Are Hilarious! is the expanded reincarnation of Quakers are Funny, a collection of Quaker Humor compiled by Chuck Fager and published by the Kimo Press in 2013 at £6.44. ISBN: 9780945177579.
