How can religion and comedy be related if the former tries to keep things untouchable while the latter revels in feeling stuff up? But what if our laughter also idolizes the mocked, admiring their reckless disregard for social norm? And what if, by raising God up as special we also make him a great target for collective mockery? In Sveto in smešno ('The Holy and the Funny') cartoonist and philosopher Izar Lunaček walks us through the history of both comedy and religion to show that their ancient quarrel might well stem from having grown up in a common household. And assembling an erray of local myths he seeks to demonstrate that the brothers' split is mostly a thing of modern, single-God religions while older and more local faiths liked to let funny gods play in their pantheons and even put them on par with the main deity.

After attaining degrees in painting and philosophy plus a PhD in the latter, Izar Lunaček (1979) left academia to draw comics and organise the local ninth art scene, establishing Ljubljana's central comic book shop and the city's comic festival. This book takes him back to his theorising roots as he takes on the task of presenting a complex, multi-layered topic through a combo of funny pictures and short, sweet sentences. Who knew hard-core philosophy could be this fun to read?
If you want to be funny, you need to keep a straight face, while gods usually laugh last ... Still sure you know which is which?