The Real Trouble with Mormon Jokes

One of the more popular punch lines in religious jokes is the Mormon’s “magic underwear.”  From stand-up comedy to South Park to jokes between friends, the undergarments of Mormon adults make an easy target for humor.  I have to confess to having made a few less than generous remarks about them, much to my personal shame.  Mormons are one of the few groups it is still acceptable to make fun of in public and that is a matter of real shame.

The “magic underwear” is neither magic nor underwear.  Referred to as “the garments,” the two pieces resembling an undershirt and a pair of extra-long boxer briefs are a symbol for devout Mormons of their inclusion in a community.  One commentator compared it to a yarmulke or nun’s habit.  The garment marks a Mormon’s inclusion in the community following the endowment ceremony in the temple.

One day Mormons too will be off limits to “acceptable” humor. For my part, whenever I feel like making a “magic underwear” crack, I will ask myself if I would make the same crack about a yarmulke.  I cannot think of a circumstance when I would. 

Beyond the purely insensitive and tasteless nature of “Mormon jokes,” there is a larger theological question lingering.  What is it about us that needs to have a ready butt for jokes?  Since my childhood, I remember when it was considered socially acceptable to make jokes about African-Americans, Jews, GLBTQ people and, yes, Mormons in polite company.  In hindsight, I wonder just how polite that company could possibly have been.  The question maintains; what is it about us that needs to have a ready butt for jokes?

Let me start by acknowledging that not everyone makes off color jokes.  This is not meant to point fingers at any particular person or people.  Rather it is an observation about how we work as a culture.  There seems to be an unwritten rule that at least one group needs to be available to be the punch line at all times; some group has to be an outlier. 

It is important to belong to some community.  Even people who disdain community belong to the community of disdain.  But unless the community is popular, powerful or influential enough not to give a damn, there is an assumed social convention that we keep our membership in those communities to ourselves.  In a way, the garments of the Mormon tradition respect that convention.  They are worn under the clothes and do not come with a nametag that says, “I have on my endowment garments under my clothes.”  They are a very personal expression of devotion.  But their ubiquity makes them an assumed part of every Mormon adult’s life and an easy target for mockery.

There is a measure of “chicken and egg” to this pattern of humor at the expense of others as well.  Is this a symptom of our culture or is our culture a symptom of this tendency?

Whatever the answer to that question, one thing is certain.  Humor at the expense of a community of our neighbors coarsens and diminshes us as a culture. 

There is no easy answer.  Few things that matter have one.  But it is a question worth asking ourselves when we offer up a supercilious joke or make off the cuff remarks at the expense of a group or community.