Mennonite Mirth
 by Jep Hostetler

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Mirth, merriment and humor in the Mennonite Church?  Yes, of course! Jep Hostetler, well-known humorist, begins a column on humor in the Mennonite Historical Bulletin, begining with the July 1998 issue. Here's his introduction. jes

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Hello dear readers, welcome to the Humor Corner. We welcome your input and your surprises.

Prior to the Orlando '97 I was asked to do a presentation on the history of humor in the Mennonite Church. At that moment I told John Sharp, the requester, "I would be happy to do the speech, but it will probably last only three minutes and then there would not be anything else to talk about." So, imagine my surprise when I found a fair amount of material on humor, laughter and mirth in the Mennonite experience.

It is amazing how the early articles warned of frivolity and jest. We were encouraged to restrain ourselves and develop lives of solemn service. The upshot of the early articles was remaining in control, and allowing our "yeses" to mean yes and our "noes' to mean no. Humor almost always involves surprise endings to stories. In this way humor is very much akin to creativity. Both put unexpected situations in juxtaposition with interesting results. However, some humor depends on making up stories or stretching the truth to make a point. Hyperbole is the order of the day. Thus it is that our turn-of-the-century elders were fearful of straying form truthfulness.

This column will be the place where we can share wit, introduce humorous stories, and hopefully at times be a bit prophetic. Others have gone before us. We are familiar with columns by Ivan Emke in the Mennonite Reporter and his sometimes-controversial contributions to the Mennonite Distorter. We enjoy the wonderful antics of Ted and Lee and their delightful productions of Fish Eyes and other creative humor skits.

For the past 10 years I have been doing humor workshops and presenting the "Joy Factor" around the country. It is my personal hope that this column will be a place where we can read fun stories, laugh at ourselves, and observe cartoons that tickle our funny bones. I look forward to contributing in any small way that I can.

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Jep Hostetler, Ph.D., Columbus, Ohio, is a humor consultant. He has taught in the Ohio State University Medical School, and is currently Executive Secretary of the Mennonite Medical Association