{"id":71317,"date":"2024-01-03T21:57:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T21:57:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodintoto.com\/?p=2038756"},"modified":"2024-01-03T21:57:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T21:57:29","slug":"pete-holmes-goes-viral-with-god-is-no-thing-clip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamefootballmobileanimeiphone.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/pete-holmes-goes-viral-with-god-is-no-thing-clip\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Holmes Goes Viral with \u2018God Is No-Thing\u2019 Clip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Holmes has built quite a career in comedy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He has two HBO specials to his credit, the three-season HBO sitcom \u201cCrashing,\u201d a best-selling memoir called \u201cComedy, Sex, God\u201d and his upcoming role in the upcoming faith-based comedy \u201cThe Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s his first Netflix special, \u201cI Am Not For Everyone,\u201d that has brought him into viral status lately, thanks to a minute-long clip he created called \u201cGod Is No-Thing.\u201d In it, Holmes takes a sharply funny look at the great debate between those who believe in God, and those who are atheists.<\/p>\n

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His open embrace of God amidst a comedy community that often prides itself on scoffing at the very idea of a higher power has proved refreshing to fans who tune into his podcast \u201cYou Made It Weird.\u201d In it, he discusses deep spiritual themes with fellow comics, as well as leading spiritual and religious scholars.<\/p>\n

Holmes came on my \u201cCatholic Laughter\u201d podcast, co-hosted by Scott Vinci, to discuss his career in mixing God with comedy and what drives him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you listen to my podcast it\u2019s probably 20 percent silly and 80 percent spiritual, but look at my standup and it\u2019s actually probably like 95 percent silly and 5 percent deep. I would say that if you look past some of the silly premises, there\u2019s some kernel of perspective,\u201d Holmes says. \u201cLike I have a joke about how I don\u2019t like the WAZE app that takes you around while driving, and that\u2019s just a silly joke.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s also a message of mindfulness, a message of being present like the sacrament of the present moment as Catholics might know it, and of surrender to the moments of life. It\u2019s like during the pandemic, everything big in comedy shut down for a couple of years and my life was just hanging out with my family. I take issue with those who say they lost two years of their lives, and I surrendered by saying yes to what is, and I shudder to think of the moments I might have missed if I kept touring.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Holmes\u2019 spiritual journey has been long and complex.<\/p>\n

He was a \u201chyper-literal\u201d Christian growing up and followed all the usual standards one might expect from a devout teenager and college student, such as not smoking or drinking and remaining a virgin until he married his college sweetheart.<\/p>\n

A few years later, he learned his wife was having an affair and she decided to leave him, and Holmes found that the sad situation affecting everything he had believed about life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really shattered my worldview, and I always think of the [songwriter] Leonard Cohen quote that \u2018the cracks are how the light gets through,\u2019 so there was a blessing in disguise from that disruption,\u201d recalls Holmes, who leaned on his pain for the HBO series “Crashing.”<\/p>\n

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\u201cI always felt like God was just there to protect me, and was sort of minted in good, like if I had been paying protection money to the Mafia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving something bad happen was very confusing to me, but it ended up being the kick in the pants to get a little bit more curious. I learned from Joseph Campbell about metaphor and mystery and story, and from Ram Dass to be here now, plus Eckhart Tolle \u2013 all of which my parents might see as New Age-y things. But the more I got into the nitty gritty of those teachers, I started to recognize Jesus, and I started to see what had been in my own faith was right in front of my face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insights like those bring Holmes back to discussing the \u201cGod is No-thing\u201d video, which many Christians saw as just a mockery of atheists but he says is meant to show that \u201cwe\u2019re all in the same boat.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explains that God is not an actual thing that is tangibly found in the world, making Him \u201cno-thing,\u201d but that atheists miss the point when they declare there is no God at the center of the universe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something you call God that you can\u2019t see, touch, taste or photograph, and science can\u2019t prove it,\u201d says Holmes. \u201cBut then I say I think we can agree that if one of the things your \u2018nothing\u2019 does is spontaneously erupt into everything, that\u2019s a pretty magical nothing.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo when atheists say nothing happens when you die, and we just go into nothing, I\u2019m like \u2018You mean you merge back with your Creator? That\u2019s Heaven!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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This really happened, but it was Jon Stewart\u2019s mom when I was doing warm-up for the Daily Show and I wasn\u2019t fired. Ha ha. <\/p>\n

Crashing \/ S1 Ep8
(HBO Max) pic.twitter.com\/28ulP5qTgU<\/a><\/p>\n

— Pete Holmes (@peteholmes) December 12, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n