How do we create connection in such a divided world? According to Dr. Simran Jeet Singh, humor may be the solution.
Growing up as a Sikh in the predominantly White-Christian state of Texas had its perks and its drawbacks for Dr. Simran Jeet Singh, an assistant professor at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. But after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, a then eighteen-year-old Singh witnessed his life change forever. He felt like the American people had turned on him and his family, and after weeks locked inside for fear of violence, Singh felt completely hopeless. To get through this difficult time, Singh learned to focus on the good relationships he still had: the friends and family that he could still smile and laugh with. In the end, humor helped him survive.
Although Singh has experienced many moments of feeling isolated or unwelcome, he has found that humor not only helps him to cope but to connect. In his lecture for the BYU Humanities Center Annual Symposium titled “Does God Have a Sense of Humor?” Singh explained how to use humor as a tool for humanization, imparting spiritual wisdom, and cultivating humility.
The Humanity of Humor
Growing up as a self-described “brown-skinned. . . turban-wearing boy” in Texas, Singh said that he was often met with more curiosity than acceptance. He remembered people frequently asking him questions about his appearance, culture, and values. He said that though he knew these weren’t hateful questions, “they were daily reminders [that he was different].”
In addition to simple inquiries, Singh and his brothers also experienced blatant racism. While they were in high school, they attended a basketball game where some kids called them offensive names, and to Singh’s surprise, his little brother shot back with his own hilarious trash-talk. Instead of becoming angry, the other kids actually felt respect for Singh’s brother and backed off. Moving forward, Singh said that humor “became one strategy we would use to diffuse tense situations.” He continued, “If I can disarm people and make a joke—naturally show them how absurd their assumptions are about me—then that can actually flip on the head the entire experience of what’s happening.”
The Wisdom and Humility of Humor
After years of trying to navigate a world that feared and stereotyped him, Singh delved deeper into understanding his own religion and realized spiritual people were the funniest people. Singh especially found Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, to be particularly funny. In one of the many humorous stories about the founder’s life, his father sends him to town to make a profit out of a small amount of money. Instead of trading it for items of higher value, Guru Nanak gives his money away to the poor. Angry, Guru Nanak’s father asked him why he wasted the money, to which Guru Nanak replied, “What’s more profitable than giving to people who need it more than we do?”
Singh argued that stories like this work because they allow people to reflect without becoming defensive. He said, “Because it’s not about you, you can receive it. You hear it, and you think, ‘The joke is on his dad,’ but what we don’t realize as we’re receiving spiritual wisdom is that the joke is on all of us.”
Sikh philosophy often asks people to consider how to break down walls of falsehood and to define what truth is. Singh said, “What I’d argue is that humor is part of the answer.” He said that religious stories—particularly ones that demonstrate human folly—help us reflect on our own life and ask, “Does what I’m doing make sense?”
Singh concluded with the idea that humor gives us the opportunity to reflect on our lives in a space that doesn’t accuse or condemn but simply allows us to see ourselves as we are—and that experience can be quite humbling. Singh said, “My belief is that [humor is] a two-way street: that humor can cultivate humility, and humility can cultivate humor, and then those two reflect back on one another.” He believed that religious people may be so happy and funny because they have absorbed the humbling effect of humor. He concluded, “Spiritual practice helps you have a different perspective of what is happening to you and live with a sort of lightness.”
To learn more about Simran Jeet Singh and his work, click here.
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