Back in September, I mentioned spending a week doing interviews with various funny people for a Collide Magazine article.

Wait a second. “Funny people” is a weird way to describe a person. It makes me think of clowns and floppy shoes and red noses. Only I don’t really think clowns are funny. I don’t think they’re scary, either. In fact, I’m ambivalent about clowns. Which means most clowns aren’t doing their jobs very well.

Also, “funny people” makes me think of the kind of person who is funny but not in a ha-ha/laughter kind of way but in the kind of way that makes you want to get away from them as soon as possible, because they’re carrying a live weasel in their purse or they keep blinking so rapidly you wonder if maybe they’re trying to keep an eyeball from popping out or something.

Anyway, I just spent way too much time cartwheeling down a rabbit trail in an attempt to introduce this blog post. So…I didn’t interview “funny people.” Or clowns. I DID interview people who, in one way or another, use their talents to make people laugh.

These people included Jon Acuff of Stuff Christians Like, the author Matthew Paul Turner, Joel Kilpatrick of LarkNews.com, filmmaker Dan Merchant of the documentary “Lord, Save Us from Your Followers,” and Lenny Sisselman, who produces the Apostles of Comedy tour.

The piece is called “The Prodigal Fun” and it’s a look at the often conflicting worlds of comedy and church. I think you’ll like it. Within the first three paragraphs, it uses the word “yowsa,” makes fun of Carman, and name-drops Mitch Hedberg. Those three things make it worth reading right there.

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Happy Martin Luther King, Jr., Day / Inauguration Eve. Back in 2007, Church Marketing Sucks founder Brad Abare made a thought-provoking point about this day: that, for most churches, MLK Day should be a big celebration-type holiday, second only to Easter and Christmas. Why? Because the social justice aspect of it is so close to the heart of the Gospel. But in my experience, most churches don’t think twice about it. I even know a few Christians who complain about it and don’t think it’s worthy of being a federal holiday. But as Brad wrote, “This day is not just about racial equality. This day is about justice. And this world is full of people who need it.”

Something to think about today…