Jonah is the first comic short story in history. There is a pun in it if you write it in cuneiform (or akkadian or something -- this was in college and it was a long time ago). Anyway, the word "Ninevah" (the city Jonah goes to) and the word "vomit" (what the fish does to Jonah) are a pun in some ancient language from the middle east (learned this in my Hebrew class in college).You have to have a good imagination. Here is this guy who's been in the belly of a fish (or whale - the ancient Hebrews, being hydrophobic, didn't distinguish between fish and marine mammals -- it was all "stuff that swims" as far as they were concerned) for 3 days. He's got seaweed in his hair. His hair is probably half-bleached from the digestive juices of the fish. His clothes ditto. He staggers into Ninevah and says, "Repent!"
Wouldn't you?
More humor in the Bible: the best story in the bible too. Don't know why this hasn't been turned into a made-for-television movie. Judges 3:15-26, the story of Ehud the Left-Handed and Eglon the Fat. (parentheticals in italics are my explinations; again learned in my Hebrew class).
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer--Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
16 Now Ehud had made a double-edged sword about a foot and a half [5] long, which he strapped to his right thigh under his clothing. (Note: generally a right-handed man straps the sword to his LEFT thigh; this is how he gets through the metal detectors and into the king's presence with a sword)
17 He presented the tribute to Eglon king of Moab, who was a very fat man.
18 After Ehud had presented the tribute, he sent on their way the men who had carried it.
19 At the idols near Gilgal he himself turned back and said, "I have a secret message for you, O king." The king said, "Quiet!" And all his attendants left him.
20 Ehud then approached him while he was sitting alone in the upper room of his summer palace and said, "I have a message from God for you." As the king rose from his seat,
21 Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king's belly.
22 Even the handle sank in after the blade, which came out his back. Ehud did not pull the sword out, and the fat closed in over it.
23 Then Ehud went out to the porch [8] ; he shut the doors of the upper room behind him and locked them.
24 After he had gone, the servants came and found the doors of the upper room locked. They said, "He must be relieving himself in the inner room of the house." (They hear his dying groans and think he's dumping a load! If this isn't humor, I don't know what is!)
25 They waited to the point of embarrassment, but when he did not open the doors of the room, they took a key and unlocked them. There they saw their lord fallen to the floor, dead.
26 While they waited, Ehud got away. He passed by the idols and escaped to Seirah.
Alex
O..O
=o=