This makes this video 10 times better, even though I barely seen the office, the only time I've watched it is when my step dad or older brother puts it on, because they are big fans and will qoute it alot
“I don’t know why they included the Devil went down to Georgia.” Jenny, someone in the congregation is a competent fiddle player-what other reason do they need??
This video has convinced me that copyright law should be abolished. Look at what we are missing out on by discouraging works based on 20 different pieces of intellectual property at once.
I don't know that this is even technically in violation of copyright laws. Surely it'd be considered transformative parody. Not that that'd stop the big studio lawyers from doing their thing.
@@findmeinthefuture.But see that's precisely the problem. A big corp lawyer can scare even other large companies enough to achieve their goals. Fair use is a defense to copyright infringement, not a mechanism to prevent the owner from suing.
@@findmeinthefuture. If you abolished copyright, or narrowed it to protecting the recording of the published performance of the work, and not abstract ideas, like people using characters and ideas like "the justice league" and performing renditions of pop songs would allow these harmless and creative productions to exist.
I never understood the message of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ until I saw Him depicted as wisecracking alcoholic womaniser Tony Stark singing Chumbawumba while being crucified. Much like an ARC reactor, the Lord truly works in mysterious ways.
"And Jesus gathered His disciples and he spoke to them, saying: "Be not afraid my brother and sisters! For indeed, though the Romans did knocketh me down, verily did I get up again! Let us rejoice, for never shall they keep me down! And now, I could really use a drink."
@@sixstringedthing, "Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, and the master of the banquet drank from the water that had been turned into a whiskey drink. Then he drank a vodka drink. He drank a lager drink. He drank a cider drink."
Sometimes you gotta blaspheme a bit to get people into the Lord. I am not sure how it works, but it happened to me, so I'm grateful for insane things like these productions. Somehow they work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve been fighting opposing sentiments as I watch this but overall I find I’m mostly on the church play’s side. At worst, they’re showing off and I’m tempted to say just do a talent show, you hams. Well, that and the problematic humor, especially the atrocious Chinese accent while wearing the stereotypical hat. If I were an orthodox believer, I’d be offended because that’s almost the definition of being orthodox - taking everything very seriously. However, what they’re doing is almost the epitome of “good clean fun.” It gets “the youth” and their elders (the worship team) working together and using bits of pop culture they know while keeping their focus on the Good News. It looks like it would be fun to be involved in, especially as a kid, and it’s a “wholesome” (low key cringe at that word, but it fits) activity that engages them in productive and creative ways and lets them bond. They certainly impart the basics of the crucifixion and more important, the resurrection in memorable ways. I feel God approves. I think it’s pretty 😎 that the adults are willing to extend themselves in ways that can be perceived as awkward and cringe for the sake of sharing their faith. And we get some pretty awesome moments to snark at. It reminds me of my ethos as a teacher: I’m willing to be goofy if it means I get the students’ attention. I try not to take myself too seriously. I guess what I’m saying is, “There but for the grace of God go I.” 😂
@@Special_Tactics_Force_Unit Just don't make the mistake of reading the Bible. It'll turn you atheist faster than you can say "God says force that child to marry the man who raped her"
Suggestion: “Mean Girls”. Jesus is Cady, and she gets crucified to the front of a bus after the burn book stuff comes out. The post-crucifixion lament is “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne.
I am happy to report that the Church of the Rock is still going strong in 2023, with an excellent rendition of "Beauty and the Beast", featuring yet another performance of Call Me Maybe, Gaston pulverizing Belle with a log battering ram, and a stirring performance of Freebird as the crucifixion lament. 11/10 live experience.
Additional fun facts: they brought in kpop to this year’s production with Gaston performing BTS’s “Butter” and the village ensemble did Rocky Horror’s “Time Warp” just straight up. Iconic
The image of Jack Sparrow crucified on a pirate ship's mast saying "It is finished" in a deathly serious tone, while lit by harsh stage lights and surrounded by a black void will forever haunt me now.
I lost it at the middle aged man screeching out “WHOA!” just a few beats too late during “Walking on Sunshine.” He just knew he wasn’t gonna hit that note. 🤣
@@CreamyPesto505 It's 9:45 AM and you're watching a grown man in a leather jacket knock over a small table and say "GAAaAhHH" while flailing a whip around.
I would genuinely unironically like to know what this congregation considers blasphemous. I don’t even mean that as an insult, it’s just genuinely fascinating how every vaguely Christian subgroup or denomination has their own standards and “crucifying Batman on the bat signal to represent Jesus” would be a dealbreaker in a lot of them I think
Kinda why I stopped going to church in general even though I consider myself a Christian. The honest truth is none of us know the answers and almost everyone within just one group of Christianity all have different views of right and wrong. I see this stuff here as a harmless fun way to try to preach to kids and their families. But I know a lot of people who would be horrified to see this.
@@TheAmericanDeagle To be fair, Catholicism is against fun in general. This church is apparently "inter-denominational?" Which I guess means they're trying to appeal to as many pop culture touchstones as possible, and probably not worrying about Catholic approval because Catholics approve of very little anyways. ... Sorry about the Catholic hate. I was raised Anglican, the rivalry is strong.
@@alexanderbrown8921 To be fair, the Catholic's did it best. Pageantry and decorum where a huge selling point throughout history for the Catholic church, it's only been in the last 100 years or so where things got boring. Would have been incredible to go to church every Sunday and see a full on 1hr to 4hr Oratorio or Cantata, or a Mass with full orchestra, choir and soloists. Many of the protestant denominations did this too, especially Cantata's but the Catholic's did it best.
@@elmartinez333There literally was, I don’t want to put a link at risk of looking like a bot but if you look up the user forgottenghostly you can find it lol
There’s something hilariously disturbing about imagining crowds of children watching their favorite fictional character dying on a cross while the supporting cast sings a cover of a pop song.
@@cake_made_of_bacon3710 and yet an evangelical mega church creating a high budget production using popular movie franchises and pop song covers to vaguely preach the second coming of Jesus to kids still sounds ridiculously American
that guy playing scar is either the frank-n-furter for their local rocky horror troupe or has been waiting his whole life to become the frank-n-furter for the local rocky horror troupe
He is strangely attractive and seems to be having fun hamming up his villain characters. I stan. (Unlikely that they'll do an Easter-themed version of Rocky Horror, as fun as that would be...)
@@stephysteph8558 if they did then frank n furter should be the jesus- HEAR ME OUT. -from somewhere that isn't earth, takes human form -several devout followers -wears a dress -often depicted wearing red -always depicted as unnaturally hot the crucifixion scene could be when he gets got by the aliens at the end, except this time he comes back and has freaky LGBT sex with every character in the play right threre on stage
"low german" is another reference to Mennonites or the Amish. There are a lot in the plains states of the US and Canada, so this crowd likely has a "friendly rivalry" going with those communities, and makes fun of them for being "simple folk". Excellent, funny and smart videos, Jenny!
And the place they're referencing is Altoona, PA; Pennsylvania is full of Mennonites and Amish speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. It isn't Low German, but saying "Palatine German" probably would be a bit academic for a church play.
I'm truly obsessed with how the other protagonist characters just have to stand around making "oh no" and "do you see this?" gestures when the person is getting crucified.
I just love the reaction: "Ah bummer, mate got mutilated and is bleeding out in the desert sun again. Third time this month. Well, guess it's back to sinning for me."
