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{{quote|''[[Trope Namer|Jesus was way cool]] <br />
''Everybody liked Jesus <br />
''Everybody wanted to hang out with him''|'''[[King Missile (Music)|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.
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* In the manga [[Saint Young Men]], Jesus and Buddha are [[Pals Withwith 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.
 
== Comics ==
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== Film ==
 
* ''[[Monty PythonsPython'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.
* ''[[Hair]]'' - The title song references wanting "hair like Jesus wore it." Jesus was so cool, he had hippie hair 1,935 years before hippies even existed.
* ''[[Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter]]'' has the titular character [[Exactly What It Says Onon 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 [[Useful Notes/Gnosticism|Gnosis]] from ''[[Hedwig and The Angry Inch]]''
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* In ''[[The Mists of Avalon]]'' by [[Marion Zimmer Bradley]], the main conflict erupts between the local druid/pagan factions of Britain and early Christians at the time of [[King Arthur]]. Even so, at least one prominent druid (Merlin, no less) remarks that he has never had a problem with Jesus, only with the way most people interpret His words.
* [[Christopher Moore]]'s novel ''[[Lamb: theThe Gospel According To Biff (Literature)|Lamb the Gospel According To Biff]]'' is based entirely around this trope, portraying "the lost years" of Jesus' life between the events of the Gospels. Among its more notable scenes, Jesus: {{spoiler|[[Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting|learns kung fu from Shaolin monks]], [[Invisible Main Character|learns to become invisible (by achieving Nirvana, to humorous effect with His friends and general consternation of the monks)]], [[Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti|becomes best friends with the last Yeti]], and [[Supernatural Martial Arts|becomes a yoga master, which somehow lets Him create food out of thin air]].}} This is all played relatively straight, however... and the character is portrayed very sympathetically. Jesus in the book... really is shown as being way cool.
* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s ''[[Job: A Comedy Of Justice]]'' paints God as a jerkass (though not [[God Is Evil|evil]]), Satan as vaguely benevolent and both as mere peons before ''real'' deities, who run some sort of creation business. But Jesus and Saint Peter are both good guys.
* Despite being irreverent towards religion in general, the beginning of ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' still gives a nod to the man who was "nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change."
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* Jesus is way cool and a generally nice guy when he comes down to try and sort out the plot of [[Robert Rankin]]'s ''Armageddon: The Musical''. His sister Christine, however, rather resents him getting all the press ''again''.
* In the book ''Deadline'' the main character has frequent dreams in which he talks to a character named "Hey-Soos". Hey-Soos is basically a tanner white robe wearing version of the 18 year old main character, has a calm, laid-back demeanor and is very supportive of main character Ben Wolf. He also likes to make jokes about his reminiscence of Jesus Christ through various means, one of which being when he made his hands bleed during a dream talk he had with Ben to freak him out, then laughing about it.
* Attacked by [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]], who pointed out that 'great humanistic teachers' do not go around telling people that there is no way to heaven except through them, and said that the only options for opinions on Jesus were 'Mad, Bad, or God'.
** Of course, if you picked the 'God' option, then you would think he was cool. The message wasn't 'Jesus wasn't a good guy', it was that Jesus' life and teachings were 100% different to other moral teachers, and shouldn't be lumped in with them.
* [[Philip Pullman]]'s "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ" is equal parts this and a [[Take That]] against organised religion (compare the many variations of "your Christians are so unlike your Christ" in [[Real Life]] below). It suggests that the "great humanistic teacher" and the [[Shameless Self Promoter]], who [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]] considered so incompatible, were separate characters, with "[[Evil Twin|the Scoundrel Christ]]" corrupting and profiting from the acts of "the Good Man Jesus", and that [[Composite Character|they were conflated]] by contemporary chroniclers.
* In James Morrow's ''Only Begotten Daughter'', the second Messiah Julie Katz meets her older brother [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|Jesus in Hell]], where he tries to lessen the suffering of the damned. Although he initially comes across as a [[Jerkass]], she eventually realizes [[Jesus Was Way Cool]], and heads back to Earth to set things right with his blessing.
* In ''[[The Catcher in The Rye (Literature)|The Catcher in The Rye]]'', Holden states that he's "sort of an atheist" but he likes Jesus, though his disciples annoy him. He also believes that "Jesus never sent old Judas to Hell
* The Vampire Lestat met Jesus in Memnoc The devil. At first Lestat was freaked out meeting the son of god, but then Jesus gave the vampire a drink of his very own blood. Lets just say allot of catholics were pissed about this.
* In ''[[The Jungle]]'' by Upton Sinclair, one of the socialist characters who is openly opposed to Christianity admits that he is perfectly fine with Jesus, claiming that he was a practical man.
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{{quote| Godric: "I am much older than your Jesus, I wish I had known Him, but sadly I missed it"}}
* Subverted in ''[[Yes Minister]]''. Hacker and Humphrey both agree that if Jesus had been around in their time, they would have had to suppress him because of "all those things about the meek inheriting the earth".
* NBC's ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'', season 2 episode 5, starts off with Abed not really religious or in favor of Christianity. Shirley manages to convince him to actually sit down and read the New Testament start-to-finish. While Abed doesn't convert or anything and still doesn't particularly favor "Christianity" the organization, actually reading the source material makes Abed change his mind and think that Jesus himself was pretty cool as He was depicted in the narrative of the New Testament (regardless of how "real" any of it was historically), or as Abed describes it "He was like E.T., Edward Scissorhands, and Marty McFly combined."
* In ''How I Met Your Mother'' Barney credits Jesus with inventing a few of the cornerstones of Bro-ness such as the three-day rule and, notably, the high five.
 
