Jesus Was Way Cool: Difference between revisions

 

== 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 ==