There is a particular style of humor that is very distinctly Catholic. It's shocking, and ironic. It is often paradoxical, too, quite in keeping with the teachings of the Church's founder, who said, “love your enemies” and “the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”
As G.K. Chesterton reminds us, “a paradox is an apparent contradiction containing a deeper truth.” If the dox doesn't contain a deeper truth, then it's not a paradox.
Chesterton was the “Prince of Paradox” and he could often best a thousand-word argument with the observation of one breathtaking twist of a paradox. On feminism Chesterton wrote, “Thousands of women marched in the street, chanting ‘we will not be dictated to!' Then, they set out to become stenographers.”
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