01/04/2014

Good morning

I used to live near Gotham, in Nottinghamshire – not Gotham City of Batman fame, but Gotham, where the fabled wise fools lived. The legend is that the villagers wished to avoid a Royal Highway running through the neighbourhood, as this would then need to be maintained at their own cost.

So they feigned madness. The local Cuckoo Bush pub recalls their attempt to cage a cuckoo by building a hedge round the tree in which it was roosting. When it flew off, they berated themselves for not building the hedge high enough.

According to the legend, the ruse paid off. King John (about whom there are other Nottinghamshire legends), is supposed to have approached the village on his Royal Road, but changed his route when he saw what the villagers were doing.

The original collection of stories exists simply as a set of accounts of foolishness, a book of jokes, really, about the people of Gotham.

Humour of this sort can be cruel and unjust. The people of Gotham may have made the most of their local legend, but to be the butt of mockery based on race, gender or lifetstyle is no laughing matter, and very hard to counter. Modern humour has moved beyond the mother-in-law joke, which is good.

But there is still room to celebrate the wise fool, the witticism that punctures pride, or shows up hypocrisy. There are even a few of them in the Bible. Jesus likened the hypocritical Pharisees to someone straining a fly out of a drink and then swallowing a camel.

God, help us to retain our sense of humour through this April Fools’ Day. Don’t let our jokes descend into cruelty, but may we share the gift of laughter and fun.

Amen