Jesus Was Way Cool: Difference between revisions

''Everybody wanted to hang out with him''

|'''[[King Missile]]''', "Jesus Was Way Cool"}}

 

It's an interesting phenomenon: [[Jesus]] is generally presented as an admirable or at least benign figure, even in non-Christian or even ''anti''-Christian media. Atheists, Buddhists and authors of stories unflattering in their portrayal of [[God Is Evil|the Almighty]] or [[Religion Is Wrong|religion in general]] are nonetheless complimentary to that nice Jewish boy. This is often used as a [[Take That]] ("Jesus was cool even if his followers all suck"), as a number of the examples show.

* In the manga [[Saint Young Men]], Jesus and Buddha are [[Pals with Jesus|best buddies]] living in Tokyo and generally enjoying the human world on their vacation, doing such mundane things as going to convenience stores, taking the train and buying souvenirs. Even though Jesus is depicted as a bit of a [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]], it's affectionate rather than insulting.

 

* In the ''Battle Pope'' series, Jesus is the hippie and oblivious sidekick to a [[Badass]] post-apocalyptic God-buffed Pope. Jesus Was Way Cool.

* [[Garth Ennis]], well-known for his [[Rage Against the Heavens]]/[[God Is Evil]] stories, sympathetically portrays Jesus in ''Chronicles of Wormwood''. Jesus, or "Jay", is the African-American best friend of the titular [[Anti-Anti-Christ]] (both sons who hate their dads), who suffered brain damage from police brutality while protesting the Iraq War, and who has suffered psychologically for centuries from his overwhelming desire to do good.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'' is surprisingly non-scathing toward Jesus in a work that parodies His life and works; the Pythons rejected their initial concept of Brian as a forgotten disciple of Jesus because the laughs stopped dead whenever Jesus was around—none of them felt comfortable directly making jokes about Him. He remains in one scene where people mishear the Sermon on the Mount (which He is delivering straight), which basically epitomizes the real theme of the movie: the conflict between what Jesus said and what certain people thought (and still think) they heard. (The Pythons had hoped to persuade [[The Cameo|George Lazenby to play Jesus]] so they could proclaim "George Lazenby IS Jesus Christ!" on their posters, but Lazenby was busy.)

* Although He never speaks and is only seen from behind or at a distance, Jesus appears as a background character in ''[[Ben-Hur]]''. One memorable scene has Him giving a drink of water to the title character. A Roman Centurion tries to stop Him, but Jesus just [[Death Glare|stares at him without a word]] and the Centurion backs down.

** In the original stage version, Jesus was played by a spotlight. Part of the contract from the author of the original book was that Jesus would not be portrayed by an actor.

* ''[[Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter]]'' has the titular character [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|hunting vampires]], [[Kung Fu Jesus|doing Kung Fu]], dancing, singing, and preaching tolerance for sexual minorities.

{{quote|"Don't follow ''me''. Follow my teachings."}}

* Tommy [[Gnosticism|Gnosis]] from ''[[Hedwig and The Angry Inch]]''

{{quote|"You know what He was saving us from was his [[God Is Evil|fucking father]]!"}}

* [[The View Askewniverse]] (the films of [[Kevin Smith]]) gives us The Buddy Christ, pictured above. This version of Jesus was part of the "Catholicism WOW!" campaign in ''[[Dogma]]'' as part of a move to boost Church attendance. Oddly, despite the cynicism of the move, Cardinal Glick's stated reasoning was sound: the symbol of Christianity being the cross was, to him, "wholly depressing". "Christ didn't come here to give us the willies! He came to help us out!" He has since cameoed in more than one [[Kevin Smith]] film since then (Smith's comic shop even had a life-size version in the store).

** In a sense, he's right. Early Christians did not use the cross as a symbol as it reminded them of Jesus' torturous death. The more common symbols were the Ichthys or "Jesus fish" and the Chi-Rho. Even today many Protestant churches prefer an empty cross, emphasizing not the moment of Jesus' suffering but his triumph over death.

