When a joke gets away from you

Yesterday as I was walking down the street, I was talking to a German friend, Hanno, about the rash of violence and protests over the Danish cartoons (which aren't even any good, by the way...they look like they were cribbed from an eight year old). On the sidewalk someone gave us a coupon for a free Bible (which you can order online here!), and I got to thinking about how I'm likely headed for hell, so I said that I should riot.

Me: I'm really upset, I think I'll burn down Jesus's embassy.

Hanno: I don't think Jesus has an embassy.

Me: Sure he does. I think people call them "churches".


So, yes, I did make a joke about burning down churches, which probably has me on all sorts of hate crime lists at the FBI right now. And for the record, no I didn't expect the joke to end up like that; it was more a case of not thinking things through at all and having a joke finish in a bad place. Mea culpa.