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* The Axis of Awesome has a song dedicated to this trope. Perhaps unsurprisingly, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKmh-0E5BjU it is awesome.]
* Inverted in Beck's song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPqnJ9VdNSY Satan was Way Cool].
* The [[Trope Namer]] by [[King Missile (Music)|King Missile]].
** In an inversion of a typical [[Take That]]: "No wonder there's so many Christians".
* ''I'll Bet He was Cool'' by [[Savage Garden]].
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* [[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."
* "Jesus Is Just Alright", popularized by the Doobie Brothers, and later covered by [[Christian Rock]] act dc Talk.
* [[REM (Music)|R.E.M.]]'s Michael Stipe is often critical of religion in his lyrics, and says in "New Test Leper" that while he can't say he loves Jesus, the guy did make some good points.
* Woody Guthrie's song "Jesus Christ" depicts Christ as a socialist rebel killed for speaking truth to power (and notably makes no reference to his resurrection).
* [[Lady Gaga (Music)|Lady Gaga]]'s "Black Jesus + Amen Fashion":
{{quote| ''Jesus is the new black. AOWW!!''}}
* [[Tim Minchin]]'s song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SFdUJLebzU WoodyAllenJesus] (yes, he spells it as a [[Wiki Word]]) lists some of Jesus's powers and attributes, and consequently [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|accumulates words to put in front of "Jesus"]]. "Dragon" is one of those words, but "[[Crystal Dragon Jesus|crystal]]" isn't.
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== Radio ==
* In ''[[Old Harry's Game (Radio)|Old Harrys Game]]'', Jesus [[Jesus Taboo|only gets mentioned rather than appearing directly]], but even Satan seems to have some grudging respect for him, with the worst he has to say being that he's a bit holier-than-thou. This is a marked difference from his attitude to God Himself and non-fallen angels.
 