** Jesus was also mentioned several times by Rufus over the course of the movie. While other parts of the movie parody different parts of religion, specific references to Jesus himself pretty much match what's written in the Bible. From the descriptions, Jesus seems to have been fairly laid back (he apparently owes Rufus twelve dollars) and enjoyed listening to people talk more than anything else.

{{quote|'''Rufus:''' He likes to listen to people talk. Says it sounds like music to Him. Christ loved to sit around the fire and listen to me and the other guys. Whenever we were going on about unimportant shit, He always had a smile on His face.}}

 

* While most of ''[[The Last Temptation of Christ]]'' focuses on his internal strife over living as a man or dying painfully to fulfill God's will, the Wedding at Cana scene gives Jesus a sense of fun and humor. (Even better, the whole exchange is [[Canon]]);

 

== Literature ==

* ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]''

{{quote|'''Caiaphas''': One thing I'll say for him -- Jesus is cool.}}

* As you might guess from the examples above, this trope is often (though far from always) an exemption from [[Religion Rant Song]] targeting.

* [[Country Music|Miranda Lambert's]] latest single "Heart Like Mine" has a chorus that goes like this: "I heard Jesus, He drank wine and I'd bet we'd get along just fine. He can calm a storm and heal the blind and I'd bet he'd understand a heart like mine."

* In ''[[The Salvation War]]'', Jesus is definitely cool. He realizes how insane his father is well before anyone else and tries three times to help humanity (Jesus, Mohamed, and someone else, possibly Joan of Arc or Martin Luther), but after these attempts backfire and he sees how rapidly they are progressing, he decides to see what they can do to correct the injustices done to them on their own. Even after Michael the Angelic [[Anti-Hero]] sets him up to die by nuclear weapon, he still forgives him because he understands his motivation for doing so.

* Subverted in ''[http://ny.channel101.com/show.php?show=12 Jesus Christ Supercop]'', which portrays Jesus as a stereotypical [[Cowboy Cop]]. Possibly not a benign version of Christ, and certainly not a nice Jewish boy... but you [[Rule of Cool|cannot deny that this Jesus is Cool]].

{{quote|'''Jesus:''' My children, I have come back to you. The sheer awesomeness of ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' has brought about my Second Coming, and with it the Rapture, which shall begin immediately. ...after the 7:45 session. I gotta see this bad boy!}}

* [[Richard Dawkins]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090831040919/http://richarddawkins.net/article,20,Atheists-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins Atheists for Jesus.]

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' portrays Jesus as playing golf with guys on weekdays, and going to bars with God on weekends (Seth MacFarlane is an atheist).

** But, according to ''Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story'', was a very bad magician.

** Brian is skeptical whether the guy is Jesus, so asks if he can perform miracles; He responds by changing everyone's meal into a hot fudge sundae. Then, at Peter's request, he makes Lois' bust about five cup sizes larger.

** One cutaway portrayed Jesus as [[Soul Brotha|black]].

** He also entertains his friends by turning water [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3c-kz8-bIY into funk].

{{quote|'''Black Jesus''': I rode into town on an ass....(''looks at screen'') [[Your Mom|Yo' momma's]] ass!}}

{{quote|"I just came back from Heaven and I learned that Jesus is Chinese and His last name is Hong. Jesus Hong. I don`t know where they got the Christ."}}

* In the New Zealand animated comedy series, Bro'town, Jesus stars in every episode as every episode starts in heaven with god telling a story using the main characters. Jesus is depicted as a hip but naive teenager who learns from gods stories.

* [[Futurama|The robot Jews believe that He was built, and that He was a well-programmed robot, but they don't believe He was the robot Messiah]].

* Some think he's actually a pretty cool Trickster God.

** The [[Discordia|Discordians]] would happily agree.

* Many Buddhists, including the current Dalai Lama, view Jesus as a Bodhisattva, an enlightened being who abstains from nirvana to help other humans attain it, and sometimes study portions of the Christian New Testament.

* Many Hindus, who tend to be [http://www.city-data.com/forum/attachments/religion-philosophy/52163-krishna-jesus-many-similarities-krishna-christ.jpg/ extremely accepting] of other religions, believe that Jesus was an avatar of Vishnu, and that in healing people and allowing himself to be crucified, he was actually accepting the karmic load of the people around him.