Something is wrong with the world when Vanity Fair magazine mentions my name in the same sentence as Mark Twain, Woody Allen, Philip Roth, and AJ Jacobs. But in an interview with Jonathan Goldstein -- author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible! -- that’s exactly what they did. Here’s a clip from the Q&A:

Why do you think the majority of contemporary religious satire and parody is written by Jewish writers? Do Christians just not have a sense of humor?

Well, he’s not contemporary anymore, but Mark Twain did a retelling of the Adam and Eve story, of which I was completely unaware. Somebody told me about it recently and I picked it up and started reading it and had to stop because it was so great and so funny, it just made me feel terrible about myself.

But Twain is the exception. When you think of religious literary humor, one tends to think of Philip Roth and Woody Allen, or more recently A.J. Jacobs and Benyamin Cohen.

I don’t know why that is. It may have something to do with the fact that a Jew’s relationship with God is supposed to be one of wrestling. You’re constantly wrestling with God’s truths. And when you start to humanize the characters in the bible, they become more than just objects used to unravel moral lessons. That’s where the comedy starts to seep in.

You can read the full article here.