 
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== Video Games ==
 
* Let's mention ''[[The World Ends With You (Video Game)|The World Ends With You]]'' as one of the few exceptions to the rule. Jesus, AKA {{spoiler|Joshua}}, is not exactly evil, but he knows full well he's divine in nature, and boy does he have a superiority complex. Then again, {{spoiler|he saves the main character's life, and in the end he's convinced that maybe Shibuya doesn't need to be destroyed.}}
** And let's keep in mind that the above is only [[Fanon]]- [[Memetic Mutation]], even. It would be a good deal more accurate to say that {{spoiler|Joshua}} is God. [[Rule of Symbolism]] works better for that, too.
** I dunno... 'He,' {{spoiler|Joshua}} seemed more like the Devil or God's equivalent, but for Purgatory to me.
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* 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]].
* In [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxgNjMTPIs this] ''[[I'm a Marvel And ImI'm ADCa (Fanfic)DC|I'm a Marvel And Im ADC]]'' video, [[Iron Man]] is daydreaming about the opening day of ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' and how it's stealing the hype for his movie. Everybody is rejecting his movie (released a few months before) as being yesterday's news, but the culmination is the arrival of Jesus.
{{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]]: [http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,20,Atheists-for-Jesus,Richard-Dawkins Atheists for Jesus.]
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* A semi-regular character in ''[[Ansem Retort]]''. He first came to train the cast to fight against Larxene (much to Marluxia's disappointment, who wanted a hot Latino). He later shows up to officiate over Axel and Aerith's wedding, for an "Old Testament" drinking party with Axel and Zexion, and most recently has joined Axel, Zexion, Riku, and Marluxia to fix the timestream.
** For comparison, ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' is a comic that [[Crosses the Line Twice]] in ''nearly every single strip'' and takes shots at ''everybody and everything'', usually in as crude a way as possible (and I mean that nicely). Jesus is probably the closest thing the comic has to a "good guy".
* Sandra from ''[[Sandra and Woo (Webcomic)|Sandra and Woo]]'' thinks that Jesus was a swell guy, but she can't stand his fanboys. ([http://www.sandraandwoo.com/2009/11/30/0116-jesus-of-nazareth/ see the strip])
* In ''[[Evil Diva (Webcomicwebcomic)|Evil Diva]]'', Jesus runs a cafe where he gives out advice. And coffee, of course.
{{quote| '''Diva:''' You're awesome.<br />
'''Jesus:''' I get that a lot. }}
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** Subverted in an episode about religion where Homer begins reminding the family of [[And You Know Who That Was|a certain cool guy with long hair and big ideas]]... but he's talking about a guy "who used to drive that blue car", whose name escapes him.
** On another occasion, the bullies confront Bart after Lisa converts to Buddhism, responding to his "Who cares?" by telling him there's a man who cares, who has long hair, works as a carpenter, and has some crazy ideas about peace and love. {{spoiler|His name's Gunther, and he's dating Jimbo's mom. Sometimes he buys them beer.}}
* ''[[Lucy, the Daughter of Thethe Devil]]'', revolving around a pending Armageddon, has Jesus as a laid-back deejay.
* In an ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'' [[Alternate Continuity|Christmas episode]], the Rapture occurs and Stan and Francine were left behind. Jesus comes back to lead people against the Anti Christ. He doesn't have his superpowers (except for being able to withstand freezing temperatures and [[Walk On Water]]), but he's still a [[Kung Fu Jesus|badass]]. He's [[Hunk]]y and charismatic and actually front flips onto the Anti Christ's shoulder and [[Neck Snap|snaps his neck]] with his thighs. He's also allowed to date this time and Stan calls him the best guy Francine could ever end up with.
 