Top five moments: 5. 'I'm walking on sunshine.....WOA' 4: The moment of dawning horror when you realising they're having Sulu sing 'Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting' 3. The 'It's the end of the world as we know it/Tubthumping' crucifixion remix 2. 'He who lives by the sword dies by the sword' spoken by Westley, one of the most accomplished swordsmen in the whole movie 1. Lotso being branded a heretic and revealed to be Satan for making incredibly reasonable and down-to-earth observations
@@edgarallennope I actually just went and rewatched the video (which is still great), and it does have tub thumping in it but not both, I just remembered wrong, so I think they were just inspired by his polka style songs. Pretty funny either way though!
I might be remembering wrong, but it could be because it's easier to hit the high note in the chorus with the "Eh" sound. Also, "M" is a hard vowel to start a high note on if you're going for a quick attack. Plus, the first syllable ends with an "r" sound, which sounds ugly if you over-pronounce it, but you have to also make sure it comes through within the span of an eighth note. It wouldn't be impossible to sing, but it would be hard to give it that same detached feeling the original chorus had.
@@jjj7790 I think Jenny really shines the further the subject of her content iss from the mainstream. This video is up there with her analysis of Hallmark's youtube channel
As a Reformation historian it is fascinating that evangelicals have brought back a genre of play they explicitly worked to outlaw in the 16th and 17th centuries.
I like how there's never any explanation for the resurrection. Like no 3 days in the tomb or a moved boulder or any logistics involved, the guy just gets back up and they all sing and dance to celebrate.
I love that shriek at around 16:30 when the guy is singing "walking on sunshine" One can only assume he is trying to sing "woah-oh-oh" But it comes out as "WUUUGHHHHHH!"
@@elizabethsmith7224 There is a difference between a crowd mocking a man and a perfectly in unison "Crucify him! Crucify him!" That's more so the funny part rather than the Christian mythology itself.
I think it's kind of just a church play thing? Like I can remember the church I grew up in having plays in which they chanted "crucify him" in unison. Evidently, that's what churches take from "they all yelled to crucify him" or whatever the exact Bible verse is.
"Bonus points for the pyrotechnics when Jesus rises out of the dumpster" is one of the most amazing out-of-context lines I believe I will ever have heard.
I have to know why they felt the need to force a literal crucifixion into every single play... Imagine if Aslan had to be nailed to a cross for the metaphor to carry
It probably would have needed that if these guys were in charge of the story. Or at the very least, if they managed to make a story where it wasn’t needed, they would have forced it in there I think.
I mean he does get sacrificed on the altar in lion the witch and the wardrobe before resurrecting to help the kids save the world and that's him being 'crucified' so yak now
I honestly don’t think there was a lot of casting for these shows? The roles seem written for people to play them, so maybe they cast before writing them.
Oh, and also, I’m guessing that the leads are just the leadership team. At my old church, that group was called the church council, and it usually consisted of the pastor, the Sunday school leader, the choir director, some guy, and the piano guy.
They do. This year they did "Beauty and the Beaster" and belle gets crucified. The post crucifixion lament is free bird. And everyone sings time warp from the rocky horror show together. Iconic all around.
Growing up Christian and homeschooled, Princess Bride and Tombstone were just hot picks for this particular culture of like, trendy gen X nerd Christian. I feel so weird seeing Jenny just not get it while I'm just, instantly in on the joke, lmao.
@@doing_aok Not to come off as preachy but it's almost like religious types can't come up with anything original because religion seems to be antithetical to personal expression most times
I love that the crucifixions are always silent and drawn out, and the actors' mics are always on so you just hear them breathing the whole time. Iconic.
I love the idea that the references are so dated that many of the kids in the audience will never have seen them before. Then, some day down the line, they’ll see another reference to that piece of culture and feel totally baffled that someone is making an allusion to their church’s feverish Easter plays.
This is exactly what I would do if I were trying to be a hip pastor appealing to the kids. I want the children of my flock to one day be out in the world (probably in Canada) and hear someone tell Russel Peter's routine verbatim and think "did these people watch my church's Passion plays online" and "why are they so enamored with my pastor's stereotypical Chinese voice?". This should be the goal of every holy man.
Realistically, they'll probably realize that an international television program or whatever probably wouldn't reference a local church parody play, and assume there was a third source both drew from. If not, they'd be corrected as soon as they said something about it to someone more worldly. Your version is funnier though.
i've thought abt this with kidz bop,, how many kids whose parents didn't let them listen to the original versions growing up just think those are the real lyrics
ok that woman just taking the wig completely off to wash the Jesus character's feet was original comedy gold tbh. no way the youth pastor came up with that one that was all her
as a winnipeger who grew up with extremely religious parents, i cannot express the absolute validation i feel knowing someone else has now endured the absolute insanity i had to watching these plays growing up. welcome to the club, jenny.
I kept reading the comments to see if anyone else grew up with these, but as an Albertan who now lives in Houston, it seems like maybe this was specifically a Canadian thing
Were you ever dragged to the Grant Memorial Christmas plays? There was one where they built a large tank, so a boat could float in the water, and I think it was for less than a minute.
Not religious but grew up in MB and went to a few of these that friends were in. I thought that this was just a thing churches did. Turns out, it is not!
I’m here due to the “starwars hotel” video. I am so glad that I kept watching your videos. The evermore video was great, but this just made me so happy. The thought of these churchgoers going so hard on the Easter play was really just endearing to me.
her dear evan hansen video is my personal favorite. the “where’s buzzy” video is also up there. i definitely recommend those for someone who is new to jenny!
Me too, and not just because they used the English version either. (The actual song is called "Dragostea din tei" and I _really_ wish people - Yanks especially - would learn that)
@@twentywordsorlessYT I'm Canadian and once I learned the name, I just... used the actual name. It does bother me because the song isn't just the meme of that guy dancing.
@@thehermitwizard To be fair, the Yoda character is named Yogurt and that's the whole joke. The difference is that the rest of Spaceballs has plenty of actual wit so we can forgive the few rare Ls
It just struck me how amazing these actors are. You either need absolutely no ego or no self awareness to do the rap break on a church cover of counting stars while dressed as han solo
I really don't think this is a "weird or embarrassing" thing because of that! It is so earnest. The actors and production are really good, I didnt look them up but I hope the church itself has a general positive doctrine and theology
it’s been two years and i’ve been nursing this pet theory that the pastor’s weird ken voice is just his idea of “effeminate.” i think that he thinks ken is gay. and that he’s doing a funny gay voice.
I mean turning the once worshipped gods of the norse pantheon into the comedic stars of media for kids is a pretty major flex of Christianity's cultural domination
@@JanPospisilArt lol yeah, thanks for pointing that out, even the Edda itself is already influenced by christianity, some 1000 years more of cultural dominion isn't going to lessen that
@@JanPospisilArt Appropriating older beliefs for the benefit of preaching the new belief is not uncommon. Early Indonesian Muslims had taught some of their values by using what can be crassly described as Mahabratan fanfiction via shadow Puppets.
Right up there with gems such as "It is Satan himself who kills Jesus, by shooting him with a bazooka" and "bonus points for the pyrotechnics when Jesus rises out of the dumpster"
I went to this church. So glad you've covered this. Altona is a Manitoban town with a large Mennonite population, who speak a German dialect called low German. Many businesses in that town require workers to speak low German.
I beg of you, please don’t stop at just language facts! You’re a firsthand source to these miraculous absurdities! I have so many questions! Was this like a highlight of the year or just an “eh, Easter”-thing? What did people think about it? Were people harsh in their reviews/gossip afterwards or nice? How long was the rehearsals? What was the audition process like? I want to know *everything*
I'm from northern Germany and was kinda confused by them mentioning Altona because it's so random, haha. I know Altona as a district in the city of Hamburg, Germany. And it's in northern Germany where people speak Low German (though it is not that common anymore these days). I'd assume the Manitoban town is named after the one in Germany :)
I just love the idea of a church that was slowly taken over by a bunch of theater kids and before the congregation could do anything about it, their Pastor was dressed as Ken from Toy Story.
