What’s so funny about Jim Gaffigan’s Catholic life?

By Alison Lesley --
07 Jun 2015 --

Comic Jim Gaffigan deals with his feelings as being a religious entertainer in the upcoming series The Jim Gaffigan Show.

To know Jim Gaffigan is to love his comedy. It’s impossible not to love his self-deprecating style. For those of you who don’t think you know him, I bet you do. He’s the light-haired, pale-skinned fellow driving around with the Comcast Repair guy in the commercial that totes the advantages of the cable company’s new two-hour appointment window.

“Wow, you guys really have changed,” Gaffigan says after grilling the Comcast employee on their new policies. Then, in classic Gaffigan style, he makes fun of himself by making fun of his cousin, noting that he’s “so pale.”

See, you know him after all. But there may be more to Gaffigan’s humor than just a reflection of life as a husband and father. He could also be the role model for melding a progressive mindset with the Catholic faith.

In the first episode of The Jim Gaffigan Show, his new series due out this summer (with clips now available at his website), Gaffigan’s character, based more than loosely on his real life, is photographed by a fan after picking up a Bible for his wife.

What results is a study of the perception of faith in America. Gaffigan tells his TV wife (played by Ashley Williams) that he doesn’t want people to think he believes in God, because then they will think he is “stupid.”

The plot bobs and weaves as Gaffigan’s attempts to get himself out of the mess which, of course, drags him deeper into it.

As the youngest of six children and the father of five, Gaffigan refers to his Catholic faith in real life as well. “I’m Catholic, my wife is Shiite Catholic. There is no goalie,” he told NPR when explaining how he ended up with a large family.

It remains to be seen how much of a role religion will play in The Jim Gaffigan Show . But the first episode centers around Gaffigan’s Catholicism, and he clearly sees his faith as a big influence in his life. It’s hard to imagine we’ve heard the last of the religion of real-life or sitcom Jim.