== Real Life ==
 
* [[CSC. LewisS. (Creator)Lewis|CS Lewis]] was opposed to such portrayals of Jesus, writing: "I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
** [[Crazy Awesome|The two views don't exactly have to be mutually exclusive though.]]
** [[The Quran|That's assuming he said that part though.]]
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{{quote| "Look, [[God|Dad]], I went down there, I taught 'em to be hang out, be groovy, drink a bit of wine, they split into different groups! You've got the Catholics, the Protestants, the Jesuits, the Methodists, the Evangelicals, the free Presbyterians, the locked up Presbyterians... the Quakers, the Bakers, the Candlestick Makers... [[Take That|The Mormons]] ''[[Take That|are]]'' [[Take That|from Mars, Dad, we've had that checked out]]."}}
* Prominent anarchist speaker and writer Emma Goldman had nothing good to say about religion, but stated in at least one essay ("Minorities Versus Majorities") that she respected Jesus for going against the dominant powers of his day and didn't entirely disagree with his teachings -- just with the people who blindly follow them and use their religion as an excuse to persecute others.
* Averted by [[GKG. K. Chesterton]], of all people. As he says in [http://www.gkc.org.uk/gkc/books/everlasting_man.html#chap-II-ii The Everlasting Man,] "The truth is that it is the image of Christ in the churches that is almost entirely mild and merciful. It is the image of Christ in the Gospels that is a good many other things as well...The Church can reasonably be justified therefore if she turns the most merciful face or aspect towards men; but it is certainly the most merciful aspect that she does turn....A man simply taking the words of the story as they stand would form quite another impression; an impression full of mystery and possibly of inconsistency; but certainly not merely an impression of mildness."
** It should be noted that Chesterton's point is ''not'' that Jesus was not kind and merciful, but that to anyone reading the Bible for the first time with no preconceptions about Jesus would see someone who was certainly not afraid to show [[You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry|wrath]].
* Stand-up comedian Richard Herring has an entire comedy show, 'Christ on a Bike', devoted to how much of the Bible is utter nonsense if you try analyzing it sensibly, but admits that he quite likes Jesus, he just hates the evils that he sees as having been justified by Christianity and the Bible. As he puts it, "Jesus was a cool guy, a lot of the people who follow him are idiots. Jesus is a lot like [[Happy Days|The Fonz]] in that respect.
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** Not just good wine, ''the best wine''. One guy even comes up to the host and says, "Dude! You are this humongous freaking breath of fresh air! Everyone else, they start out with the good stuff and then give you cheap crap when you're too smashed to notice. But ''you''-you saved the best until the party was in full swing! Could you ''be'' more awesome?"
* Here are some verifiable (Biblically-sourced, that is) facts about Human Body v2: Post-Resurrection; the ability of either teleportation or phasing through solid matter (Jesus appearing in locked rooms), some degree of mental obfuscation (disciples at Emmaus), indestructible (1 Cor 15:42), immunity to psy-ops (Rev 21:4 - no pain, no sorrow, no sadness). And a guarantee that all genuine Christians get these upgrades. Yeah, I'm thinking that this kinda body isn't that of a zombie, unless you're talking about Necrons. Specifically, Necron Flayers. With built-in warp-portal generators. [[Badass]] enough yet?
* Dude was nice to ''the IRS guys''. He came up with food for ''five thousand'' people (so okay, He yakked at them for hours before that first, but the only reason that they were there in the first place was to listen to him). He did the whole [[Walk On Water]] thing. In. A. Storm. Heck, He even tells the storm to SHUT UP! I'M SLEEPING! And the storm ''obeys''. He can teleport, phase through solid walls, and doesn't even need [[Intimate Healing]] to actually heal someone. He's a [[Physical God]], pure and simple, and at the end of it all He even gets to [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence]]! Let's face it, no DM in the world is ever gonna let us roll up a [[God Mode Sue|player character this awesome]].
** And the only reason he bothered with ''this'' plane of existence - to get his ass kicked, no less - was to give ''us'' the chance to ascend to the higher one.
* Not to mention the fact that he can expel demons in a way that would put a Arch Cleric to shame (6,000 in one shot), and self resurrect without any help, Take that Grand Mages.
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== Other Religions' Interpretations ==
 
* [[The Quran (Literature)|The Holy Quran]]. Jesus (PBUH) could talk in the womb, and he wasn't killed. God raised him to the sky and made his enemies confuse another man for him.
* Jews vary a little more in how they see him. Relatively few Jews have any qualms with him. Most of their issues come from the [[Book of Revelation (Literature)|Book of Revelation]].
** Well, and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2027:24-27:25&version=NIV Matthew 27:24-25].
*** Still didn't keep [[You Bastard|Pilate]] from getting a [[Can't Get Away Withwith Nuthin'|(deservedly) bad rap.]] You don't get away with killing [[Jesus Was Way Cool|someone that cool]] by [[Blood Onon These Hands|washing you hands.]]
*** It is also worth noting that the Jews didn't exactly get along very well with their Roman overlords in any ''other'' areas of society besides, what with the destruction of the second temple being only forty years after. Jesus' disaster with Pilate wasn't exactly an isolated incident of Roman-to-Jew Jerkassery, just the most famous one.
** Mehhhh, if so, this is because most Jews are secularized and live in Christian environments where they don't want to stir the pot. And Jews in the past would have been killed for doing so. Theologically speaking, if Jesus really unravelled commandments that God endlessly repeated were not to be undone, then he poses a pretty big problem for observant Jews.
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