South Park, "All About The Mormons"

Parker, Trey and Stone, Matt. South Park, "All About The Mormons" S7E12, 11.19.03. Comedy Central.

In South Park nothing is out of reach to be made fun of, the creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone made a vow when they began that if they ever find something that they refuse to make fun of, whether for money reasons or personal reasons, they would stop writing and producing South Park. From Jews to Red Heads to AIDS and Cancer to disabilities and to celebrities, South Park is unafraid to point out what they think is wrong with society. Through satire, by making the majority of the townspeople bumbling idiots and 2 of the main characters, Stan and Kyle, the voices and eyes of reason, the show has successfully lampooned pretty much everything you can think of. To an audience of mature teens and adults.

In this episode Mormonism is ridiculed, but so is religious intolerance. A mormon family arrives in town and we are shown the history of Mormonism, and the audience can clearly see that it is ridiculous. Many members of the community do not want the mormon family to stay for fear that they will have a negative affect on the children. The religion has successfully been made fun of, but at the same time, so are the people who are intolerant of Mormonism (and any other religion for that matter). In South Park, literally no one is safe, even the writers, who both make fun of Mormonism but also recognize that people are entitled to their own beliefs, and, as long as they don't impose their beliefs on others, they should not be treated as any less than others.

This episode and all other south park episodes can be viewed for free at southparkstudios.com

Mr Show With Bob and David: "The Limits of Science"

"Mr Show With Bob and David" 1995-1998. David Cross and Bob Odenkirk, Home Box Office (HBO). Youtube 10.07.06

Mr Show was a sketch comedy show starring Bob Odenkirk and David Cross inthe mid to late 1990s. The show featured sketches based on absurd premises often dealing with religion, politics and relatively taboo topics. In the clip below, the show makes fun of religious beliefs of the past by showing how ridiculous they were. As people of the 21st century we can look at this and laugh, wondering how people could possibly believe the things they did, because in the clip, as in real life back then, people really did believe these things and other similar ideas. This clip not only makes fun of beliefs from the past, but it can also be transposed as an observation on today's spiritual and religious beliefs. Granted science has come a long way since the middle ages, but there are still those (many people) who hold on to beliefs. As a documentary made during the middle ages (an absurd idea in itself) people watching it at the time would have believed what it said. Viewers now look at it and scoff. Which makes us wonder, what present day documentaries about science or religion will people hundreds or thousands of years from now watch and view as being absurd? This sketch works on the level of making fun of religion and it also comments that science is an ever moving forward process and it is important to always be skeptical.

David Cross "Jesus Talks"

David Cross "Shut Up, You Fucking Baby" Portland, Oregon and Atlanta, Georgia. Youtube 2.25.09

In David Cross' stand-up comedy he often talks about religion (Christianity, Judaism, Science in relation to religion, reason, etc). As an atheist jew who grew up in the south, he clearly has an opinion on religion and he shares it frequently: religion is ridiculous. Usually he flat-out mocks religion, referring to the bible as something similar to dungeons and dragons and citing and pointing out other ridiculous aspects of christianity and Judaism (like how it's not fair that in Judaism, no matter what you believe, whether you're an atheist or think that God is a unicorn and babies taste like lemonade, if your mother is Jewish, then so are you). In this youtube audio clip David Cross takes a less risky, less offensive stance on religion. He observes how in all depictions of Jesus, actors attribute him to having a somber, knowing voice of reason and wisdom, but in reality nobody really knows what Jesus sounded like. Jesus could have had any number of voices, and David Cross wonders what if Jesus spoke in a really effeminate southern voice. His humor here is potentially offensive, but for the most part it is innocuous. It makes no groundbreaking observations about religion or christianity, all Cross does is ponder a what if and runs with it. The absurdity and unfamiliarity of this "what if..." is what makes it so hysterical.

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 .

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.

The Kids in The Hall

The Kids in the Hall (Dave Foley, Kevin McDonald, Bruce McCulloch, Mark McKinney, and Scott Thompson) was a Canadian sketch comedy show that ran for 5 seasons from 1989-1995. Episodes ran twenty minutes (not including commercials) and contained various sketches with themes ranging from gender and sexuality, police, business, family life, religion, and sex to the completely absurd like a man with meat for hands and a killer shark named Skoora that feels remorse.

Some famous recurring characters include: the Head Crusher, a man who sits in public and "crushes" the heads of passers-by with his pointer finger and thumb. Cabbage head, a misogynistic man with, surprise, a head of cabbage for a head, who continually fails on dates due to his rude and womanizing attitude. Buddy Cole, the opinionated owner of a gay bar who goes off on long monologues after closing time with a martini in his hand. Danny Husk, a hopelessly stupid and unlucky businessman. Gavin, a talkative and inquisitive adolescent. Simon and Hecubus, a self-proposed demonic prophet and his man-servant, and many more.

The Kids in the Hall are most known for dressing in drag. All of them straight except for Scott Thompson, they wanted to push the limits and show that it's okay to be yourself and to be a little gay. They frequently performed sketches dealing with homosexuality, gender roles and homophobia, portraying very convincing but very manly women as well as homosexual characters. The Kids in the Hall was the first sketch comedy show to openly and frequently deal with this issue.

This first video clip is a sketch from the season 1 finale, poking fun at the ridiculousness of the bible:



The second video is one example of the Kids dealing with homophobia (in an extreme way):




"The Kids in the Hall" Produced by Lorne Michaels, 1989-1995. Toronto, Canada. Accessed from Youtube February 8, 2009.

Sarah Silverman's Low Self-Esteem Skit

Sarah Silverman Low Self-Esteem Stand Up! from Sarah Silverman

This clip is part of "Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic," a compilation of sketches, stand-ups, and original songs that was released in theatres November 2005. Among the topics she deals with in this movie (as well as regularly in her show and other stand-up appearances), are AIDS, sex, religion (the title comes from the opening skit), political parties, homeless people, race, sexism, and her grandmother.
In this particular clip, Sarah Silverman delivers a speech on stereotyping ethnic groups and inter-racial relationships.

"Sarah Silverman Low Self-Esteem Stand Up!", Funny or Die, accessed Feb. 05, 2009,http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/7f3bc31881/sarah-silverman-low-selfesteem-stand-up-from-standupfan-and-sarah-silverman

Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist

Jeff Dunham. Spark of Insanity. Dir. Michael Simon. Image Entertaintment, 2007. DVD. "Jeff Dunham - Achmed the Dead Terrorist." YouTube. 9.27.07. 2.9.09. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go>.

Jeff Dunham is one of the rare people who can actually do "Ventriloquism", which means he can manipulate his voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere. His shows are mostly designed with his puppets that he animates. Achmed the dead terrorist is one of his best characters, which he basically has a conversation with a dead terrorist who has different culture and of course difference thinking ways than usual Americans. Jeff Dunham uses those points to take attention of his audience and make them laugh. It is a well-known video on youtube, having almost 81 million views. There are some other videos about the same character; however, this is the first and the best one from my perspective.

Watch the video or "I kill you!" :)