No One Laughs At God

"Laughing With" written and performed by Regina Spektor is a song that never fails to get to me. I started to write this post and when I tagged it "Regina Spektor", I realised that over the past few years I had already written about it twice.

It haunts me.

It doesn't matter if you are religious or spiritual or with what version or with what group you associate. You could be an atheist who just respects others right to believe and I still think this song might catch in your throat.

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

If you've had that conversation with a doctor or had a loved one in that situation...

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests

No kid and every parent knows exactly what is shot into your brain when...

No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

I haven't been in any of these four situations - and I don't want to ever be - but I can imagine the feeling of...

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

So who is laughing?  I've been hearing God and religion jokes my whole life. I was supposed to feel guilty about that (so the nuns told me in Sunday School) but I got over that. I am sure God has a sense of humor. Have you looked around at this world?

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or when the crazies say He hates us, and they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke

And when I am confronted with zealots on any side of this - religious, fundamental, atheist - then God can be funny

When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

Parents praying for their 9 year old to get a hit in baseball. Praying for a winning lottery ticket.

My father, who was in the Navy in World War II, said that there were no atheist in foxholes. It made sense to me, even though I never sat in a foxhole on Omaha Beach on D-Day like he did with two dead guys staring at him for a few hours.

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes

Yeah, no one’s laughing at God. We’re all laughing with God





Here's the official music video version of the song (worth listening to again)