In the Temple we are counseled to “avoid loud laughter”. I confess that I do not avoid loud laughter, but I actively seek it out! I love a good joke, and I especially like satire and dark humor. There is a study that found that appreciating dark humor is a sign of intelligence. I don’t believe that, or I would be a member of Mensa with my crazy humor.
My father was a joke teller, and to this day whenever I pass a cemetery, I’m reminded of my father telling us kids why there is a fence around the Cemetery: “because people are dying to get in”. My father also introduced me to Monty Python when it first was shown in the USA on local PBS stations in the early 1970’s.
I love Monty Python, and at the ward talent show years ago I got two others in the ward with a warped sense of humor, and we did a Monty Python sketch (Buying a bed) for our talent. I think the single funniest scene in any movie I’ve ever seen, and brought me to tears I laughed so hard, was the stoning scene in Life Of Brian . The whole movie is a satire of religion in general and Christianity in particular, And this scene pokes fun at the Law of Moses and the prohibition on uttering the name of Jehovah.
While the Law of Moses does have lots on rules that are easily made fun of today, I wonder what a Monty Python sketch about Mormons would look like. I can imagine John Cleese as Brigham Young, with the other guys (Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin) dressed in drag playing three of his wives, all getting ready to go out to a dance. The wives would be bickering about who is BY’s favorite, complaining about the new young bride he is spending all his time with, etc. BY would then come in, and try to smooth things over. A fight would ensue, blood would be shed (it’s just a flesh wound!), and BY would storm out flustered, mumbling something about polygamy and if it is such a good idea.
So what do you think about loud laughter? Does the Lord really disprove of it? Or is the temple injunction some holdover from 19th century puritanism , or maybe even Masonic origins?
Wheat & Tares 
When I was endowed I learned the sister in the instruction room was related to someone I had worked with for a. number of years. My workmate was well known for a rich and hearty laugh. I mentioned this to her – I was the only person being endowed in that session so there were only me and 2 family members and a close friend in the room. Whatever I was to be told in the instruction room was never mentioned, instead the temperature seemed to plummet as she shared a sincere testimony. Later in the endowment when the charge regarding loud laughter was given I did not know whether to be confused, repentant or what. It still seems an odd injunction.
If I’m ever called on to teach NT in GD, I will be showing Life of Brian (perhaps with the moment of nudity abridged out) as a way of helping the class understand the context in which the events of the NT came to be. I don’t know that the “loud laughter” thing is any clearer than the “evil speaking of the Lord’s anointed.” Which I don’t understand at all wrt what “evil speaking” would be, or who the “Lord’s anointed” is or isn’t.
It would be better phrased as mocking laughter.
Humor was a staple in my upbringing and I try to maintain it now, although I can’t quite maintain the level my dad did and still does. He often borders on irreverent in some of it and for some of the most prudish LDS he occasionally crosses into it in their eyes. He often paraphrases the English Cleric Sydney Smith by saying “Do not assume because I am frivolous I am also shallow, any more than I assume that because you are grave, you are also profound.” That sums him up pretty well. He and his buddies could walk into a room where everyone was a complete stranger and have them laughing together like life-long friends in almost no time. In some ways, I would consider that ability a gift of the Spirit.
I’ve been in rooms where laughter has been long and loud for almost hours, and the Spirit didn’t go anywhere. On very rare occasions, I’ve been in rooms where laughter has come to exist almost purely for its own sake, almost making people drunk with it, and in which much of the actual humor has been all but forgotten. The Spirit is gone, having left nearly imperceptibly. To me, that is what is meant by loud laughter.
I think there is a valid basis for the counsel in the Doctrine and Covenants regarding laughter. Here is a link to an excellent article on humor from the 1974 August Ensign magazine:
https://www.lds.org/new-era/1974/08/a-serious-look-at-humor?lang=eng
Ever hung out around drunk people who are laughing it up? That’s the sort of thing this teaching is recommending against.
I heard from a fellow member that he heard a talk from a GA where the GA suggested the only godly way to laugh was a kind of restrained chuckle, which he demonstrated during the talk. That’s among the most ridiculous things I’ve heard. I would have laughed (loudly) at that talk.
Ji—that’s a pretty solid article, but I’m a little concerned about the paragraph towards the end that seems to suggest that race relations and the situation of those with handicaps have been eased by jokes “taken in good humor by the object of the joke.” Real thin line there, and I’m not sure the article lands on the right side of that. As Mormons we’ve often had to offer a tight-lipped smile when someone tells a joke at our expense, and that’s not quite taking it in “good humor.” It says more about the joke-teller if they think so.
We did a lot of laughing growing up, the reading of humourous monologues was particularly popular with my father and maternal grandfather, and we would be laughing so hard we were nearly crying. A great way to bond as a family on a Sunday afternoon. Telling jokes at the dinner table was also a thing we did, which we tried to translate for foreign guests when we children were involved in music exchange trips. My family were big fans of the Goon Show and Hancock’s half hour ( early BBC comedy shows) and know great parts of them by heart, and so get togethers often involved reliving those, and more laughter. It’s not quite the same without my father and grandfather though. I can only assume my parents didn’t take loud in loud laughter to mean volume, for which I am heartily grateful.
The proscription of “loud laughter” was not simply Masonic and not at all unique to the LDS temple. It seems to have been a general 19th century Christian cultural association of “loud laughter” with other matters. Decibels do not seem relevant.
