If you think the musical skewers Mormons, though, think again. Parker and Stone do challenge the literal credibility of the story of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But the Mormons they write about come across as lovable and optimistic.
“I don’t think anybody would want to see a two-hour-long Mormon-bashing, and we wouldn’t want to see that either,” Parker tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “We love the goofiness of Mormon stories. Some of them are incredulous, and we loved almost all the Mormons that we had ever met. So this was sort of this conundrum that we like to talk about — we think what they believe is really, really ridiculous, and yet they seem like pretty happy people.”
…
Along with critical acclaim, the musical has received largely positive feedback from Mormons who have seen the show, Parker says.
"The official church response was something along the lines of ‘The Book of Mormon the musical might entertain you for a night, but the Book of Mormon,’ — the book as scripture — ‘will change your life through Jesus,’ " Stone says. “Which we actually completely agree with. The Mormon church’s response to this musical is almost like our Q.E.D. at the end of it. That’s a cool, American response to a ribbing — a big musical that’s done in their name.”
“Before the church responded, a lot of people would ask us, ‘Are you afraid of what the church would say?’ And Trey and I were like, ‘They’re going to be cool.’ And they were like, ‘No, they’re not. There are going to be protests.’ And we were like, ‘Nope, they’re going to be cool.’ We weren’t that surprised by the church’s response. We had faith in them.”
This amounts to the way that I look at my dog. It’s loveable and outwardly friendly, but also stupid and destructive and terrible at driving. This isn’t an indictment, it’s a sincere and level-headed critique from an agnostic perspective on religion from a time before people needed to SLAM others for attention.
Sure. But then you still love your dog. And if you’re writing love letters to your dog in your televised comedy, that sticks out. Especially when the other half of your episodes involve cartoonishly shoving firecrackers up your neighbor’s cat’s asshole.
I don’t know that I can describe what 2000s and 2010s satire was like in a way that folks not around for it could understand. Following the episode where you point out how stupid a religion’s premise is with “only Mormons get into heaven” is meant to be taken as a joke.
Following the episode where you point out how stupid a religion’s premise is
While shamelessly glazing its members. Gary, the Mormon counterpart to the South Park gang is Twilight Vampire levels of perfect at everything. The punchline of the whole episode is that the dogma of the religion doesn’t matter, because the practitioners are these perfect, charming, innocent people. And you’re all kinda assholes for bringing up their religion to begin with.
Like, that’s the joke. The final beat of the episode is laughing at you, the audience, for thinking Mormons aren’t cool.
Wait, are you trying to say that the creators of South Park like Mormonism?
If you think the musical skewers Mormons, though, think again. Parker and Stone do challenge the literal credibility of the story of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But the Mormons they write about come across as lovable and optimistic.
“I don’t think anybody would want to see a two-hour-long Mormon-bashing, and we wouldn’t want to see that either,” Parker tells Fresh Air’s Terry Gross. “We love the goofiness of Mormon stories. Some of them are incredulous, and we loved almost all the Mormons that we had ever met. So this was sort of this conundrum that we like to talk about — we think what they believe is really, really ridiculous, and yet they seem like pretty happy people.”
…
Along with critical acclaim, the musical has received largely positive feedback from Mormons who have seen the show, Parker says.
"The official church response was something along the lines of ‘The Book of Mormon the musical might entertain you for a night, but the Book of Mormon,’ — the book as scripture — ‘will change your life through Jesus,’ " Stone says. “Which we actually completely agree with. The Mormon church’s response to this musical is almost like our Q.E.D. at the end of it. That’s a cool, American response to a ribbing — a big musical that’s done in their name.”
“Before the church responded, a lot of people would ask us, ‘Are you afraid of what the church would say?’ And Trey and I were like, ‘They’re going to be cool.’ And they were like, ‘No, they’re not. There are going to be protests.’ And we were like, ‘Nope, they’re going to be cool.’ We weren’t that surprised by the church’s response. We had faith in them.”
This amounts to the way that I look at my dog. It’s loveable and outwardly friendly, but also stupid and destructive and terrible at driving. This isn’t an indictment, it’s a sincere and level-headed critique from an agnostic perspective on religion from a time before people needed to SLAM others for attention.
Sure. But then you still love your dog. And if you’re writing love letters to your dog in your televised comedy, that sticks out. Especially when the other half of your episodes involve cartoonishly shoving firecrackers up your neighbor’s cat’s asshole.
I don’t know that I can describe what 2000s and 2010s satire was like in a way that folks not around for it could understand. Following the episode where you point out how stupid a religion’s premise is with “only Mormons get into heaven” is meant to be taken as a joke.
While shamelessly glazing its members. Gary, the Mormon counterpart to the South Park gang is Twilight Vampire levels of perfect at everything. The punchline of the whole episode is that the dogma of the religion doesn’t matter, because the practitioners are these perfect, charming, innocent people. And you’re all kinda assholes for bringing up their religion to begin with.
Like, that’s the joke. The final beat of the episode is laughing at you, the audience, for thinking Mormons aren’t cool.
“Dumb religion, decent people” pretty succinctly describes my impression of Mormons. I really take no issue.
It’s the second part you’ll struggle with. Any ex-Mormon can tell you the details.