Book of Mormon (the Musical)

SoonerAviator

SoonerAviator

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SoonerAviator
Anyone ever see the Broadway musical The Book of Mormon? Thinking about grabbing some tickets for a show.


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Yeah...saw it in New York. Funny as hell especially if you are familiar with the Mormon Faith at all.

Not the “best” show I have ever seen but worth the ticket price
 
One of my ancestors accompanied Brigham Young on the westward migration, so I learned a bit about the LDS. Very interesting. Coming to our area in a few months ... and it's done by the South Park creators ... so you know it's accurate.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
One of my ancestors accompanied Brigham Young on the westward migration, so I learned a bit about the LDS. Very interesting. Coming to our area in a few months ... and it's done by the South Park creators ... so you know it's accurate.
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The material probably wrote itself.
 
I saw it, but didn't find it funny. It's centered on shock value jokes which only works if you're religious - like parading Jesus around with a huge balloon penis.

If you're not religious however, the shock-laughter is gone and the show becomes mediocre without that.
 
redhandle said:
I saw it, but didn't find it funny. It's centered on shock value jokes which only works if you're religious - like parading Jesus around with a huge balloon penis.

If you're not religious however, the shock-laughter is gone and the show becomes mediocre without that.
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Hmm. That seems totally backward.
 
redhandle said:
If you're not religious however, the shock-laughter is gone and the show becomes mediocre without that.
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Nope, not my experience. My wife and I aren't religious; we're atheist or whatever the label is for people who actively dislike religion... and we laughed our asses off at this show. I'd see it again...
 
I'm a technocrat leaning engineer, and probably don't have a spiritual bone or cell in my body.
But in a world where we seem to have an ever increasing number of troubled people I don't find making fun of other people's spirituality all that amusing.
 
jbDC9 said:
Nope, not my experience. My wife and I aren't religious; we're atheist or whatever the label is for people who actively dislike religion... and we laughed our asses off at this show. I'd see it again...
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That would be antitheist.
 
GRG55 said:
I'm a technocrat leaning engineer, and probably don't have a spiritual bone or cell in my body.
But in a world where we seem to have an ever increasing number of troubled people I don't find making fun of other people's spirituality all that amusing.
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All humor has a fall guy. All humor. There are limitless subjects. Pick what you like (as long as it's not L. Ron Hubbard-centric, they come after you) and make fun of it.
 
I appreciate the humor/satire that South Park generally presents, so that’s why it drew my interest. I also appreciate a good musical as well. I figured it’d be something like Blazing Saddles, except with religion as the center piece instead of race. While I am a Christian, I can certainly appreciate humor directed my way and have pretty thick skin (POA prerequisites I think).


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Go! We enjoyed it very much. Irreverent humor is the best kind!
 
Hilarious. Just don’t be one to get offended.


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Update: well worth the price. I haven't laughed that much in a while. I think I was laughing at some point in every song/scene they did. Kept watching my wife out of the corner of my eye to judge her "comfort level" and only noticed a few times when they had a phrase or line that may have crossed her moral boundaries. I'd highly recommend it for those who can stomach a bit more profane religious satire. Thanks for the reviews!
 
So what I'm hearing, if you're OK with laughing at someone else's religion, it's a hoot? Does that sum it up?
 
My Mormon friends loved it. I would have gone with them but I was in training. They kept quoting the lines and busting a gut, and I just sat there, excluded from their moment. Their particular Ward embraced the exposure and thought that it was a campy, positive look into their religion. And, that's what I'd expect to hear from them. Always looking at the positive side. They also like "The Life of Brian" so there's that.

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I've never found South Park to be funny. I'm the kind of person who wishes Kenny would just stay dead. Cartman's the only redeeming character of the damned show, so I doubt I'd like this show at all.
 
bflynn said:
So what I'm hearing, if you're OK with laughing at someone else's religion, it's a hoot? Does that sum it up?
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While the main focus of the jokes is the Mormon religion, there is plenty of material that is focused on Christianity and organized religion in general to "spread the love" so-to-speak. As with much of anything faith-based, it's hard to not see some potential difficulties in logic when the foundations of a faith are not physically in existence (the golden tablets, non-biased historical accounts in this case). In the production, they never once pronounce that Mormon (or Christianity) is a farce or has no valid place in the universe. They simply have some fun illustrating some of the common issues with faith-based religion, especially when trying to explain why bad things happen to good people.