The way Monty Python's Life of Brian was literally banned in some countries for blasphemy and these guys are out here doing an Easter Holy Grail parody - I love it so much.
or the use of queen songs( cause protestant Christianity really rejects anything gay or bi) or the occasional song that talks about drug use or the sideways tango.
According to my research, Altona is town in Manitoba founded by Russian Mennonites. This explains both the "Low German" C-3PO joke and the "conscientious objectors during the Clone Wars" Leia joke. Altona is about an hour away from Church of the Rock in Winnipeg, so that would explain the congregation's reaction to the jokes.
I reaaaaaaaally want them to do breaking bad. The choir lady would kill it as skyler, wearing a blonde wig and a pink bathrobe. She could sing “it’s too late to apologize” as Walt is laying on the floor in a T pose, pantsless. When Walt gets resurrected, they could sing “night fever” by the Bee Gees. Also Jesse’s new catch phrase could be “cash me outside how bout dat” (instead of bitch because swears are bad), which fits in perfectly with the ongoing theme of including dead, unfunny memes in these productions. I’VE GOT THIS WHOLE THING PLANNED, YOU GUYS
There was something deeply meditative in its sheer hilarity when they joyfully yell "Let's Crucify him!" and then for about 30s to 1min all you can hear in the silence is people fumbling around and the squeaks and scuffs of shoes on the set as they try to tie x novelty character to y novelty cross.
I love how the character being crucified never puts up any fight. Stage directions are getting from Point A to Point B and they sure as hell aren’t going to deviate.
@@Minam0 The lack of a fight is pretty accurate if they're going for allegory. Jesus didn't resist, he just submitted to whatever he was being accused of before being crucified.
@@RatzaChewy You are right, but personally I love how the expression of the "Jesus" Character isn't submitting or sad or scared but just kind of... put out. Like this is a bit of an inconvenience. Even when he's on the cross, looking down, he's like: "Oh, yeah, that's me.... it's kind of a funny story."
The 'I'm walking on sunshine' followed by the out of time and key 'woah' is the pinnacle of live performance for all of human history and I will die on this hill.
I scrolled past this comment at first because I didn't know what you were talking about. Then it happened, and I cried with laughter, and had scroll back up just to tell you how right you were.
It's actually kind of interesting, now that you mention it, that these plays actually don't seem to have a Judas character (unless there was and Jenny just didn't mention it). The crucifiction is entirely orchestrated by a (sometimes literally) cartoonish villain -literally Satan in at least one of them- and there seems to be no parallel iconography to the betrayal/the silver coins etc, which is odd considering how important all of it is to the easter story. Idk if that's related to their being an evangelical church, idk the difference between different christian churches
I like to imagine a person really struggling in life, turning to the church for guidance, showing up on the holiest day of the year and seeing Buzz Lightyear crucified by Zurg and raised from the dead by a zipline and that somehow making everything right. Also props to them calling the Iron Man sacrifice before Endgame.
You have to be careful with Water Walking. If World of Warcraft has taught me anything, if you activate it too early while falling from a great height, the water counts as "ground" and you can die from fall damage. I suppose that's not as much of a concern for Jesus/Simba/Batman though.
This has the vibe of when you come across someone's deviantArt gallery and they have a ton of fanart for a variety of fandoms, but they're themed around one particular thing that tips it off as a fetish.
This comment reminds me of sarispy56 with all her fanart of rice crispy characters, animaniacs, and danger mouse forcibly being wrapped in mummy bandages.
YEAH like one time i came across someones ao3 where they wrote all nice found family fics for a fandom im in but in EVERY FIC someone was getting nonconsensually tickled??? this is that exact vibe
But now I'm even more intrigued about the "3 hour video" she mentioned in the Evan Hansen video that she's been working on since the Vampire Diaries episode.
Lol. The Luke joke you were confused about, "Altona" is a town/city in Manitoba near Winnipeg. There is a prominent religious population and many speak a form of low German. So it's just a local geography culture joke.
that section in the princess bride play where vizzini takes a too long pause between 'I'm walking on sunshine' and then screaming instead of singing 'woah' is my new ring tone
oh god the part where I need to sing the 'woah' is coming up soon. it's got got that high e note that I always struggle to nail in rehearsal couldn't they have rearranged it to suit my voca... oh shhh, did I miss it? no I can still make it. perhaps I don't need to. but my audience expects it. well here we go..." "Wggghaaaaowwwhhh!!!" nailed it (just like our lord and saviour amen 🙏 )
I get so sucked into Jenny's commentary that I forget that one of the characters in this play is going to get horribly and hilariously crucified in just a few short moments.
It's so jarring. Other than some questionable racial stereotyping, these plays are so anodyne, squeaky clean and super cheesy. Then boom, one of the characters is fucking dead from crucifixion. I get that they gotta do it, it being an Easter play and all, but how weird would that be without the context of religion? Like, you're watching a cutesy kids' cartoon about talking farm animals and then the farmer casually chops off Mr. Chicken's head; it's just whiplash tone shifts.
@@nemo-zl1vm you don't "GOTTA" do it...my church as a kid had way more subtle Easter plays with completely original material. I wouldn't say the writing was great, but it was better than this dreck. No crucifixions, except maybe allegorical. I think our congregation would have been pretty offended to see Jack Sparrow or Tony Stark made literally into Jesus. Of course, the youth pastor who wrote our plays turned out to be a child molester, so...you win some, you lose some, I guess.
In their defense, crucifying Batman on the Batsignal DOES seem like the kind of cliffhanger the Adam West show would use, so points for spiritual accuracy.
I was gonna say Batman being crucified on the Bat Signal is something I can totally see in the edgier Batman comics, especially the ones of the 90s/early 2000s.
Agree on the Adam West comment. It could even use the terrible pun: "Batman! How did you come back!" "Well chem, I guess you could say I...saw the light."
If no one else has said it, the "Altona" joke is a reference to a town outside of Winnipeg, Altona, which was settled by Mennonites from Russia who spoke a variant of low German. So it's like, a REALLY local joke, it's referencing that religious heritage in the punchline. Also the joke of like, "Altona sounds like a Star Wars planet"
I’d like to think that somewhere in that church, there’s a child who has never seen the original Star Wars, and they grow up truly believing that it’s canon. This child grows up; randomly their friend group starts talking about Star Wars, the child wants to fit in and without hesitation shouts, “oh I saw that when I was a kid!! It was so crazy when Luke Moonwalker got stuck in carbonite! And then died for our sins!”
As a musician who is frequently contracted by churches to accompany their plays, I can tell you that churches (mainly Catholic churches) are some of the biggest supporters of the arts, and always pay well (and quickly... which is rare elsewhere). Additionally, they tend to have directors who are fun to work with. The cast, of course, varies based on the congregants, but sometimes you get some really good leads that you later see on the professional circuit. I knew someone who went from playing Beast in a Church-produced Beauty and the Beast musical to playing the lead in a number of opera productions for a (relatively) high profile company.
oh Catholic productions are a VERY different beast to Evangelical productions (and Evangelicals don't generally pay well if at all, and mostly rely on volunteers from their congregation - hiring a non-Christian would be a big no-no)
You’ve answered the question “what would happen if Michael Scott was both real and an evangelical pastor?”
That’s too accurate omg
LMAO facts
Dude literally, from the jokes with flat delivery, to the songs, to the racial insensitivity (and yellowface).
