Parody Religion



Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Made-up religion (made up intentionally to not make any sense for the viewer) which exists to parody some specific existing religion, a group of religions and religious beliefs, organized religion in general, or just any kind of religious belief. Usually serves as a front on The War On Straw, unless it's a someone enacting a funny God Guise, then it's just Played for Laughs.

Often takes the form of a Cargo Cult, a God Guise, some bizarre Crystal Dragon Jesus cult, or a pastiche of a Real Life religion with Serial Numbers Filed Off.

See also Path of Inspiration, which is more or less exactly this with evil instead of funny, Corrupt Church, which is against organized religion, and Church of Happyology, which is a subtrope that parodies a very specific religion.

Note that all examples must be intentional.

See also: Anvilicious, Religion Is Wrong. Contrast Saintly Church, Religion Is Right.

Comic Books

 * A huge amount of those from Transmetropolitan. According to Spider, new cults pop there every hour, therefore, any religious belief does not make any sense.

Films

 * Bowfinger features a cult called Mindhead, which parodies Scientology.

Literature

 * The Last Guru by Daniel Pinkwater has the Silly Hat Order, with a side order of Blong Buddhism.
 * In Boba Fett: Enemy Of the Empire, Boba Fett tracks the eponymous enemy to a secluded hermitage on a volcanic planet, which is home to a stereotypical crazy sect called.
 * "Well, this could have ended much worse..."
 * Chutengodianism in Godless starts as a joke by a few teenagers, but takes on a life of its own (complete with its own heretics and fundamentalists.) In the end,

Live Action TV

 * The Monty Python's Flying Circus "Crackpot Religions" sketch.

Video Games

 * Xavism in Sengoku Basara is a rather overt parody of the Catholic Church; its leader is a delusional (but well-meaning) Love Freak who believes in the power of blowing the crap out of someone to convert them, all its adherents get bizarre baptismal names, and the "commandments" are all Broken Aesop versions of Christian dogma.

Web Comics

 * That rabbit cult from Looking for Group.

Web Original

 * Ceiling Cat.

Western Animation

 * Futurama has recurring Robotology, Robot Judaism and The First Amalgamated Church, as well as occasionally mentioned Oprahism, Church of Trek, et cetera.
 * The Simpsons are members of The Western Branch of American Reform Presbylutheranism, which split from the Catholics in 1573 over the right to go to church with wet hair, which the Presbylutherans have since abolished.
 * In South Park, Dawkins mentions the Flying Spaghetti Monster while talking to Mrs. Garrison during a lunch in the episode Go God Go.

Real Life

 * This trope was in full effect over 300 years ago: Tsar Peter the Great and his friends formed The All-Joking, All-Drunken Synod of Fools and Jesters that not only practiced heavy drinking and orgies, but wore church attire and used religious titles when doing so. The pious Russians were not amused - some even proclaimed the Tsar to be Antichrist.
 * The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was established as a protest against teaching "intelligent design" in schools. The object was to demand equal time for Pastafarian theory.
 * The use of Satanism as a religion (instead of merely being the flip side of Christianity) is sometimes this - as a protest against the Ten Commandments or other religious iconography on public lands, the Satanic Temple will often demand that a statue of a winged goat be given equal time, space or prominence.
 * In many US states, a "minister of religion" from seemingly any denomination holds a few special privileges, most notably the right to officiate marriage. As the US does not directly recognise a right ex officio of sea captains to officiate, it's not uncommon for a captain to obtain other credentials (such as notary public, or minister of some obscure religious denomination whose lone brick-and-mortar chapel inexplicably ordained twelve million of its followers by mail) to conduct weddings at sea.
 * Invisible Pink Unicorn, May Her Holy Hooves Never Be Shod.
 * Various Cthulhu cults.
 * The Church of Google.
 * Discordianism has been described as a "religion masquerading as a joke" or a "joke masquerading as a religion." Both are correct.
 * Church of the SubGenius.
 * The Jedi Census Phenomenon.
 * Only in part. There are people who really truly believe in the existence of The Force and who try to emulate the Jedi in their everyday lives. Places like Jedi Sanctuary, Real Jedi Knights.... Obviously, there are also Sith, though they are less extreme than in the movies.
 * The Last Thursdayism claims that the Universe was actually created last Thursday, and any memories or evidence of events before that were created at the same time.
 * The schism known as Next Thursdayism claims that the universe hasn't been created yet, and what we think is happening now is just false memories we'll have once it exists. Of course, some might argue that both sides are heretics: The Universe was created Last Tuesday.
 * Tarvuism, created by the guys behind Look Around You and just as absurd.
 * And many, many, many more.