Humor in the Pāli Canon

The Pāli Canon has a reputation for being humorless. And it’s easy to see why.

In some of its passages, the Buddha seems to regard humor in a bad light. For instance, in the Wailing Discourse (AN 3:107) he refers to “laughing excessively, showing one’s teeth,” as a form of childishness, and counsels that a monk, when feeling joy in the Dhamma, should simply smile.

His instructions to Rāhula in (MN 61) note that one shouldn’t tell a deliberate lie, “even in jest.”

A passage in the Vinaya (Sk 51) tells of a monk, formerly an actor, who made a joke about the Saṅgha. The Buddha, in response, made it an offense for a monk to tell a joke not only about the Saṅgha, but also about the Buddha or Dhamma.

There is also the famous verse in the (Dhp 146) [Dhp XI:146 Aging] that seems aimed at squelching all forms of merriment:

What laughter, why joy,
when constantly aflame?
Enveloped in darkness,
don’t you look for a lamp?

And then there’s the fact that the Buddha himself rarely smiles in the Canon, and when he does, the reasons for his smile are never hilarious.

Still, the Canon’s reputation for being devoid of humor is undeserved. It’s there in the Canon, but it often goes unrecognized.

Now on that occasion the monks of Āḷavī were having huts built from their own begging—having no sponsors, destined for themselves, not to any standard measurement—that did not come to completion.

They were continually begging, continually hinting: ‘Give a man, give labor, give an ox, give a wagon, give a machete, give an ax, give an adz, give a spade, give a chisel, give rushes, give reeds, give grass, give clay.’

People, harassed with the begging, harassed with the hinting, on seeing monks would feel apprehensive, alarmed, would run away; would take another route, face another direction, close the door. Even on seeing cows, they would run away, imagining them to be monks.

One of the reasons why the Canon’s humor goes unrecognized relates to its style, which is often subtle, deadpan, and dry. This style of humor can go right past readers in modern cultures where jokes are telegraphed well in advance, and humor tends to be broad.

Another reason is that translators often miss the fact that a passage is meant to be humorous and so render it in a flat, pedantic way.

What’s distinctive about the Canon’s humor is that, for the most part, it functions in line with the Buddha’s directives on wise speech: that it be true, beneficial, and timely.

It’s also in line with right speech—again, for the most part—in that it doesn’t employ lies or exaggeration, divisive speech, harsh speech, or idle chatter: types of speech that, in the form of exaggeration, nationalism, racism, and silliness, are all too often humor’s common mode.

This reflection by Ajaan Geoff is from the Study Guides book, The Buddha Smiles—Humor in the Pāli Canon, “Introduction.”