This makes this video 10 times better, even though I barely seen the office, the only time I've watched it is when my step dad or older brother puts it on, because they are big fans and will qoute it alot
Right down to the racist impressions of Asian people, lol
“I don’t know why they included the Devil went down to Georgia.” Jenny, someone in the congregation is a competent fiddle player-what other reason do they need??
this made me laugh WAAAAAAAY too hard lmfao
Seriously, they kinda nailed the solo, too. If you have someone that can do that, YOU USE THEM!
My thoughts exactly after the pastor played the undertaker lol.
@@jalight27 noooooooooo.gif
This is EXACTLY what I thought 😂
"So, my recent fascination has been obscure Canadian church plays."
That's not an opening hook, it's a harpoon.
Agree, I'm an hour in, there is no way out, and when I get to the end... I'll start again
CURSE YOU BAYLE
It's a tractor beam
This video has convinced me that copyright law should be abolished. Look at what we are missing out on by discouraging works based on 20 different pieces of intellectual property at once.
I don't know that this is even technically in violation of copyright laws. Surely it'd be considered transformative parody. Not that that'd stop the big studio lawyers from doing their thing.
@@findmeinthefuture.Sadly parody doesnt protect people as much as it should
@@findmeinthefuture.Might also be protected because it’s a church
@@findmeinthefuture.But see that's precisely the problem. A big corp lawyer can scare even other large companies enough to achieve their goals. Fair use is a defense to copyright infringement, not a mechanism to prevent the owner from suing.
@@findmeinthefuture. If you abolished copyright, or narrowed it to protecting the recording of the published performance of the work, and not abstract ideas, like people using characters and ideas like "the justice league" and performing renditions of pop songs would allow these harmless and creative productions to exist.
ok but Batman being crucified to the Batlight is 100% something Zack Snyder would've unironically done if he continued making DC films
Would be funny if Snyder accidentally got one of the scripts and said “beautiful!” And used it as the base for Batman v Superman
I feel like we spacking this in to existons
I wouldn't even have put it past Nolan...
I feel like I've seen a picture of it from a comic
@@andrewjenkins9965 the cheap trick of Jesus imagery is squarely a Snyder trope, Nolan doesn’t really lean into obvious images like that
I never understood the message of our lord and saviour Jesus Christ until I saw Him depicted as wisecracking alcoholic womaniser Tony Stark singing Chumbawumba while being crucified. Much like an ARC reactor, the Lord truly works in mysterious ways.
I mean, Tony Stark singing Chumbawumba as he dies is probably the most in character thing about the performance tbf
The knowledge that Chumbawamba were an anarcho-punk band also makes it even funnier
OUR LORD AND SAVIOR was able to forgive our sins IN A CAVE with a BOX OF SCRAPS.
"And Jesus gathered His disciples and he spoke to them, saying: "Be not afraid my brother and sisters! For indeed, though the Romans did knocketh me down, verily did I get up again! Let us rejoice, for never shall they keep me down! And now, I could really use a drink."
@@sixstringedthing, "Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet drank from the water that had been turned into a whiskey drink.
Then he drank a vodka drink. He drank a lager drink. He drank a cider drink."
Rewriting "Rasputin" to be about Jesus and performed by people dressed as Star Trek characters might very well be humanity's greatest achievement.
The Lord works in mysterious ways
Take that pyramids! 😠
seeing this comment after 17 minutes and now I know I'm watching til the end
Boney M's Rasputin = Disco Sex Jesus and I'm ashamed I never figured this out.
what's this "might be" mishegas
missed opportunity for "live by the lightsaber, die by the lightsaber"
That was the one bit of copyright even they were too scared to use.
@@Nemo2342 call it lightsword, then
“Live by the Force, die by the Force”
The “I’m walking on sunshine……………………………wHØÃÂÅÆ” fucking beheaded me
don’t you mean crucified you?
Fuuuckk I scrolled down hoping someone else noticed because I'm coming undone from it lmao
I laughed so much i almost threw up
Same😭
That was amazing!
Being completely serious, “Batman gets crucified on the bat signal” seems like something the comics would 100% do
::::Zack Snyder has entered the chat:::::
Batman Begins kinda does that. He ties a gangster to a serchlight in a sorta Christ pose, it forms the first Batsignal.
@@gblatt8472 that random gangster is jesus
@@user-on8ut1rb1t Batman! How could you!?
@@user-on8ut1rb1t wasn’t that “random” gangster Carmine the Roman Falcone. The mob boss.
“~i’m walkin’ on sunshine~……….. Ẉ̸̛̔̀̉̈́̈́͆̑̀̓̃̿̀̓͝ͅḨ̸̨̹͎̫̱̩͚̦̗͍̺̖̽̄͊̽̆̿̓̓̍̿͘͘͝͝ͅͅÚ̴͕̻͎͔̪̙͇̠̩̲̤̻͎̗̌̚U̴̢̟͂̉̽̋̋͜-“
16:32 is still funny after my maybe 4th time watching this video
I wish the guy who tried to sing the opening of Kung Fu Fighting in the Star Trek one got the same love.
I DIED
Sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep this line plays on repeat in my head
@@reginaborsellino3607 it's taking over my brain space
That delayed "WOÄÆHH" sounds like he got scared by actually stepping on the sunshine.
Fuck me that was hilarious
😭 yes
Omg I nearly cried laughing so hard. The hesitation and then the failed and super short woahhh...I could rewatch this over and over
@@KayLeeScimade even better by Jenny hard-cutting and moving on without any acknowledgment whatsoever
@@Skip6235 Her editing is so good and so underrated, the way she cuts things off like that always gets me
I think the audience should pitch in to help resurrect Jesus by clapping like they do with tinkerbell
I JUST LAUGHED OUT LOUD AT THAT THATS SO FUNNY
LMFAOOO THATS GOLDEN
If they did a Peter Pan play and didn't do that bit that'd be a sin.
Seriously why haven't they done this?
i've never heard of that, they did that in peter pan? thats pretty ingenius.
Butch Chastity is an incredible name. Almost a drag name, really.
Honestly!!
Almost?!
Well I found my drag name, finally
And I’m fixated on the fire code violations.
I’m so happy to inform you that there is indeed a drag king named Butch Chastity
For anyone wondering, the church of the rock’s 2023 Easter play was Beauty and the Beast and Belle was crucified
thank you for sharing i was so curious
WHY BELLE
Can I watch it somewhere 💀
Beast literally dies and is revived in the movie, but I guess he is mean and Belle is a pious figure so it makes sense but its also hilarious
Diversity win
It's amazing that this church didn't think any of this was obscenely blasphemous.
Sometimes you gotta blaspheme a bit to get people into the Lord. I am not sure how it works, but it happened to me, so I'm grateful for insane things like these productions. Somehow they work ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’ve been fighting opposing sentiments as I watch this but overall I find I’m mostly on the church play’s side.
At worst, they’re showing off and I’m tempted to say just do a talent show, you hams. Well, that and the problematic humor, especially the atrocious Chinese accent while wearing the stereotypical hat. If I were an orthodox believer, I’d be offended because that’s almost the definition of being orthodox -
taking everything very seriously.
However, what they’re doing is almost the epitome of “good clean fun.” It gets “the youth” and their elders (the worship team) working together and using bits of pop culture they know while keeping their focus on the Good News. It looks like it would be fun to be involved in, especially as a kid, and it’s a “wholesome” (low key cringe at that word, but it fits) activity that engages them in productive and creative ways and lets them bond. They certainly impart the basics of the crucifixion and more important, the resurrection in memorable ways. I feel God approves.
