George Carlin on religion

George Carlin is one of the most well known stand-up comedians. In this scene, taken from the DVD Jamin’ in New York, George Carlin talks about the religious dogma of all organized religions. He criticizes and pokes fun at many holy books such as the Bible, Torah, and Koran. He satirizes the basic idea of organized religion by mocking all religious figures as the kings of “crap”, and mocking the idea of god as both a loving figure, and one who will banish you to hell. George Carlin is known for the emotion that he puts behind his jokes. Carlin’s jokes cover a wide range of themes, from religion, to drugs, sex, politics, fame, society, language, and the events of everyday life. George Carlin often did stand-up in front of a diverse audience. Even after his death, Carlin’s humor is watched by many.

Jamin' in New York. Prod. Jerry Hamaz and Brenda Carlin. Perf. George Carlin. DVD. Atlantic/WEA, 1992. YouTube. 07 Feb. 2009. 31 Mar. 2009.

Bill Maher. Religulous. 2008

Religulous is a comedic documentary written by and starring political comedian Bill Maher. According to Bill Maher, the title is a combination of the words religion and ridiculous. This statement adequately explains the documentary. The documentary examines and satirizes organized religion and religious beliefs. In the documentary, Bill Maher travels to different religious destinations such as Jerusalem, the Vatican, and Salt Lake City, interviewing believers from a wide range of backgrounds and groups. Some of these groups include, “Jews for Jesus”, Christians, Muslims, Hassidic Jews, and Mormons. Bill Maher also travels to Speaker’s Corner (an area where public speaking is allowed) in Hyde Park, London where he satirically preaches Scientology beliefs. In addition to his documentary, Bill also performs stand-up and is hot of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. He performs to a multiracial, multi-ethnic
audience.

Religulous. Dir. Larry Charles. Perf. Bill Maher. Film. Lions Gate Entertainment, 2008.

Richard Dawkins reads his hate mail

In the above clip, Oxford University professor reads his hate mail out loud. Richard Dawkins is a well-known atheist and avid defender of Darwin’s theory of Evolution over the theory of creationism. This has brought him a lot of hatred from religious clergy and pro-religious organizations. In the clip, Richard Dawkins reads outs some of the most comical attacks he has received in his email. The clip deals with the eternal struggle between religion and science. Each side seeks to explain the mysteries of the universe, while trying to disprove the other side’s arguments. In this clip, the two extremes of the spectrum, with Dawkins advocating for science and the e-mailers advocating for religion. Dawkins makes frequent visits to universities around the world and gives lectures on evolution to students.

Richard Dawkins reads hate mail. Perf. Richard Dawkins. YouTube. 30 Aug. 2008. 31 Mar. 2009 .

Steven Lynch. “Priest”. Live at El Ray

This song is a segment taken from a DVD recording of Steven Lynch’s stand-up performance at the El Ray Theater in Los Angeles. Steven Lynch’s style of stand-up is different from the usual form of stand-up in that he performs songs instead of talking. In the posted segment, Lynch is performing a song about the “temptations” of catholic priests towards altar boys. In his performance, Lynch brings up the issue of catholic priests molesting small boys and girls. In his performance, he also brings up other issues of catholic dogma that he attempts to scrutinize in his song. Stephen Lynch’s songs often deal with a wide range of issues, from religion to politics, immigration, drugs, aids, and crime. Stephen Lynch has also been known to bring in stories from his childhood into many of his stand-up songs. He performs to a multi-ethnic but mainly white audience, and has a large following in both the United States and Europe.

Stephen Lynch, Live at El Ray. Perf. Stephen Lynch. DVD. Razor & Tie, 2004. YouTube. 19 Nov. 2007. 31 Mar. 2009 .

Dane Cook Atheists

Dane Cook is a fairly new famous comedian who has also been the main actor in two movies: Employee of the Month and Good Luck Chuck. He has produced three comedy albums and one HBO special. In this one and a half hour stand up act, Dane Cook discusses themes such as Sex, Lying, and Religion. In his religion skit, an atheist sneezes on Dane's shoe and Dane says God Bless you. The man and Dane argue about religion and what will happen when they each die. The man says he will become a tree and be one with the earth and Dane responds, I hope you get chopped down and they print the bible on you. In this HBO special The Vicious Circle, Dane is being insightful and tries to teach the viewers not to do the stuff he talks about (cheating and going to psychics and many more common daily activities). His audience is mainly young adults and teenagers and most people agree and laugh at his jokes. This is because his jokes come from everyday basic interactions.

Dane Cook. Vicious Circle. Dir. Marty Callner. HBO September 4, 2006. DVD

Xavier: Renegade Angel

Xavier: Renegade Angel is a 15 min show on Adult Swim. Its first airing was November 2, 2007. Adult Swim is currently airing the second season.

Xavier: Renegade Angel's loose story line is that Xavier, who is a grotesque creature that is the combination of a man, a snake, a bird, and maybe a monkey, is traveling through the desert in search of the meaning of life. The show is very random in nature with odd characters appearing and crazy flashbacks happening consistently. The show's humor comes mainly from altering reality, which it can do easily through its use of computer animation. This "altering of reality" comes from Xavier travels through space and time. He is goes forward and backward in time, seeing things in his own past while also witnessing things like the destruction of Earth. His time travel is sometimes explained, but most of the time is not. These random jumps in time provide humor because the audience is never really sure where Xavier is going to end up and whether what they are seeing is real or not. Xavier also breaks the audiences normal perception of space; leaving our normal sense of reality in favor of abstract worlds that are far removed from any part of human existence. An example of this removal from human existence can be seen in the following clip.

For context, in this episode Xavier is stuck in a circular room with different colored doors, each one transporting him to an abstract place. That clip leads to my next point about how Xavier provides humor. At its core Xavier is a show about philosophy and religion, and that clip, along with many others throughout the series, touch on the belief in God and the search for some purpose in existence. The clip can be taken on the surface to be making fun of belief in God, but more importantly is the way it conveys religion as a viewpoint that is black and white. When asked the question "do you believe in God?" Xavier goes into his own views on existence and a higher power. The bar-code man is there to represent religion(from what I can tell the Judaic God) with the belief of God being either yes or no. Xavier on the other hand takes the role of philosophy, not only questioning the belief in God but going as far as questioning belief itself. I think the humor comes from showing how narrow minded religion can be while also highlighting how abstract philosophy can become. Bringing up philosophical questions is a common theme in Xavier and contributes greatly to its abstract humor. But Xavier: Renegade Angel's humor is not always so abstract in nature. The show also touches on the cultural issues of race, religion, and sexuality. The following clip touches on all these issues. On a side note, this show is made by the same people who did Wonder Showzen on MTV2; the following clip is very reminiscent of Wonder Showzen in its use of race, religion, and sexuality.

Lewis Black: The Old Testament

Lewis Black. The Old Testament. Dir. Keith Raskin. Comedy Central. 2008


This skit involves Lewis Black discussing evolution and religion. The major themes are of course Christianity and Jewish religion and how they are related to each other through "The Old Testament and the News Testament". The whole skit deals with how evolution is talked about in the Old Testament which was the Jewish book, but it wasn't good enough for Christians and therefore made a "New Testament". Most of Lewis Blacks stand up comedy deals with racism, everyday life, absurdities, sarcasm, exaggeration, and politics.