People throw the word "Cult" around like it is merely a ready made insult to be used to denigrate religions we don't like. In fact "Cult" refers to groups that have identifiable characteristics. For all we know the ultimate answer to the questions of the universe may lie in a cult, though it's very unlikely. Here is a list of 14 characteristics that you will find are present in all of these groups. You can look at any group and judge how much they follow these characteristics to see how cultish they are. Jimmy Jones in Ghana, David Koresh at Waco, Joseph Smith, they all are near 100% in every category. Warren's FLDS is over the top on most of these things except for #2. Warren seems to think at this phase it's better to keep outsiders away and concentrate on tightening control over his existing members.

1. The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.

2. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

3. The group is preoccupied with making money.

4. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

5. Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

6. The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).

7. The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).

8. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.

9. The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).

10. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).

11. The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.

12. Members' subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.

13. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.

14. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

So, what kind of character are these Cult Leaders? They are certainly different from most of us. I know I couldn't do it because I'm not that audacious and not that ruthless. I'd not be able to stand in front of a group of people and tell them I am the word of God and they better hand over their wealth or that I expect to have sex with their wives and daughters.
From http://www.dannyhaszard.com/captivehearts.htm

I guess maybe we have a different concept of humor. I think humor can be a very healing social behavior, a recognition that we’re all in this boat together, which often comes as a huge relief. Laughter, see, of the healing sort is an expression of being so darned relieved that we’re not completely alone here. Others are in the same predicament that is the human condition and then the human condition isn’t quite so lonely and frightening as before.

As in, when I was a boy, my Dad insisted to me that there’s not a darned thing in the dark that isn’t just as much there when it’s light. Now why didn’t I find that thought comforting?

True, it kind of pokes fun at my Dad, but it also pokes fun at me too because we’re both up against these same frightening things that scare the beejeezus out of us but not so badly that we’re paralyzed by fear. Laughing at it helps in not getting paralyzed by fear. It’s a social behavior that is vital to us when the shit has hit the fan big time.

And then there’s the humor that is also a social bonding behavior but for a different purpose. Kind of along the lines of the Pollack joke, for example. I apologize in advance here for this example that threatens to reveal me to be as much a redneck as the rednecks I often criticize but just to illustrate the point: How many Pollacks does it take to lead a horse to drink water? Two, one to lead the horse to water, and the other to suck on his ass. It’s also a feeling of relief but not about being in a shared predicament but being relieved to be within the superior tribe instead of that other tribe that is worthy of nothing but derision and contempt. This is useful for a bonding experience within a tribe prior to putting the kybosh on another tribe.

It’s a fuzzy line sometimes, but we all kind of know it when we see either kind.

The great thing about this country, after all, is that we can laugh at ourselves, and by ourselves, I mean you, and by laugh, I mean invade. (stolen joke. Sorry, can’t remember the author.)

In defense of my waxing so philosophical here, all I can say is, hey, he started it.