Since the time of the ancient Greeks, authors in the Western literary tradition have applied a sceptical or contrarian perspective to religious beliefs and practices by using the freedom ceded to comedy. This study, which ranges from Aristophanes through Erasmus and Molière to the Nobel Prize-winning José Saramago, charts the history of such humanist humour and its use as a means of making room for multiple points of view and easing the negotiation of differences.