Diverse stances emerge. God Yahweh is at times arbitrary and uncanny, a trickster in his own right, but he is finally on the side of compassion, life, and celebration. Whedbee's consideration of Genesis as a whole as comic, with its overarching U-shaped plot and final celebration, is important. Part II picks up with the story with Exodus. Each encourages us to attend to the social and religious functions of comedy.
Women also play unexpectedly heroic roles at key points in the story.
Pharaoh is in the model of the classic alazon, a villain and fool who becomes evermore the object of satire and scorn as he repeatedly tries and fails to block Yahweh and Moses. Persia, unlike Egypt, is home, and the heroes rise within its courtly ranks. In the end, in fact, with their letters and legalese that allow Jewish defense and fix Purim as an annual celebration, they begin to seem a lot like Persian bureaucrats. We unite against the oppressors on a course toward deliverance, but with a difference. If reading Jonah as comic will surprise few, reading Job in this light may strike some as more problematic.