Gerhardt said:
I've never found South Park to be funny. I'm the kind of person who wishes Kenny would just stay dead. Cartman's the only redeeming character of the damned show, so I doubt I'd like this show at all.
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I think "Scott Tenorman Must Die" was one of the best episodes they ever made due to Cartman going full-crazy, lol. I thought the Woodland Critter Christmas was pretty funny as well. I generally like that they usually have Stan/Kyle end with a poignant "moral to the story" for most episodes, but occasionally they just leave it be.
 
bflynn said:
So what I'm hearing, if you're OK with laughing at someone else's religion, it's a hoot? Does that sum it up?
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And I laugh at my religion as well as others when someone points out inconsistencies, absurdities, contradictions, et. If humor didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it.

Latest twitter notice I got....Die Hard is a Hannukah movie! Haven’t had time to check it out yet.
 
Don't watch it while drinking milk unless you want milk to come out your nose.
 
redhandle said:
If you're not religious however, the shock-laughter is gone and the show becomes mediocre without that.
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[raises hand]I'm not religious at all. Quite the opposite in fact and I thought it was a great show. But its still the Southpark guys and its their brand of humor. If you're one of those people who doesn't get why people find Southpark funny then you might not get much from it.
 
bflynn said:
So what I'm hearing, if you're OK with laughing at someone else's religion, it's a hoot? Does that sum it up?
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If you're touchy about any kind of questioning of religious beliefs and practices, it might not be best way for you to spend the evening, that's for sure.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
All humor has a fall guy. All humor. There are limitless subjects. Pick what you like (as long as it's not L. Ron Hubbard-centric, they come after you) and make fun of it.
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John Cleese once made a video on this that I think speaks to this point extremely well.

"All humor is critical."

 
Juliet Hotel said:
If you're touchy about any kind of questioning of religious beliefs and practices..
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So is it prosthelytizing or just poking innocent fun at beliefs? Why would humor cause questioning religious beliefs and practices?

What I'm hearing is that they need a stand up comic to take this material and run with it. It's be a hoot for sure.
 
OkieFlyer said:
Hmm. That seems totally backward.
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Not really. If you think about it - if instead of making fun of Jesus and Joseph Smith and what not, they made fun of let's say Zeus and Hermes, the show wouldn't work.

All I'm saying is that the humor doesn't stand by itself. If it was Zeus they had parading on the stage with a massive balloon penis, people will just go: huh... okay? It only works because they have Jesus do it. And if you generally think of Jesus and Zeus in pretty much the same category anyway, it doesn't work.

And I do like South Park - just not Book of Mormon.
 
bflynn said:
So is it prosthelytizing or just poking innocent fun at beliefs? Why would humor cause questioning religious beliefs and practices?
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It seemed like just a lot of poking fun at the beliefs and practices to me. I can't say why humor would cause questioning of religious beliefs but I don't really understand much when it comes to knowing what is and isn't ok for religious folks. I try to guess but I often get it wrong.
 
GRG55 said:
I'm a technocrat leaning engineer, and probably don't have a spiritual bone or cell in my body.
But in a world where we seem to have an ever increasing number of troubled people I don't find making fun of other people's spirituality all that amusing.
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I found the show profoundly disrespectful of the Mormon religion, and I am not a Mormon. Silly me, the Mormons love the show! Don't let your opinions of religion get in the way of a good time!

-Skip
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
Have you looked at your avatar recently?
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No kidding, there are times I'm dying laughing because the show is so irreverent. My wife absolutely hates the show though. She'll tolerate Butters, but only barely....much like her tolerance for me.
 
Gerhardt said:
No kidding, there are times I'm dying laughing because the show is so irreverent. My wife absolutely hates the show though. She'll tolerate Butters, but only barely....much like her tolerance for me.
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redhandle said:
Not really. If you think about it - if instead of making fun of Jesus and Joseph Smith and what not, they made fun of let's say Zeus and Hermes, the show wouldn't work.

All I'm saying is that the humor doesn't stand by itself. If it was Zeus they had parading on the stage with a massive balloon penis, people will just go: huh... okay? It only works because they have Jesus do it. And if you generally think of Jesus and Zeus in pretty much the same category anyway, it doesn't work.

And I do like South Park - just not Book of Mormon.
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Zeus or Jesus does not matter. The show would work just fine, 99% of the public knows almost nothing about Mormons, and what they do know is a caricature based on TV shows like Sister Wives and 18 and counting.

I thought the show was hilarious, and the Mormons I know lived it. There are a lot of subtle jokes in there that I did not get until they explained them.

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