“Laughing With” by Regina Spektor

8 July 2009 295 views 3 Comments

Here’s a song by Regina Spektor, titled “No One’s Laughing at God.” It’s quaint song with poignant lyrics that ring true: No one laughs at God during pain or suffering. Regina’s right when people laugh at God at cocktail parties, when things go wrong, when they find Christians annoying. But she leaves it there and say’s no more. She doesn’t talk about how people feel toward God when they suffer. She doesn’t mention how people blame him and hate him. Regina Spektor leaves that unsaid. So do you think that by leaving it unsaid she is actually speaking it out? And what do you think about the last line of her song–”we’re all laughing with God?” Spektor mentions that God can be funny, but in what sense? Funny to talk about as she suggests in the chorus of this song, or funny in a more sinister sense? In other words, do you think she’s suggesting that God laughs at us when we’re in the midst of our pain and suffering?

Maybe I’m reading into this song a little too much. But what concerns me is the message that people might take when they walk away from this song. The song leaves much room for interpretation and it seems that people can derive a sinister view about God.

The truth about God is that he commiserates with us during our suffering. Christ is the suffering servant (Isaiah 53), and God came down to experience suffering with us. He is not distant and aloof, according to the Deists. Nor is he laughing at us. God is familiar with suffering, and his response is not laughter or ambivalence but the cross, where His son suffered and died.

What’s your take on her song?

Here’s the lyrics and the video.

No One’s Laughing at God by Regina Spektor

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet

No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken

No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood

*Chorus*
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’ve lost all they’ve got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very
poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God

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3 Comments »

Noah Kang said:

Although it is sort of difficult to understand what exactly Ms. Spektor here is talking about, I think her song does carry a good message. I think she’s just commenting that while people mock God and Christians when the good times are a rolling for them and they’re comfortable and Christians are doing and saying dumb things (which they do with enough frequency), when life hits, “no one laughs at God.” The following is an excerpt from therebelution.com (a great blog by Alex and Brett Harris, check it out!) that explains what I’m trying to say a lot better…

“C.S. Lewis wrote, “Pain is God’s megaphone to the world” — and I think “Laughing With” makes that point abundantly clear. As our brother Josh wrote on his blog, “suffering strips away our flippant attitude towards God. We can laugh at God when all is well or when we encounter a caricature of him, but when tragedy strikes we’re confronted with the reality that we’re helpless.” No one laughs at God in a hospital…”

# 9 July 2009 at 10:06 pm

Emily Kim said:

I really like this song. I think she’s done a really great job of showing how God is viewed in our mainstream society. I like how she exposes the way God is referred to in public discourse, someone who we laugh at and make jokes about. As a graduate student at Berkeley, I experience this a lot. So witty, so smart is the person who says sardonic things about Jesus, the Catholic church, televangelists, and homophobic bigots – lumping them all all together, Christians are all the same, you know…it’s amazing how people can bring that into a conversation that has NOTHING to do with religion at all.

I especially like how she leaves it ambiguous in her string of “No one’s laughing at God when…” because during those hard times, the down times, sometimes people turn to God and don’t think He’s a joke after all…or sometimes they’re angry at God…etc.

It does give me something to think about when it says “We’re all laughing with God…”
A weird reference to “we’re not laughing AT you, we’re laughing WITH you?”
A way to subtly provoke the self-reflective question: should we be laughing at ourselves perhaps?

# 10 July 2009 at 12:09 pm

Sarah said:

Hey! I recently got addicted to this song, and I set it on repeat for a couple days! Granted, a lot of Regina Spektor’s songs make me uncomfortable because of their Biblical/religious references and the ambivalence that she displays. (i.e. Man of a Thousand Faces: ‘And begins his quiet ascension / Without anyone’s sturdy instruction / To a place of no religion / Has found a path to our alikeness’) But I think this song is one of the ones that gives religion/God the benefit of the doubt.

But as for the lyrics, they gave me the impression of a sort of internal dialogue or a representation of a self-assured, contradictory society – ‘no one’s laughing’ vs. ‘God can be funny.’ The lyrics are conversational, and almost satirical towards people’s ACTUAL reactions to reality while exposing the fallacy of their alleged beliefs. I wonder if ‘we’re all laughing WITH God’ is just like an extension of the dialogue, the final self-justification that people use when they’re not taking God seriously.

But what I liked about the song was that she explores how a lot of people, in their time of deepest emotional need, intuitively DO turn to prayer and to God in whatever capacity they know how. I have a friend whose Grandma died, so after the funeral she came up to me and said ‘I decided that I’m a Christian now.’ Like Noah mentioned from CS Lewis’ quote, when we’re faced with the hard cold realities of life, something in us cries out, and turns to God…

# 21 September 2009 at 5:51 pm