Bigger Than Jesus

Lisa: I can't believe you're not still popular.
Bart: What did you do? Screw up like The Beatles and say you were Bigger Than Jesus?

Homer: All the time! It was the title of our second album!

—The Simpsons

A Stock Phrase for any good Blasphemous Boast as well as a Stock Shout Out and Stock Parody to be found in any story about characters becoming famous.

Its origins, of course, lie in John Lennon's famous controversial remarks to the press that The Beatles are "more popular than Jesus" but have since come to be remembered a little differently.

Bigger Than Jesus is a staple for any story about a band that closely mirrors that of The Beatles but can be typically found in any story about characters gaining sudden popularity as musicians (or for anything else). Use of the phrase, or a variant thereof, is typically something that is conveyed to be met with shock by the public at large and lead to widespread protests and rallies to destroy the characters' merchandise followed by whoever originally invoked the phrase explaining that he meant something completely different, just like what happened with The Beatles but Played for Laughs.

Not to be confused with the Web Comic Bigger Than Cheeses.

Examples of Bigger Than Jesus include:

Film

The Mockumentary The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, which parodies much of The Beatles' own history, includes one segment about a controversy caused by Ron Nasty claiming that The Rutles were "bigger than God." Ron, speaking to a slightly deaf journalist, actually said that they were "bigger than Rod," as in Rod Stewart. Rod Stewart would not make it big for another eight years.
- The protests and album burnings that were sparked by Ron's comment are said to have seen the sales of Rutles albums and merchandise skyrocket as people were buying their products just to have them destroyed. While the movie plays this for laughs, it's actually very reflective of the Real Life protests against The Beatles.
Non-band variant: In In the Mouth of Madness, Sutter Cane claims several times that more people read, and believe in, his novels than the Bible.

Comic Books

Issue #30 of The Savage Dragon featured a guest appearance of the, at the time, mega-popular Spawn, the issue was one of the best selling issues of the Savage Dragon to that date. Issue #31 of the Savage Dragon featured a guest appearance of God, and did not sell nearly as well. Creator of the Savage Dragon 'Erik Larsen' suggested to the creator of Spawn, Todd McFarlane that he create a new ad campaign saying: 'A lot of people have claimed to be more popular than God, but Spawn is the first with documented proof.' McFarlane declined using it.

Literature

British actor and comedian Rik Mayall titled his autobiography Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ.

Live-Action TV

On Mystery Science Theater 3000, near the end of a short film about industrial workplace safety, there's a camera shot where the pastor narrator looms larger than his church in the background. One of the bots chimes in, "I'm bigger than Jesus."

Music

The chorus of the song "Guns And Cigarettes" by the band Atmosphere sees Boastful Rapper Slug profess how he wants to be bigger than Jesus and The Beatles, among other things.
A song by band What I Like About Jew (now Good For The Jews and Jewmongous) describes how they are physically taller than Jesus.
Source of the name for rockers Joe Christ and the Bigger than God.

The Beatles said they were bigger than you,
But I've got the height on The Beatles too.
If genes determine the size of your bod,
Then my dad must be taller than God!

Video Games

Kingdom of Loathing has a quest in which you have to advertise for a band by pasting fliers to monsters. One of the messages you can get if you go back to the concert arena before you're done advertising says that the band has become "more popular than cheeses."

Web Comics

Fanboys puts a twist on this with the Beatles Rock Band Game in a mini strip.
Sinfest inverted the trope in a strip titled "Agent" where the Devil offers to become Jesus's personal agent and make him "Bigger than the Beatles."

Web Original

College Humor's article "If The Internet Had Always Existed" saw a depiction of what Twitter would have looked like in The Sixties with John Lennon tweeting, "We have more followers than @Jesus."
An index at Uncyclopedia is titled "Things Bigger Than Jesus, But Smaller Than The Beatles."
Spoony's version of Terl makes this declaration at the end of a video where he reveals his instinctive knowledge of how far any given place on the planet is above or below sea level.

Western Animation

On The Simpsons in the episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," Homer's titular band with a history that very much resembles that of The Beatles is alleged to have frequently boasted to be "bigger than Jesus" and even titled their sophomore album as such with a cover that shows the band Walking On Water in the Abbey Road Crossing pose.
- A later episode referenced The Beatles controversy when it turns out that Ned Flanders has a huge collection of Beatles memorabilia. Why? Because they were bigger than Jesus!
One cartoon short on The Angry Beavers saw Norbert and Daggett become famous for a hit song, and at one point their manager tells them that they're "bigger than sliced bread," showing them a graph chart that proves this. When Daggett repeats this to the press, people start burning their albums, leading to Daggett explaining that he meant that they're physically larger than sliced bread. Upon hearing this explanation, people burning their albums are seen putting their hands into the fire to retrieve them.
One Alvin and The Chipmunks cartoon formatted as a documentary on the rise and popularity of the group shows one segment where Alvin shocks everyone at a press conference, including Simon and Theodore, by shouting, "We're bigger than Mickey Mouse!" People start destroying their Chipmunks merchandise as Alvin is forced to make an apology to the press soon after.
In the Animated Adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, Buddy says, "We're bigger than cheeses," in a dairy-oriented village. Buddy's band is run out of town.
In the Family Guy episode "Brian Writes a Bestseller", after Brian does exactly that, he remarks about his new found fame by sharing his thoughts on The Beatles' controversy.

Brian: I used to think that John Lennon was kind of a jerk for saying The Beatles were Bigger Than Jesus, but now, I mean, I'm not saying that I am, but I get it.

- Also played with in the episode "I Dream of Jesus". When Jesus becomes famous, one newspaper ran the headline "Jesus Is Bigger Than Jesus!"
- This bit from "And I'm Joyce Kinney":

Lois: And more importantly, are you all better than Jesus?
Parishioner: I'm better than Jesus.
Lois: Okay, yes, Tina Fey, your're better than Jesus.

In the Tripping the Rift episode "Cool Whip", Whip becomes an instant celebrity on a planet, and the king proclaims him "Bigger than Jesus" but not the Beatles. Though he learns that he is going to be hunted and mounted.

Real Life

In The Nineties, music periodical The New Music Express (NME) spoofed Oasis's thrall to The Beatles and their tendency to plagiarize with a fictitious interview in which Noel Gallagher claimed to be "bigger than God." Just one year later, in Real Life, Noel Gallagher made exactly the same claim, though the entire point of John Lennon's original remarks in 1966 were completely lost on him.
Strangely enough, Jesus himself used this trope, at least in the eyes of the Jewish priesthood at the time. From Luke Chapter 11:

Jesus: The Queen of the South will rise at the judgement with the people of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom; and now one greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and now one greater than Jonah is here.