I think it’s pretty 😎 that the adults are willing to extend themselves in ways that can be perceived as awkward and cringe for the sake of sharing their faith. And we get some pretty awesome moments to snark at.
It reminds me of my ethos as a teacher: I’m willing to be goofy if it means I get the students’ attention. I try not to take myself too seriously. I guess what I’m saying is, “There but for the grace of God go I.” 😂
@@Special_Tactics_Force_Unit Just don't make the mistake of reading the Bible. It'll turn you atheist faster than you can say "God says force that child to marry the man who raped her"
Christians don't seem to understand how awfully Jesus would look at thier lives.
They’re evangelicals. They only care about blasphemy if they can use it as a weapon against police they don’t like lol
i'm going to be recovering from the thought that Butch Chastity is a better drag name than i could ever hope to come up with for the next couple days
Steal it! No one will ever know
I mean, I don't think the person who made it up plans to use it…
How about Rhonda Santis?
It's an amazing drag name and you absolutely should.
@@rwolfheart6580 usually i do female drag and my name is Blunt Cake... if i ever do make drag though i AM taking Butch Chastity now
Suggestion: “Mean Girls”. Jesus is Cady, and she gets crucified to the front of a bus after the burn book stuff comes out. The post-crucifixion lament is “Girlfriend” by Avril Lavigne.
The resurrection is obviously the prom scene.
Noooo crucifixtion would happen after the “she doesn’t even go here scene” bc that way you have everyone there to yell crucify her LMAO
@@jadeharley7190 yeah, that’s actually better.
Stop giving them ideas!
On Wednesdays we kill God
I am happy to report that the Church of the Rock is still going strong in 2023, with an excellent rendition of "Beauty and the Beast", featuring yet another performance of Call Me Maybe, Gaston pulverizing Belle with a log battering ram, and a stirring performance of Freebird as the crucifixion lament. 11/10 live experience.
Additional fun facts: they brought in kpop to this year’s production with Gaston performing BTS’s “Butter” and the village ensemble did Rocky Horror’s “Time Warp” just straight up. Iconic
Absolutely incredible. Thank you for reporting in
I'm fucking crying, thank you for this.
did they give a shout-out to Jenny? they should 😂
@yourstruly9013 rocky horror show in the church easter play... much to contemplate
"The Nazi general inexplicably sings Numa Numa" is not a sentence i ever thought i would hear as a german
Honestly Simba's actress mumbling "man they make Pride Rock higher every year" after almost falling is a very charming save! Good on that actress!
That's what I was thinking! It made me smile!
Yeah, it was a really fun ad lib! Loved it.
It was a nice save. Respect.
Man, Jenny’s comments section can be so rad sometimes. 😊
💯💯
It wouldn’t be an evangelical church play if the youth pastor wasn’t rapping at some point 🤷🏼♀️
Rapping or rap- you know what I mean. 😬
@@jody024 it’s a good joke. A great joke even, but I’m gonna have to ask you to stop
"Well i wrote this song for the Christian youth..." you know the rest
"My crew is big and it keeps getting bigger. That’s cause Jesus Christ is my..."
Well, you know the rest. Christian rap at its finest!
True, it's basically the law
The image of Jack Sparrow crucified on a pirate ship's mast saying "It is finished" in a deathly serious tone, while lit by harsh stage lights and surrounded by a black void will forever haunt me now.
It’s like how the Internet sees Johnny Depp!
@@JohnTheMod1 We should be so lucky to see that
Sounds like a Dall-e input
That was actually so horrifying.
I thought it was hilarious, but you do you.
They aren't actually out of date with their references, that's just how time works in Canada.
Like in politics Canada is always about eight years behind the US. But catching up fast.
I lost it at the middle aged man screeching out “WHOA!” just a few beats too late during “Walking on Sunshine.” He just knew he wasn’t gonna hit that note. 🤣
Watched it three times. Best part of the video.
I'm walking on sunshine..........WAAHAAA
It was such an honest cry of pain.
16:28 is the timestamp, replay button engaged x10000
I absolutely lost it at that part 😂😂😂😂😂😂 such a cry of pain
"bonus points for the pyrotechnics when christ rises out of the dumpster" is genuinely the funniest sentence i've heard in years
Oh my god i just commented practically the same observation lol
It's honestly one of the best out of context sentences I've heard in a long time.
@@superxxamadeus4098 9th 0⁹
Hey, every!
I literally started keeping a list of great sentences I've heard because of this line.
"Butch Chastity" is a god tier character name and they probably didn't even foresee the implications.
It’s a god tier lesbian stripper name
Somewhere out there, an aspiring drag king just got the final push towards living their dream.
It's a great drag king name
Gonna start calling myself Butch Chastity bc I'm a lesbian who can't get laid
I think that’s gonna be my stripper name lol
its also hilarious because all of these shows are probably happening at 9:30 AM
I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT.
Imagine having woken up 2 hours ago, and you get slapped with the Scar Welcome to the Jungle scene.
@@CreamyPesto505 It's 9:45 AM and you're watching a grown man in a leather jacket knock over a small table and say "GAAaAhHH" while flailing a whip around.
@@gtorellwell, that's a normal tuesday for me...
I would genuinely unironically like to know what this congregation considers blasphemous. I don’t even mean that as an insult, it’s just genuinely fascinating how every vaguely Christian subgroup or denomination has their own standards and “crucifying Batman on the bat signal to represent Jesus” would be a dealbreaker in a lot of them I think
Oh being gay/trans apparently. So like they’re completely fine with showing different character being “Christ” but being gay is bad ig??
It’s just incredible. If I showed this to my catholic mom she would be outraged
Kinda why I stopped going to church in general even though I consider myself a Christian. The honest truth is none of us know the answers and almost everyone within just one group of Christianity all have different views of right and wrong. I see this stuff here as a harmless fun way to try to preach to kids and their families. But I know a lot of people who would be horrified to see this.
@@TheAmericanDeagle To be fair, Catholicism is against fun in general. This church is apparently "inter-denominational?" Which I guess means they're trying to appeal to as many pop culture touchstones as possible, and probably not worrying about Catholic approval because Catholics approve of very little anyways.
... Sorry about the Catholic hate. I was raised Anglican, the rivalry is strong.
@@alexanderbrown8921 To be fair, the Catholic's did it best. Pageantry and decorum where a huge selling point throughout history for the Catholic church, it's only been in the last 100 years or so where things got boring. Would have been incredible to go to church every Sunday and see a full on 1hr to 4hr Oratorio or Cantata, or a Mass with full orchestra, choir and soloists. Many of the protestant denominations did this too, especially Cantata's but the Catholic's did it best.
I would give ANYTHING for an annual reality show about the making of this play. The behind-the-scenes drama has to be INSANE.
I’m imagining a Waiting For Guffman with a much more subdued cast
If it's anything like my church growing up, it's a lot of angry whispering while smiling through clenched teeth.
I’d pay for a real life Goes Wrong Show where they just make a new play every week
Isn't that basically the film _Theater Camp,_ starring Ben Platt?
Especially the casting drama because it's quite clear certain church members get first dibs on the roles.
Avengers' Loki singing Call Me Maybe is the most 2012 tumblr thing ever.
oh god, i can see the fan edit now. he's singing to idk black widow but in the end she's lesbian for pepper potts
and that's the 2018 production
I want that song so badly
I thought there literally was a Tumblr post floating around with the exact lyrics they used too 😭
@@elmartinez333There literally was, I don’t want to put a link at risk of looking like a bot but if you look up the user forgottenghostly you can find it lol
50% accurate robin Williams impression is a perfect observation
There’s something hilariously disturbing about imagining crowds of children watching their favorite fictional character dying on a cross while the supporting cast sings a cover of a pop song.
