Sometimes comics will make the observation that it's not jokes that are funny it's characters that are funny. And isn't that true! That's why I always kill jokes. I'm terrible at them because I get the joke right but I can't get the character right and it just goes down like a lead balloon.
I think you can't really escape any kind of spiritual education as a child whether it's New Age or Judaism or Buddhism or whatever it is. You can't escape it even if you completely disagree with it you still have it as a foundation that you base things off of.