I have never understood why it should be considered derogatory to the Creator to suppose that he has a sense of humour.

Inge challenges a pious assumption that reverence requires solemnity. If humans—made, in traditional theology, in God’s image—possess humour, then it is not inherently irreligious to attribute a corresponding faculty to the Creator. The remark also critiques a strain of religious culture that equates sanctity with dourness and treats laughter as trivial or disrespectful. By framing the issue as “derogatory,” Inge implies that the real diminishment lies in imagining a deity too fragile or austere to encompass wit, irony, and play. The quote thus defends humour as compatible with faith and as a way of acknowledging the richness and complexity of creation.