And Ridiculously American
@@cake_made_of_bacon3710 and yet an evangelical mega church creating a high budget production using popular movie franchises and pop song covers to vaguely preach the second coming of Jesus to kids still sounds ridiculously American
the fact is that the christian stories are already hilariously disturbing in themselves
@@sigh824 this is a Canadian Church, bigot.
This is the world we made.
I can't believe they didn't change "I'm walking on sunshine" to "I'm walking on water"
Same syllables and everything. So sad. Maybe they thought it sounded too much like mockery?
@arbitrarytoast I mean the whole situation feels like a mockery to begin with.
Ikr such a missed opportunity lmao 💀
"WHOA"
By the same token, I'm surprised they didn't use "You got a friend in me" for the Toy Story play. That song is _gift-wrapped_ for being about Jesus.
that guy playing scar is either the frank-n-furter for their local rocky horror troupe or has been waiting his whole life to become the frank-n-furter for the local rocky horror troupe
Don´t we all wait our whole life to be the frank-n-furter of our local Rocky horror troupe tho? That is a given, but this guy actually was born for it
@@Misora7303 as a current Frank, can confirm 😄
He is strangely attractive and seems to be having fun hamming up his villain characters. I stan. (Unlikely that they'll do an Easter-themed version of Rocky Horror, as fun as that would be...)
It’s hard to watch Marty McFly playing sax… especially because we know Luke Skywalker plays guitar.
@@stephysteph8558 if they did then frank n furter should be the jesus- HEAR ME OUT.
-from somewhere that isn't earth, takes human form
-several devout followers
-wears a dress
-often depicted wearing red
-always depicted as unnaturally hot
the crucifixion scene could be when he gets got by the aliens at the end, except this time he comes back and has freaky LGBT sex with every character in the play right threre on stage
"low german" is another reference to Mennonites or the Amish. There are a lot in the plains states of the US and Canada, so this crowd likely has a "friendly rivalry" going with those communities, and makes fun of them for being "simple folk".
Excellent, funny and smart videos, Jenny!
That makes sense there was another Mennonite joke in the batman section
In Manitoba there is a significant Hutterite populations (similar Anabaptist origin story to Mennonites and and Amish)
Altona, Canada was founded by Plautdietsch (Low-German) speaking Mennonites, per Wikipedia.
And the place they're referencing is Altoona, PA; Pennsylvania is full of Mennonites and Amish speaking Pennsylvania Dutch. It isn't Low German, but saying "Palatine German" probably would be a bit academic for a church play.
@@Aquilarden I think they are talking about Altona, Manitoba though perhaps the origins of the name are the same?
I'm truly obsessed with how the other protagonist characters just have to stand around making "oh no" and "do you see this?" gestures when the person is getting crucified.
"get a loada this crap"
They should all just turn to the audience and deadpan shrug like "Whaddya gonna do?" à la Jim from The Office.
I just love the reaction: "Ah bummer, mate got mutilated and is bleeding out in the desert sun again. Third time this month. Well, guess it's back to sinning for me."
"say whaaaaaaaat"
also the character being crucified looks *inconvenienced* in most of them lol
Top five moments:
5. 'I'm walking on sunshine.....WOA'
4: The moment of dawning horror when you realising they're having Sulu sing 'Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting'
3. The 'It's the end of the world as we know it/Tubthumping' crucifixion remix
2. 'He who lives by the sword dies by the sword' spoken by Westley, one of the most accomplished swordsmen in the whole movie
1. Lotso being branded a heretic and revealed to be Satan for making incredibly reasonable and down-to-earth observations
I wish I heard that Lodso as a kid, it would have saved me a lot of time on my atheist character arc
it's almost like they have to reveal that he's Satan because based on the arguments he was making for atheism, they already lost
If I'm not mistaken number 3 is actually part of Weird Al's song "polka power", which is great
@@iamjustkiwi that would be their second Weird Al reference incredible????
@@edgarallennope I actually just went and rewatched the video (which is still great), and it does have tub thumping in it but not both, I just remembered wrong, so I think they were just inspired by his polka style songs. Pretty funny either way though!
I can’t process the backwards logic of renaming Marty “Jesse” just to sing Jesse’s Girl instead of just changing the song to “Marty’s Girl”
To be fair "marty's girl" doesn't sound quite as good with the music IMO. But there are a truckload of confusing choices in these shows
I might be remembering wrong, but it could be because it's easier to hit the high note in the chorus with the "Eh" sound. Also, "M" is a hard vowel to start a high note on if you're going for a quick attack. Plus, the first syllable ends with an "r" sound, which sounds ugly if you over-pronounce it, but you have to also make sure it comes through within the span of an eighth note.
It wouldn't be impossible to sing, but it would be hard to give it that same detached feeling the original chorus had.
Could be a reference to The Tree of Jesse which is the genealogy of Jesus
They should have gone with Hey Mickey. They also should have named him Mickey.
it also sounds more like Jesus
"It is Satan himself who kills Jesus, by shooting him with a bazooka"
"So my recent fascination has been obscure Canadian church plays."
Jenny Nicholson never disappoints.
I wonder what Jenny N has been up to late- oh of course.
@@ambds1975 I mean OBVIOUSLY
I'm constantly surprised by Jenny's ability to find the most obscure "bad" media and turn them into a genuinely interesting videos.
@@jjj7790 I think Jenny really shines the further the subject of her content iss from the mainstream. This video is up there with her analysis of Hallmark's youtube channel
I’m glad she’s getting her audience of pagans into good Christian media
As a Reformation historian it is fascinating that evangelicals have brought back a genre of play they explicitly worked to outlaw in the 16th and 17th centuries.
That is INCREDIBLE
It is indeed very interesting to compare :D
Well they do need to find a way to keep the youth interested
Oh God history is repeating itself
Blame the Calvinists
Man, crucifying Michael Jackson the year after his actual death barely breaks the top 10 of questionable decisions in this series.
Comparing him to their prophet is the most fucked up bit. He was a paedophile
It's probably not even top 5 from that play alone
Like... choosing Michael Jackson for that analogy in the first place?
He would have still been alive at that point too which is funnier
and then tossing his body in a dumpster after, like.... who allowed this??
I like how there's never any explanation for the resurrection. Like no 3 days in the tomb or a moved boulder or any logistics involved, the guy just gets back up and they all sing and dance to celebrate.
It's because he took the place of an innocent to be sacrificed on the Stone Table
And then they sing Gangnam Style.
I love that shriek at around 16:30 when the guy is singing "walking on sunshine"
One can only assume he is trying to sing "woah-oh-oh"
But it comes out as "WUUUGHHHHHH!"
I wheezed so hard at that one
The timing is perfect. As in: just long enough that you think "Oh, he's not going to do it. Good call." And then "WUUAAUGH!" 🤣😂
My guy has just got some ork in him, had to get the WAAAAUUUGH out
I rewatched that at least 4 times
That bit *literally* knocked me off my feet haha. I was on the floor with laughter.
Jenny: Robin of the Hood
Me: Oh No.
Jenny: If the title makes you nervous, that's a good impulse.
Me: Oh NO.
Lmao, same!
I had the same reaction! Had to pause to give into my laughing fit immediately so I wouldn't miss anything.
OH YEAH!!!!!
OK but Men in Tights did it first and much better and yet somehow worse
Ditto... LMAO.
Obsessed with the fact that almost every crucifixion is preceded by the cast chanting "Crucify him!" or "String him up!" in perfect chorus.
