New Atheism & Religious Satire After 9/11

Dr. Jaffe’s book Religious Satire in the Era of New Atheism presents a con­tem­po­rary account of reli­gious satire as evi­denced by the mod­ern art of stand-up com­e­dy.

This talk will intro­duce you to some of the ideas and exam­ples from his research. Focused on the con­text of the post‑9/11 American cul­ture phe­nom­e­non, some­times referred to as the New Atheism – as embod­ied by pub­lic intel­lec­tu­als such as Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins – Dr, Jaffe doc­u­ments the rise of comedic satire in rela­tion to evan­gel­i­cal beliefs and reli­gious dog­ma. Drawing on the author’s own expe­ri­ence of stand-up per­for­mance, he exam­ines the com­e­dy of fig­ures such as Mark Maron, Bill Maher, and Ricky Gervais and presents mate­r­i­al from inter­views with come­di­ans includ­ing Lewis Black, John Fugelsang, and Leigh Ann Lord.

Our Presenter:

Dr. Jerry Jaffe has over 30 years of expe­ri­ence teach­ing col­lege class­es, spe­cial­iz­ing in act­ing and com­e­dy. He has direct­ed or per­formed in over 100 shows. Before mov­ing to the Cleveland area, Jerry lived and worked in Japan and New Zealand, teach­ing, act­ing, and direct­ing there. Many of his arti­cles on the the­atre have been pub­lished in var­i­ous aca­d­e­m­ic jour­nals, includ­ing “ ‘I need­ed to go to this taber­na­cle of igno­rance’: Marc Maron’s cri­tique of the Creation Museum” (Bulletin for the Study of Religion, Vol 42, No 3 (2013)); and he co-edited the 2008 book, Performing Japan: Contemporary Expressions of Cultural Identity. In 2025, his newest book came out, Religious Satire int he Era of New Atheism (2024). He also per­forms stand-up com­e­dy, in the area and around the coun­try.

For In-person, in-door meet­ings and events, feel free to wear a mask. Speakers can wear them if they choose while speak­ing. Click more infor­ma­tion about our In-person Meeting Policy. SHoWLE has a No Weapons pol­i­cy. Unless you noti­fy us in advance, atten­dance at one of our meet­ings or events gives us per­mis­sion to take pho­tos of you to use to pro­mote our group. We will ask to use your name if need­ed.

This meet­ing or event is sub­ject to our Winter Weather Meeting Policy. If there is a storm fore­cast or in progress please check back here before you trav­el to attend our meet­ing or event. Should Lucas County be put on a Level 3 snow emer­gency then con­sid­er or meet­ing or event can­celed.