“There is another manner of proposing our own opinions, or rather opposing the opinions of others, which demands mention here, and that is, when persons make a jest serve instead of an argument; when they refute what they call an error by a turn of wit, and answer every objection against their own sentiment, by a casting a sneer upon the objector. These scoffers practise with success upon weak and cowardly spirits: such as have not been well established in religion or morality have been laughed out of the best principles by a confident buffoon; they have yielded up their opinions to a witty banter, and sold their faith and religion for a jest” (Isaac Watts, Logic p. 221).
Of course we are not “proposing our own opinions” on essential gospel doctrine but we see many times how the God-haters “make a jest serve instead of an argument” (and many times the jest is slanderous). See some of the “confident buffoons” like Sean Gerety:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pczzo9rpBPdBJzjdnMN2plq-lzc28Sth0tf6jut2mvY/edit
There are of course some irreligious types (e.g., H.L. Mencken, Mark Twain) who use their witty banter against a straw-man of Christianity (e.g., Arminianism, Roman Catholicism) rather than true Christianity.
Agrammatos 