“Think not that we would enjoin you a Monkish sadness or hypocritical gravity: not so, but we would have your forsake all your loud laughter which is always indicative of an empty mind, and as we have before remarked, is calculated to grieve the Holy Spirit and make it withdraw, leaving you to the influence of that spirit which lures but to destroy.” Messenger and Advocate, Vol. II No. 8, Kirtland, Ohio, May 1836. The Messenger and Advocate was an early Latter Day Saint monthly newspaper published in Kirtland, Ohio, from October 1834 to September 1837. Oliver Cowdery was editor through May 1835. In March 1836, Cowdery again became editor when John Whitmer, his successor, returned to Missouri. Cowdery’s brother Warren claimed that he was actually performing the editorial duties.
“Joking, nonsense, profane language, trifling conversation and loud laughter do not belong to us.”
Brigham Young’s speech to the camp, May 29, 1847, An Intimate Chronicle: The Journal of William Clayton, ed. George D. Smith, Signature Books, 1995
Loud laughter is the mirth of the mob, who are only pleased with silly things; for true Wit or good Sense never excited a laugh since the creation of the world. A man of parts* and fashion is therefore often seen to smile, but never heard to laugh. Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) *A man who is talented in multiple areas of life.
“…boisterous laughter does not comport with Christian gravity.” “Were we to analyse the habitual laugher, I am afraid we should find him chiefly composed of vanity, scorn and dissimulation.” The Rhetoric of Conversation, George Winfred Hervey, 1854:267
More importantly to some, Gordon B. Hinckley, for example, clearly did not take the temple proscription to have anything to do with decibels.
It should be “And Now….,” not “An Now…”
But John, you are missin the humor of it! (And the fact that I’ can’t spell or follow the rules of grammar !)
Bro. Jones,
I did point out that it was a 1974 article. The article may be helpful to some in answering the question in the original posting.
Mormons are so down on every strong emotion but happiness, and even that is somehow not as good as more serene states like joy and peace. I’m convinced that this does us no favors. At best, it makes us wary of people who aren’t as tightly buttoned as we are. At worst, it robs us of understanding and ways to cope with life.
There’s another reason I’ve given up justifying the injunction against “loud laughter.” I used to do it by drawing a minuscule box around “loud laughter” using an ultra-fine distinction. That tiny box was so small that it was as impossible for me to stumble into it as it is to randomly fire a pistol into the air and hit a bird. Why go to the effort?
The LDS Church has NO business telling me how to laugh out to emote. This is one of the most useless – cult like – declarations I’ve ever heard; and I”ve been LDS all of my life. Laughter (and yes, loud laughter) helps sustain me through life’s darkest moments.
Meant to say “telling me how to laugh or how to emote”. My apologies.
I’ve known many great LDS with a wonderful sense of humor. But the loud, raucous, laughing is a different thing.
I too have been confused about “loud laughter” (my understanding of Joseph Smith is that he would enjoy a good laugh). Thanks Stephen for giving me an alternative that makes sense. I kind’a got the “no evil speaking” = “never say anything bad about a leader.”
And thanks Bishop for giving me an ego boost for loving dark humor. I only say about 1 in 10 funny things that come to my mind because not everyone shares my sense of humor. When it comes to humor, to my mind – nothing is off limits or “too sacred”. Me and my brothers almost dropped the casket we were carrying at a funeral when we started cutting up to break the tension.
One of the few jokes I can get away with in church is the following. I understand that Mary and Joseph went on to have other kids after Jesus. Don’t you think it was hard for Mary and Joseph not to keep harping on the kids, “Why can’t you be more like your big brother Jesus?” And that is one of most tame of my sacrilegious thoughts.
But the Monty Python theme does remind me of one time when I was at a boy scout adult leader training (Wood Badge) that had about 20% LDS. One of the guys was a 1st counselor in the stake presidency. One of the activities we were supposed to model making a silly presentation of some little thing each team had made. This guy lead his group and actually had two coconut halves in his car and did a GREAT MP takeoff as part of his presentation pretending to gallop on his horse – with mimicking mannerisms and British accent and all. About 1/2 the group was falling out of their chairs laughing with tears in their eyes. The other 1/2 had that smile of “I am not sure why people think this is so funny, so I guess I will giggle a bit, but I don’t get it.” I dared him to bring up a MP quote in one of his Stake Conference talks.
Ji—oh, wasn’t finger pointing at all. I appreciate your sharing the article. I just sadly have to file it on the distressingly large pile of church talks/articles that “are really great except for that one little bit.” [sigh]
I’m not sure about this advice either. Part of me wants to relegate it to “there is a time and season unto everything”. In context, it seems like either exhausted leaders and/or the Lord scolding the crowd the way a teacher does who says- , “I wasn’t aware calculus was so funny, Mr. Jones. Why don’t you share your joke with the whole class? No? Then please sit down, stop talking and pay attention.”
Paying attention in temple is one thing, but going through life in a constipated manner cannot be what was intended.
GA’s have such restrained “quiet dignity” and (have you noticed) only use certain types of humor. Yet those restrained chuckles don’t shock or stretch our thoughts the way J. Golden’ could. By squashing our humor, we cut off an essential part of our intellect, a terribly important teaching tool and a survival mechanism.
I think this phrase from the temple needs to be cut or if it stays- put into some sort of context.
In the book “Lying for the Lord” (which was mostly about the rise and fall of Paul H. Dunn, a former LDS leader once known for his often humorous anecdotes) the author Lynn Packer related stories of his uncle, Elder Boyd K. Packer, as being a man with an irreverent, sometimes bawdy sense of humor, despite his dour public persona. According to the book, Elder Packer’s favorite TV show in the 1970s was Three’s Company–a program best known for its innuendo and “adult situations”. Surprising to hear this about a man who is widely remembered for his unequivocal policing of sexual morality and humorless exterior.
I’ve always taken the “loud laughter” prohibition to be an archaic remnant, whether from Freemasonry, Puritanism or 19th century Victorian prudishness. Much like the old throat-slitting gestures, I suspect someday it will be considered irrelevant by the powers that be, and will be quietly taken out.