jkk@aiai.ed.ac.uk (John Kingston) (06/03/91)
The funniest story in the Bible has to be the one where Peter is let out of jail by the angel, and his friends refuse to let him in because they don't believe their prayers have been answered ... Much of the humo(u)r in the Bible comes to life in Biblical drama. I recently saw Riding Lights perform. They pioneered the use of the 5-minute Bible-based sketch in the UK, partly as an evangelistic tool. To give you a flavour of some of their sketches, there's Noah, who is a bit stupid, but "very good with animals" - when he's told to take 2 of every animal, bird, and creeping thing aboard, he says "Lord, haven't you forgotten something?" The Lord says "What?" and Noah says "The fish" ... Then there's the 2 angels standing on gate duty, wondering who will be the first person into Paradise now that the gates have been thrown wide open. They conclude it'lll be someone really special. Then the first person appears - rough, coarse, almost naked, with bloody bandages around his wrists. "Cor, he weren't joking, neither!" ejaculates the newcomer in an uncultured accent. "I beg your pardon?" says an angel. "He weren't joking!" repeats the newcomer. "This is Paradise, innit?" "Yes" says the angel, "who are you?" "Ron the Con", comes the reply, "but I got caught ripping off this villa. How was I to know it was Pilate's place? Swarming with Roman soldiers, it was" "There must be some mistake here" says the first angel. "We can't let a foul-mouthed criminal like him in. I'm going to consult Gabriel about this" [Work out the ending for yourself] Then there's the one about Peter's deliverance. He arrives at the door where the prayer meeting is happening. "Lord we pray you'd really bless our brother Peter in his distress ..." Knock Knock "And that you would just bear him up..." KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK "Lord, we ask you would help us not to be distracted by this noise as we pray to you ..." BANG BANG BANG BANG (The servant girl goes to the door) "It's Peter! He's at the door!" "Can't be, you must be imagining it" LET ME IN! "It is Peter! That's his voice! He's been delivered! Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah" LET ME IIINNNNNNN!!!! There's many more. I recommend seeing Riding Lights. P.S. Anyone wishing to perform these sketches needs a licence - last I heard, it cost about 20 pounds for a licence for all of them. John Kingston, ARPA: J.Kingston%uk.ac.ed@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk AI Applications Institute, JANET: J.Kingston@uk.ac.ed Edinburgh University. UUCP: ...!ukc!ed.ac.uk!J.Kingston