It is not that deep. It is just a joke.

Jokes are a very effective way to deliver unpalatable, and what would be unseemly messages had they been said so plainly.

A well-crafted joke can bypass mental and emotional safeguards to land an otherwise revolting idea.

Yet here is the thing with jokes: you always know the underlying message. It does not matter how much people may want to convince you that “It is not that deep.” It absolutely is.

If you are keen enough, you will know a lot about a person by observing what it is that they find funny, and the kind of matters that they trivialise.

Personally, jokes that trivialise healthy relationships, family, and God are not only a no-go area for me, but also meters for value judgments that determine how I shall interact with a person.

For a long time, and against my better judgement, I bought into this “It’s not that deep” narrative whenever people I knew told me that. Yet, in retrospect, I can hardly name a single person for whom things did not turn out to be exactly as deep as they claimed they were not.

Well, now I know, and I can confidently tell those coming behind me that, whenever people tell you that, “It is not that deep. It is just a joke.” You can be absolutely sure that it is.

Signed,

Deputy Jesus

(This is not a joke. I mean it. It is absolutely that deep)