The Funny Side of the Church

by Daluxolo Moloantoa · January 18, 2022

A young Catholic comedian is looking at the Church through a humorous lens, as Daluxolo Moloantoa writes

In the cafeteria of a Catholic school, a nun places a note in front of a pile of apples. It reads: “Take only one. God is watching! Further down the line is a pile of biscuits. A little boy makes his own note: “Take all you want. God is watching the apples.” It’s one of almost 500 Catholic jokes in the Church Chuckles book, published in 2019 by The Southern Cross.

Many Catholic jokes serve as an accurate and amusing reflection of the common goings-on in the universal Church. International comedians such as Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Judy McDonald and Jim Gaffigan are among those who wear their Catholic faith with pride, and often poke gentle fun at it in their repertoires.

Enter Buffalo Mavutani, a South African Catholic comedian who creates a uniquely local slice of Catholic comedy. Born in Ga-Kgapane, a village near Tzaneen in Limpopo, Mavutani is perhaps the first South African comedian who shines a spotlight specifically on the Catholic Church through his comedy. He has been churning out Catholic jokes, mainly centred on the unique realities of the Church in South Africa, on social media since 2018. The popularity of his daily social media gags suggests that there is a big local appetite for humour from a South African Catholic viewpoint.

An only child, Mavutani attended a local primary school in Ga-Kgapane, and did his secondary schooling at St Brendan’s Catholic Secondary School in Botlokwa, about 100km north-west of Polokwane. He studied economics at the University of Limpopo.

The full-time teacher recalls his earliest memory of being Catholic: his grandmother teaching him how to pray, and attending First Communion classes at his home parish of Modjadjiskloof in Tzaneen. Coming from a devoutly Catholic family, his involvement in the Church started at a young age. “I became involved in various activities at church in my early teens. I was an altar server for some time. I helped in preparing the altar, putting together hymns for the liturgy, organising the altar servers, and arranging church camps.”

Buffalo Mavutani with Srs Nancy Nganga (right) and Agrippiine Turyomurugyendo

Genesis of comedy

The comedy started brewing in 2018, after Mavutane started to organise parish youth camps at the Modjadjis-kloof parish and as a result built up his social media presence. “Young people would gather at the parish house over weekends or more days. So for every camp, I used to take pictures and post them on my Facebook profile. At the time most of my friends on Facebook were not Catholics. At some point, our parish priest, Fr Michael Bennett, suggested that I invite other young people from nearby parishes in our diocese to the camps. I did, and the camps grew bigger and bigger. I continued to post pictures after every camp. As a result, I started getting friend requests from young Catholics in those parishes. Eventually the camps covered the whole diocese. In the long run, my Facebook friends community encompassed the whole of our diocese,” Mavutani explains.

“Later I added Catholic prayers, novenas and saints for the day. Bit by bit I started receiving friend requests from Catholics from across South Africa, all over the SACBC region. From all the camps I learned a lot of new things about the Church from fellow youth Catholics. It also became clear to me that there were funny common things that we Catholics share, especially in South Africa, and I started to post these on my profile.”

These humorous posts attracted positive feedback from many Catholics. “It was at that point that I decided to focus on Catholic comedy,” he says. “My main audience is young Catholics from across the SACBC region. They relate to most of the things I say.” And they aren’t overly sensitive about jokes, he adds. Many of the gags are visual comedy, involving TikTok-style videos and memes.

“A lot of my jokes are about various people within the Church, Catholic choirs, seminarians, and Catholic girls. Over time, I’ve discovered that Catholics in general have a very solid sense of humour,” Mavutani says. His daily witticisms have gone beyond just making people laugh. They’ve also served to provide knowledge to those who didn’t know certain aspects of the Church. “I noticed that when I post certain jokes, for example about the sacraments, some people will ask what they are, and then I’ll explain what the sacraments are. I came to realise that, in a way, I’m teaching catechism through gags,” he laughs.

Mavutani’s future plans include a new innovation for the local Church: stand-up comedy. “I’m looking into collaborating with the parishes in my diocese to stage stand-up shows. I think that having a stand-up show at a parish immediately after Mass would be fun,” he says. And, who knows, broadcast media might open other avenues to sharing Catholic humour.

This article was published in the December 2021 issue of The Southern Cross magazine