Larry Charles and Bill Maher team up for documentary

Larry Charles, director of Borat and a writer and producer for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, is teaming up with comedian Bill Maher (HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher) for a new film about God and religion. Their goal: make it funny.

To quote Variety, quoting Maher: "this movie will make you laugh so hard you'll pray for it to stop."

Maher and Charles traveled throughout the Middle East, interviewing people to try and find humor amongst the tragedy. It was undoubtedly a rough undertaking, but the result was hundreds of hours of footage that Maher and Charles are currently paring down to a feature-length film.

Squeezing humor out of religion is nothing new, but what's different about this approach is that they're actually confronting individuals, not just sitting around cracking jokes. If done right, I think the film could be both entertaining and enlightening.

I also couldn't help but think of Albert Brooks' film Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, a fictional movie in which Brooks travels abroad to see how American humor plays in foreign lands. I liked Brooks film, but I don't think it provided any great revelations. A more raw and uncensored approach seems like a better idea.