I mean that's the story in general. Jesus was yelled at a mocked leading up to his death.
@@elizabethsmith7224 There is a difference between a crowd mocking a man and a perfectly in unison "Crucify him! Crucify him!" That's more so the funny part rather than the Christian mythology itself.
@@jortsofficial173 I assume it’s a reference to Jesus Christ Superstar
Idea: Every Production of the Church Play Cinematic Universe all at once, but they're all timed so that the crucifixions all synch up perfectly
I think it's kind of just a church play thing? Like I can remember the church I grew up in having plays in which they chanted "crucify him" in unison. Evidently, that's what churches take from "they all yelled to crucify him" or whatever the exact Bible verse is.
38:55 The "NOT Welcome to HELL Valley" sign is the kind of attention to detail that sets these productions apart.
"Please drive... RECKLESSLY!"
"Bonus points for the pyrotechnics when Jesus rises out of the dumpster" is one of the most amazing out-of-context lines I believe I will ever have heard.
Heck, even IN context it's amazing.
"Zurg is Satan, and it is Satan himself that kills [him]Jesus with a bazooka...
It's a disappointing crucifixition in my opinion." is a close 2nd imo
"I really wanted to see one of these toys nailed to a cross" is mine
That combination of words caught me so off guard that I needed to pause the video because I was crying-laughing for a little too long.
Dumpster fire Jesus was definitely my favourite resurrection so far 😆
I can’t decide whether the Christian Gangnam Style rendition or the female nazi singing Adele is my favorite
Also the electric guitar guy actually has some SPICE to him and deserved even more time
How does that sentence even truthfully exist?
r/brandnewsentences
What a line.
This is an absolutely WILD comment to see when I'm only two minutes in, bless you for leaving it
I have to know why they felt the need to force a literal crucifixion into every single play... Imagine if Aslan had to be nailed to a cross for the metaphor to carry
It probably would have needed that if these guys were in charge of the story.
Or at the very least, if they managed to make a story where it wasn’t needed, they would have forced it in there I think.
I mean he does get sacrificed on the altar in lion the witch and the wardrobe before resurrecting to help the kids save the world and that's him being 'crucified' so yak now
I mean he was tied to a table
@@batnacks That's just a lazy crucifixion.
I can’t believe they didn’t do a Narnia one, seriously the pins were already there you just had to knock them down!
I know the casting drama for these plays was INSANE
Not really, it's like the same 3 people in the lead roles every year
I honestly don’t think there was a lot of casting for these shows? The roles seem written for people to play them, so maybe they cast before writing them.
Oh, and also, I’m guessing that the leads are just the leadership team. At my old church, that group was called the church council, and it usually consisted of the pastor, the Sunday school leader, the choir director, some guy, and the piano guy.
If this church still does these Easter plays. Can’t wait to see them do a Mario play where we see Bowser and the Koopas crucifying Mario on a cross
They do. This year they did "Beauty and the Beaster" and belle gets crucified. The post crucifixion lament is free bird. And everyone sings time warp from the rocky horror show together. Iconic all around.
I would KILL for this one blu-ray
Would the crucifix be a warp pipe or a flag pole
@@LifesNeverHumDrumFLAG POLE.
Mario died for our sins. Yahoo...
I cannot tell you how much “ I may look like a cat, but I feel like a woman! “ Has changed my life
Let’s go girls!
the dean watching the dalmatian bodybuilder hoping it didn't awaken anything in him vibes
She said ALLEY CAT… I lost it, the world shifted
I just wanna know what they did to the lyrics...
21:00
As someone who grew up Evangelical I just realized "the joke going on uncomfortably long" is a major feature of Evangelical humour and my childhood.
Growing up Christian and homeschooled, Princess Bride and Tombstone were just hot picks for this particular culture of like, trendy gen X nerd Christian.
I feel so weird seeing Jenny just not get it while I'm just, instantly in on the joke, lmao.
additionally: parodies of pop culture. see bibleman and veggietales
They realize they've found something that can make someone laugh a little and they milk the joke until it's drained, dead, and dessicated
@@doing_aok Not to come off as preachy but it's almost like religious types can't come up with anything original because religion seems to be antithetical to personal expression most times
It's a staple, for sure.
I love that the crucifixions are always silent and drawn out, and the actors' mics are always on so you just hear them breathing the whole time. Iconic.
I love the idea that the references are so dated that many of the kids in the audience will never have seen them before. Then, some day down the line, they’ll see another reference to that piece of culture and feel totally baffled that someone is making an allusion to their church’s feverish Easter plays.
i literally snorted reading this lmaooo the idea of that is so funny
This is exactly what I would do if I were trying to be a hip pastor appealing to the kids. I want the children of my flock to one day be out in the world (probably in Canada) and hear someone tell Russel Peter's routine verbatim and think "did these people watch my church's Passion plays online" and "why are they so enamored with my pastor's stereotypical Chinese voice?". This should be the goal of every holy man.
Realistically, they'll probably realize that an international television program or whatever probably wouldn't reference a local church parody play, and assume there was a third source both drew from. If not, they'd be corrected as soon as they said something about it to someone more worldly.
Your version is funnier though.
@@timothymclean yeah, I know. But a man can dream…
i've thought abt this with kidz bop,, how many kids whose parents didn't let them listen to the original versions growing up just think those are the real lyrics
ok that woman just taking the wig completely off to wash the Jesus character's feet was original comedy gold tbh. no way the youth pastor came up with that one that was all her
Time stamp please🤣
That was unironically hilarious, and from the reactions of the other actors i think it wasn’t rehearsed and she sprung that on them live
@@vladimirvilliani6732 50:29
as a winnipeger who grew up with extremely religious parents, i cannot express the absolute validation i feel knowing someone else has now endured the absolute insanity i had to watching these plays growing up. welcome to the club, jenny.
I kept reading the comments to see if anyone else grew up with these, but as an Albertan who now lives in Houston, it seems like maybe this was specifically a Canadian thing
Aw man, I was really hoping that these were some elaborate fever dream that Jenny's imagination accidentally manifested into actual footage.
Were you ever dragged to the Grant Memorial Christmas plays?
There was one where they built a large tank, so a boat could float in the water, and I think it was for less than a minute.
Not religious but grew up in MB and went to a few of these that friends were in. I thought that this was just a thing churches did. Turns out, it is not!
Admit it. You're from Steinbach.
I’m here due to the “starwars hotel” video. I am so glad that I kept watching your videos. The evermore video was great, but this just made me so happy. The thought of these churchgoers going so hard on the Easter play was really just endearing to me.
her dear evan hansen video is my personal favorite. the “where’s buzzy” video is also up there. i definitely recommend those for someone who is new to jenny!
Just wait until you get to the Hallmark drama and Christmas Prince analysis!
Weird that’s also how I got here 😂
@@GerthiousThe Hallmark video will forever be my favorite
I'd seen a lot of her work already but by entertaining coincidence Star Wars Hotel -> Evermore -> This is also how I got here
i love how they inadvertently made simba and nala lesbians. good for them.
I WASN'T GONNA SAY ANYTHING LMAO
Actually i think they might be a straight couple but simba is trans, considering he's played by a woman but is still called a boy.
@@cinderellaskeleton6720 Aw, still good for them!
@@cinderellaskeleton6720 good point! still a win.
@@cinderellaskeleton6720 that's what's I was going to say. Transmasc Simba is Canon in the churchplay universe
The guy who softly whispers ‘oh no!’ when Captain Jack gets crucified at 9:07 has a special place in my heart
Too pure for this multiverse
He believed it.
that was so pure
1:09:38
The performance of the numa numa song hit me like a brick
I'm still on "the priceless bride of christ" and I am NOT mentally prepared for this
they put him in an american air force formal uniform agshdgafafahs
Me too, and not just because they used the English version either.
