What Could be Funny about Job?

Comedy has a tendency to open up, rather than narrow down. It rejects a narrow either /or viewpoint in favour of a more complex both/and one. This exploration of comedy in Job is organised around three such complexities: both object and subject, both laughter and pain, both one body and all humankind. The second section considers three purposes or functions of comedy in the book of Job: survival, subversion, and instruction/correction that inspires change. A final section considers comedy, pedagogy, and Job.