Chicken or the Egg

"'First the egg,' said Bill. 'Then the chicken. Even Bryan could see that.'
'He's dead. I read it in the paper yesterday.'
'No,. Not really?'
'Yes. Bryan's dead.'
Bill laid down the egg he was peeling.
'Gentlemen,' he said, and unwrapped a drumstick from ta piece of newspaper. ' I reverse the order. For Bryan's sake. As a tribute to the Great Commoner. First the chicken; then the egg.'
'Wonder what day God created the chicken?'
'Oh,' said Bill, sucking the drumstick, 'how should we know? We should not question. Our stay on earth is not for long. Let us rejoice and believe and give thanks.'" (p. 126)

This paragraph made me laugh while I was reading it. The ultimate question, which came first: the chicken, or the egg? So many times I have read jokes over this discussion and it is comical to see it in a rather serious novel. I rather enjoyed how they are using the discussion to decide what to eat first. Then, how Bill takes on the persona of a priest in his discussion over not questioning God's will. It is clear that the entire conversation is a joke, but at the same time, it is a serious conversation over the death, I believe, of someone they knew. The little jokes like this in the novel really helped me to keep reading when I would reach parts that were less interesting. I think things like this helped to keep the book light. It makes me wonder what type of humor Hemingway may have had, or if he was usually entirely serious?