{"id":233,"date":"2013-04-04T11:35:10","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T15:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godscomic\/?p=233"},"modified":"2013-04-04T11:35:10","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T15:35:10","slug":"a-hell-of-a-word-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html","title":{"rendered":"A &#8220;hell&#8221; of a word"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t think people take Hell very seriously anymore. We used too. As a matter of fact it was one of the reasons why people were nicer years ago because they didn\u2019t want to go to hell. <\/p>\n<p>That was a curse word; literally to tell someone to go to Hell was bad. Why not? You are condemning someone to an eternal existence in a place where your flesh is being burned off your skull while demons are constantly poking your butt with pitchforks. <\/p>\n<p>Face it, it would suck. Now hell is apparently a positive word. We even compare places to it. \u201cWhere were you? We went to Disneyland. How was it? Oh it was cool as Hell. Cool as hell? Hey, talk about an oxymoron! Cooler than hell\u2026.what isn\u2019t!?<\/p>\n<p> You could be standing in the middle of the Sahara desert in July trapped in an oven and that would be cooler than Hell. Hot\u2019s kind of Hells expertise. It\u2019s the hottest place there is. Everywhere is cooler than hell. <\/p>\n<p>Hell is also applied to recreation. \u201cHe had a hell of a game\u201d. What kind of games you think they have in hell? Probably not running games cause its hard to run with any speed or grace while trudging through lava. Guess you could swim since there is a lake of fire.<\/p>\n<p> They would have to give you a handicap I imagine though since it\u2019s harder to paddle stroke when your flesh keeps melting off your hands. Fleshless bones have never been known for creating good thrust. How about \u201dHe pitched a hell of a game\u201d, yeah but whose your competition? Hitler\u2019s in Hell. He is fantastic as an evil tyrant but his fastball was never clocked over 86 and that was when he was warm.<br \/>\n Which is all the time now I\u2019d imagine. \u201cHe had a hell of a good time\u201d is also suspect of course. Who has a good time in eternal torture and torment? Maybe the Marquis de Saad I suppose?<\/p>\n<p> How about for us comedians? I once performed at a curse free comedy week with Jeff Allen at the Improv in Tempe Arizona. There was a couple that came to the window saw that the show was clean and actually had a discussion as to whether they should stay. They of course suffer from the delusion perpetrated by hack \u201ccomedians\u201d that have come down the pike in recent years that believe dirty, offensive, crass, blue, shocking, crude and expletive driven \u201ccomedy\u201d makes up for poor writing and delivery. <\/p>\n<p>Every comic on earth knows it is harder to write clean than dirty. Anyway this couple ends up staying for the show and after seeing my set came out to the lobby to compliment me. The man put his arm around my shoulder and said, and I quote \u201cWe didn\u2019t think you guys would be funny but you were funnier than hell!\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The irony was lost on him I am sure not to mention the backhanded compliment! Listen all you newbie comics, if you perform a set that hell was funnier than\u2026you may want to consider accounting.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t think people take Hell very seriously anymore. We used too. As a matter of fact it was one of the reasons why people were nicer years ago because they didn\u2019t want to go to hell. That was a curse word; literally to tell someone to go to Hell was bad. Why not? You&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","tag-rhetoric-hell-gig-communication-word-origin"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A &quot;hell&quot; of a word - God&#039;s Comic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A &quot;hell&quot; of a word - God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I don\u2019t think people take Hell very seriously anymore. We used too. As a matter of fact it was one of the reasons why people were nicer years ago because they didn\u2019t want to go to hell. That was a curse word; literally to tell someone to go to Hell was bad. Why not? You&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"God&#039;s Comic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-04T15:35:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brad Stine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A \"hell\" of a word - God&#039;s Comic","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A \"hell\" of a word - God&#039;s Comic","og_description":"I don\u2019t think people take Hell very seriously anymore. We used too. As a matter of fact it was one of the reasons why people were nicer years ago because they didn\u2019t want to go to hell. That was a curse word; literally to tell someone to go to Hell was bad. Why not? You&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html","og_site_name":"God&#039;s Comic","article_published_time":"2013-04-04T15:35:10+00:00","author":"Brad Stine","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html","name":"A \"hell\" of a word - God&#039;s Comic","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-04T15:35:10+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-04T15:35:10+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/2013\/04\/a-hell-of-a-word-2.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A &#8220;hell&#8221; of a word"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/","name":"God&#039;s Comic","description":"God&#039;s Comic - Brad Stine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/243d86fd9261f0ca95264b80e71e80e9","name":"Brad Stine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/870\/870f4e7ff5414a60daaefcce61009a6cx96.jpg","caption":"Brad Stine"},"description":"\"Brad Stine is on a mission \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a mission to free us all from the chains of political correctness and prevent our eventual \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwussification.' From his Nashville stronghold, Stine is mounting his crusade against these hypocrisies, all of which are explored in his highly anticipated 4th album\/DVD, aptly titled \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWUSSIFICATION!' \"You know what offends me?... Offended people,\" says Stine. A staunch supporter of first amendment rights and foe of political correctness, Stine asserts that rights should be universally applied. \"In a country with guaranteed rights to freedom of religion, its citizens are constantly trying to make faith in public spheres illegal, I am offended by that contradiction and want to talk about it as a comic.\" The strength of his conviction about our freedoms can be found in many places on WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from \"Merry Christmas Too!\" (the right to celebrate religion) to \"At Least We're Not France!\" (the responsibility to take action as a country) to \"Spank\" (the ability to discipline our children the way we see fit). What would cause the wussification of Brad Stine? \"I hope that nothing ever wussifies me to deny my own personal beliefs,\" he says. \"Brainwashed wussies have been taught that standing up for yourself and defending your personal point of view makes you a close-minded hate monger.\" Stine stops short of defending his point of view as the ONLY one, adding \"...one must also be respectful of dissenting belief while supporting their own.\" He is, after all, an inclusive figure who trains his comedy to attack ideas, not the people who embrace them. Stine's faith forces him to acknowledge the respect and dignity of all\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 even the wussies with whom he disagrees! Stine models his approach to comedy after legendary practitioners that he has known and loved over the years. Despite George Carlin's disdain for theistic beliefs, he has been a big influence on Stine. \"I always enjoyed Carlin for turning the tables on culture. He is an excellent writer that has endured for decades.\" More current comedic touchstones are Brian Reagan, Paula Poundstone, Jim Gaffigan and Monty Python, among others. Fear not, true believers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with his brand new album, Brad Stine is here to save the world from WUSSIFICATION \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one politically-correct, offended person at a time!\"","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/author\/bstine"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/223"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godscomic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}