For staff and students looking for a laugh during the school day, the All Saints Lutheran Church’s bulletin board puns often do the trick. Congregation member, Terry Fischer has been coming up with creative puns for the board since the COVID pandemic started.
A pun featured by congregation member, Terry Fischer, the marquee outside of the All Saints Lutheran Church.
“We didn’t have anything going on here at the church during the pandemic. So, I got the idea that I should use that marquee out there to just put out some information,” Fischer said. “I expanded it a little bit, and played with different things that we could put up there that just said ‘we care about you guys, so let’s all work together and get through this.’”
While the postings on the marquee started out as positive messages to the community to lift spirits during the pandemic, Fischer turned to humor fairly quickly. He would see memes about the pandemic on Facebook, and as an avid lover of dad jokes, Fischer started putting humorous phrases up on the marquee.
“I adapted memes that I found on Facebook and reworded them,” Fischer said. With puns like, “Too hot to change sign. Sin bad. Jesus good. Details inside,” or, “Good hide and seek players are hard to find,” the church’s marquee has had some memorable phrases. Other members of the community, outside of San Marin, have taken notice, and shared their appreciation. Fischer said that a woman living in Point Reyes wrote to the church.
“This was her drive to work, and she really looked forward to what we had on the sign every week. She even sent in a contribution to the church,” Fischer said.
“I like to laugh, and that’s what the intent is; to spread a little bit of joy and humor.”
– Terry Fischer
Congregation member
Fischer doesn’t take all of the credit for thinking of the puns. Most of them he gets from the internet, but he also gets suggestions from people in the community. He is always careful to stay away from controversial topics, and won’t put up jokes that could be interpreted in a negative way.
“People send them to me now, so I get them from all kinds of sources. Occasionally I’ll come up with one or two of my own,” Fischer said.
While he doesn’t have a favorite, Fischer enjoys the opportunity to share positivity and laughter with the community. He knows people have different tastes in what they find funny, so he likes to switch it up.
“Personally, I like to laugh, and that’s what its intent is; to spread a little joy and humor,” Fischer said. “If it isn’t funny this week, stick around and maybe next week’s you’ll find funny.”
