Daniel Darling: The gift of laughter

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday, July 1st. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. We’ve had a lot of heavy subject matter today, and in the midst of such stories, it’s important to remember the gifts of joy and laughter. Comedians often help us to see the humor in life.

WORLD Opinions contributor Daniel Darling says one humorist he frequently returns to is Nate BargatzE, an evangelical who’s found unexpected success in the mainstream as a “clean comedian”.

DANIEL DARLING: The comedian from Nashville is having a moment.

SNL APPEARANCE: It’s crazy, look, if you’re watching at home mom, I’m just as shocked as you are…

For the last couple of years, Nate Bargatze has been regularly hosting Saturday Night Live, participating in the hilarious ongoing sketch where he’s George Washington crossing the Delaware and musing on American oddities.

BARGATZE AS GEORGE WASHINGTON: But fear not men, a hot dog will not be made of dogs. What will they be made of? Nobody knows…

Bargatze was chosen to host the 2025 Emmy Awards. He fills stadiums around the country for his stand up, and his streaming comedy specials are increasingly popular. Esquire says, “Bargatze is, quite simply, the most successful stand-up comedian working today.”

What’s amazing about this success is that the deadpan comic famous for his dry humor is doing all of this while performing “clean comedy.” He says his approach is to have a show that he could do in front of his parents. He recently told the New York Times that he sees comedy as a calling.

BARGATZE: My parents they also became Christians when I was born…everybody is still Christian, but I got them when they were the most Christian…

Bargatze grew up as a homeschooled Baptist and is still a committed evangelical churchgoer. He says, “God has a path, and I'm just here to follow the path, so I just kind of wait and see where the doors open. [God] opens the doors that need to be open, and you just point me where you want to go.” He adds: “I'm grateful to get to be the one that was chosen to be this vessel.”

Bargatze’s rise shows that there is a market for comedy that doesn’t offend families. This kind of entertainment is arguably more difficult. It’s easy to insert cuss words and sexual references into a monologue, but it’s much harder to observe everyday life and get a laugh out of a broad cross-section of the population. His aim, he says, is to make grandmothers laugh. In this endeavor, Bargatze is subtly counter-cultural, redeeming humor for humor’s sake, rather than as a vessel for decadence.

This is more difficult than it seems. Even those of us who believe we have a sense of humor would have a hard time sustaining it over an hour. Comedy writing may be one of the hardest forms of creativity. Jerry Seinfeld said, “A laugh is such a pure thing. There's no opinion to it. Almost every other creative field has to suffer the interpretive opinion culture, but not a standup comic. You may not like this guy, but if he's getting laughs, he's gonna work.”

BARGATZE: My name is Nate Bargatze, I’m from Tennessee, I’m also from the 1900’s…the world is so future now, and I feel in the way of it…

So Nate Bargatze’s secret is not merely that he’s safe and clean, but he’s actually getting laughs. He’s funny enough for people to spend time and money to see him perform. He’s funny enough that he doesn’t resort to the easy rhetorical crutch of vulgarity.

For the serious Christian, it is tempting to see entertainment like this as trivial, but to laugh is therapeutic and good for the soul. The wisest man in all the world wrote in Proverbs 17:22 “a cheerful heart is good medicine.” Job 8:21 promises that God will “fill your heart with laughter.” To laugh is not incidental to being human. It’s a necessary part of the way God created us.

Excellent comedy that avoids cruelty or crassness is a mental palate cleanser, a form of rest from the stresses and difficulties of life. In his essay, “Laughter,” G.K. Chesterton observes, “Laughter has something in it common with the ancient words of faith and inspiration; it unfreezes pride and unwinds secrecy; it makes people forget themselves in the presence of something greater than themselves.”

Christianity is a deadly serious mission. But that doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves so seriously. Thankfully, Nate Bargatze believes this and, through his unique calling, is bearing witness with his gift of humor. That should make us smile.

I’m Daniel Darling.

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