Pope Francis laughing as he meets the journalists aboard the papal airplane on the occasion of his visit to Quito, Ecuador, July 5, 2015. (Gregorio Borgia/AP Images)
A rabbi has been named Pope Francis’ official “comedic advisor.”
Bob Alper, 70, a rabbi turned stand-up comedian and author, managed to craft the perfect pontifical punchline to beat out thousands of other entrants in the first-ever “Joke with the Pope” competition, earning him the title “Honorary comedic advisor to the pope.”
The night before Pope Francis arrived for his first U.S. visit on Sept. 22, the Pontifical Mission Societies, the Catholic Church’s missionary arm, launched ajokewiththepope.org. The website called on comedians to submit “a clean and kind” joke — the sort the pope might crack — to be judged by a panel of holy humorists. Aside from the title, up for grabs was $10,000 for a charity of the winner’s choosing.
According to The Pontifical Mission Societies, thousands of jokes from 47 different countries were sent in over the course of three weeks. Alper, who delivered his joke via video, bested comic giants like Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien. He will donate his prize money to housing the homeless in Ethiopia.
So what was Alper’s winning entry?
“I’ve been married for 46 years, and my wife and I are on the same wavelength. At the same time that I got a hearing aid, she stopped mumbling.”
“It had it all,” Father Andrew Small, The Pontifical Mission Societies’ national director, told The Jewish Week of the winning entry. “It was the kind of joke I think the pope would use himself, and that’s what befits an honorary comedic advisor.”
Alper said the joke is one of the best he’s ever written. “It’s reality,” he said. “It’s something with which people can identify. It exemplifies the Pope’s values, which are family, humor, warmth.”
Ordained as a rabbi in 1972 by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Alper served a Vermont congregation for 14 years before taking the leap, full time, into stand-up comedy, according to The Jewish Week. He’s been performing mostly at Jewish venues and college campuses for the past 27 years and has penned three books about his experience as a rabbi-comedian.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Father Small said of Alper’s victory. “My response is mazel tov.”
