BOOK REVIEW: 'Called To Laugh' innocent fun for inside crowd

While visiting with a friend last week at my home in Hayden, two Latter-day Saints missionaries knocked on my door. Polite, friendly and well-meaning, they hoped to introduce me to the good news of the Lord.

Your visceral reaction to opening a door to LDS missionaries might find its footing where I found mine: somewhere between self-condemnation and unchecked annoyance. Nonetheless, the missionaries’ unified demeanor remained even-keeled, eager and innocent.

So, too, is the case for “Called To Laugh: The Lighter Side of Missionary Life” by Bruce E. Dana and William G. Fortune, the most recent paperback collection of anecdotes and cartoons from Cedar Fort, Inc. Dana’s quick tales of the mild-mannered hellscape on the LDS road blend with Fortune’s slice-of-life drawings as they try to depict the reality of young Mormons walking the most important journeys of their lives.

Called To Laugh, billed as a hilarious collection of travelers’ experiences intended to brighten the plight of missionaries on assignment, is a clean, harmless muscle relaxer aimed to offend no one: “Two servants of God walk into a bar...” is saved for gloomier readers, replaced by stories of over-fed proselytizers stuffing excess morsels of dinner in their socks (only to be chased by feral dogs), adjusting to a new world filled with swear jars and guiding non-believers toward God through the goofball comedy of sin.

While Called To Laugh will find some followers in tamer households looking for an innocent coffee table paperback, its pages speak to LDS families in their own language, as though a partygoer tried to tell a funny story in English before breaking down and delivering the punchline in Spanish. Called To Laugh best serves its readers as an inside joke, something not everyone would appreciate or even find funny. Anyone who has pledged to knock on doors for the LDS Church, however, will likely find some immediate connection and laughter, if not a much-needed familiarity.

Fortune’s cartoons complement Called To Laugh with subtle craftsmanship as readers follow the door-to-door trail of two nameless missionaries venturing out into the world. His drawings shrink the sensibilities of Archie Comics into the bite-sized naiveté of Family Circus. While the artist’s characters don’t necessarily grow with each learning experience or develop a story arc, I found myself cheering these two Pilgrims forward as they debate the merits of carrying the gospel to all the world, fumble with the mechanics of a cursed bicycle and ponder their lives after honorary discharge.

While it’s too vanilla a joke book for everyone’s tastes, Called To Laugh provides us non-believers with something far more substantial. Like those two young Elders who knocked on my door, Dana’s tales and Fortune’s drawings come across without reservation as gentile, earnest servants sent with intention to make your life better. Above all else, I found it disarming and kind, something I should consider before turning those missionaries away.

For more information or to purchase: calledtolaugh.com