Jonathan Bellamy spoke with sit-com writer James Cary, about his work, when jokes go wrong, and humour in the Church.

James: I think there are probably lots of different ones.

It is hard to know exactly why we laugh and how that works. But I guess we laugh because we're image bearers of God and God laughs. We read that in Psalm 2, although in that case He's laughing at how, despite the fact that we are made by Him, we sort of have declared war on Him in some way. And in one sense it's all rather laughable, isn't it? It's like having your goldfish declare war on you, and you think well, this isn't going to be much of a fight, is it? So, it's kind of funny in that sense, which is why God is able to laugh at us.

I think ultimately, throughout the Bible, the joke is normally on us, because all these great, amazing characters do these incredible things, but they are very deeply flawed people. You've got adulterers and murderers and drunkards, and those are the good guys! It's a book about flawed people who do a lot wrong. So it's just a question of making sure that we see that and the only person who doesn't do things wrong is Jesus.

Humour brings out that juxtaposition, that mixing of two things that don't really go together. It's tricky to know and I've read books about the theory of comedy and they are really the least funny books you will ever read in your life. I've tried to avoid writing one of those.

Jonathan: I thought about that phrase last week when I was laughing about something that laughter is good for the soul. We've been created with the ability to laugh because it brings a benefit to who we are. People talk about the value of laughing in terms of your own recovery from things.

James: It has proven medical benefits; it's the best medicine.

It's odd, you don't really notice laughter so much; you only miss it when it's not there.

I watched a TV documentary last night, it was about wrath. It was quite a funny documentary, but I don't think they intended it to be. Both those fellows take themselves rather seriously and the whole thing came across as being quite funny, because they didn't see the joke. It is odd when there isn't anything funny to laugh at.

Going back to that bomb disposal show, we wrote it because quite often they had lots of shows and documentaries all very serious, but if you meet the soldiers, they laugh. They're doing jokes all the time. Policemen are the same and medics as well. They are famous for their gallows sense of humour.

So it does help us to cope with the absurdities of life because life is full of absurdities.

Jonathan: There was that guy on Britain's Got Talent who had disabilities, but was able to make up really funny jokes about himself, which nobody else could do because they didn't have his disabilities.

James: Yes, that's right. And therefore who tells the joke is very important, because it does form the context for the joke.

It is hard to do jokes about other people groups that you're not a member of. It's not necessarily impossible.

There are so many factors at play in telling a joke, because in the wrong hands jokes really can go horribly wrong. I'm often surprised quite how affected people can be at jokes, given how many moving parts there are.