Yet surely what the artist drew is theologically correct. If Jesus really is a man, as the Bible says he is, then he must be able to enjoy a good joke as much as the next guy. Maybe even better, because he knows how it will all turn out in the end. It was Jesus who promised his disciples that they would have the last laugh. Not all laughter is redemptive, of course.
Some humor comes from the unregenerate nature.
There is gallows humor, the kind workers resort to right before the next round of layoffs. A friend told me that the joke going around his office last week was that they were going to take up a collection to send their manager to the Wharton School to learn how to run a business. Then there is sarcasm, the cutting remark that uses cruelty to produce comedy. These forms of humor are not redemptive. People who tell such jokes are really jeering at God, having a laugh at his expense.