(The actual song is called "Dragostea din tei" and I _really_ wish people - Yanks especially - would learn that)
@@twentywordsorlessYT I'm Canadian and once I learned the name, I just... used the actual name. It does bother me because the song isn't just the meme of that guy dancing.
Me with the Zurg twist
Okay but if the Only One Cannoli joke was in spaceballs people would say it's the funniest thing ever and reference it all the time
OK but Spaceballs wouldn't have made the joke.
But that does make me wish they'd stolen the Stunt Doubles joke.
@@thehermitwizard To be fair, the Yoda character is named Yogurt and that's the whole joke.
The difference is that the rest of Spaceballs has plenty of actual wit so we can forgive the few rare Ls
@@davehollis5816 the merchandise scene alone made up for his name being yogurt
Catwoman using a very forced line of dialogue to start up “I Feel Like A Woman” was nothing short of euphoric
I’m in love with this Catwoman
As soon as I heard “FEEL like a woman” I immediately felt threatened
It just struck me how amazing these actors are. You either need absolutely no ego or no self awareness to do the rap break on a church cover of counting stars while dressed as han solo
That's just the baffling power of theater kids
I really don't think this is a "weird or embarrassing" thing because of that! It is so earnest. The actors and production are really good, I didnt look them up but I hope the church itself has a general positive doctrine and theology
@@danmacarro i mean the religion is based around blindly worshipping a god that mass murdered children and impregnated another one
Nah
Christ works in amazing ways
“It is finished” -Captain Jack Sparrow, as he is crucified on a ship sail
This is absolutely insane and I’m so ready to binge all of these
He's alive! I thought he forgot his UA-cam password
can't wait for when freddy fazbear gets crucified on the fnaf 1 door
@@jockeyfield1954 omg fnaf would be perfect for their 2023 Easter play...
No disrespect to Captain Savior, but "It is finished," is not as cool an exit line as: 'Ello, beastie!
@@atomicdancer You can't beat the original Jack Sparrow
it’s been two years and i’ve been nursing this pet theory that the pastor’s weird ken voice is just his idea of “effeminate.” i think that he thinks ken is gay. and that he’s doing a funny gay voice.
The implications of putting Thor and Loki, even just the MCU versions, on the stage of a Christian Church are truly staggering.
Thor's father spent three days hanging from a tree. Might give them some common ground, know what I mean?
I mean turning the once worshipped gods of the norse pantheon into the comedic stars of media for kids is a pretty major flex of Christianity's cultural domination
Snorri Sturluson: "Yeaaah, that'd be crazy if Christians used pagan gods to make points in their media. Wild, wild shit."
@@JanPospisilArt lol yeah, thanks for pointing that out, even the Edda itself is already influenced by christianity, some 1000 years more of cultural dominion isn't going to lessen that
@@JanPospisilArt Appropriating older beliefs for the benefit of preaching the new belief is not uncommon. Early Indonesian Muslims had taught some of their values by using what can be crassly described as Mahabratan fanfiction via shadow Puppets.
At 1:02:40 I noticed that all of the books in "Andy's Room" are their previous church plays. Truly immaculate.
OH SHIT
OH! They even put Easter eggs then! That's lovely
Easter Eggs (the storytelling device) in a story about Easter (the holiday)! Will wonders ever cease?
@Boco Corwin aren’t we all just actors in Gods extended universe?
@@MiloKuroshiro I mean they did do that time traveling into a previous years play joke in the BTTF one
“Afterwards we get the post-crucifixion lament of Doc Brown singing Imagine Dragons Radioactive” is probably one of the funniest sentences conceivable
Right up there with gems such as "It is Satan himself who kills Jesus, by shooting him with a bazooka" and "bonus points for the pyrotechnics when Jesus rises out of the dumpster"
"This is how we do it where I come from" my brother in christ hikaru sulu is from san francisco
And Kung Fu is distinctly a Chinese martial art, not Japanese...
*bhurather in kuraistu
I went to this church. So glad you've covered this. Altona is a Manitoban town with a large Mennonite population, who speak a German dialect called low German. Many businesses in that town require workers to speak low German.
I scrolled down WAY to far for this answer. Thanks for the explanation!
+
I beg of you, please don’t stop at just language facts! You’re a firsthand source to these miraculous absurdities! I have so many questions! Was this like a highlight of the year or just an “eh, Easter”-thing? What did people think about it? Were people harsh in their reviews/gossip afterwards or nice? How long was the rehearsals? What was the audition process like? I want to know *everything*
@@notcompletelynormal inquiring minds *demand* to know
I'm from northern Germany and was kinda confused by them mentioning Altona because it's so random, haha. I know Altona as a district in the city of Hamburg, Germany. And it's in northern Germany where people speak Low German (though it is not that common anymore these days). I'd assume the Manitoban town is named after the one in Germany :)
I just love the idea of a church that was slowly taken over by a bunch of theater kids and before the congregation could do anything about it, their Pastor was dressed as Ken from Toy Story.
I mean, that Pastor was very much on board with being Ken from Toy Story. A little too much so
I think he is pretty fit.
Plot twist: the pastor himself is a theater kid, and the church was just dragged along for the ride.
The way Monty Python's Life of Brian was literally banned in some countries for blasphemy and these guys are out here doing an Easter Holy Grail parody - I love it so much.
If you can't laugh at yourself, who can you? I feel the same way, I'm not religious but hot damn some of the jokes were zingers
Bwian- "I'm not the messiah."
Follower- "I say you are, lord, and I should know. I've followed a few.
or the use of queen songs( cause protestant Christianity really rejects anything gay or bi) or the occasional song that talks about drug use or the sideways tango.
The stupidest part is that the whole point of Life of Brian is that it's NOT about Jesus.
It was advertised in Norway as “The film so funny it was banned in Sweden”.
According to my research, Altona is town in Manitoba founded by Russian Mennonites. This explains both the "Low German" C-3PO joke and the "conscientious objectors during the Clone Wars" Leia joke. Altona is about an hour away from Church of the Rock in Winnipeg, so that would explain the congregation's reaction to the jokes.
i hope Jenny sees your great comment
I reaaaaaaaally want them to do breaking bad. The choir lady would kill it as skyler, wearing a blonde wig and a pink bathrobe. She could sing “it’s too late to apologize” as Walt is laying on the floor in a T pose, pantsless. When Walt gets resurrected, they could sing “night fever” by the Bee Gees. Also Jesse’s new catch phrase could be “cash me outside how bout dat” (instead of bitch because swears are bad), which fits in perfectly with the ongoing theme of including dead, unfunny memes in these productions. I’VE GOT THIS WHOLE THING PLANNED, YOU GUYS
thank you for this I genuinely laughed out loud
PLEASE that's such a good idea I love it! Walter White as a Christ figure might be sort of insane even for their standards though...
Your vision of the formula is so clear
I will actually fund this pls someone do it
AND THEM MAKING METH IS INSTEAD THEM FINDING SALVATION.
There was something deeply meditative in its sheer hilarity when they joyfully yell "Let's Crucify him!" and then for about 30s to 1min all you can hear in the silence is people fumbling around and the squeaks and scuffs of shoes on the set as they try to tie x novelty character to y novelty cross.
"string 'em up!"
I love how the character being crucified never puts up any fight. Stage directions are getting from Point A to Point B and they sure as hell aren’t going to deviate.
@@Minam0 The lack of a fight is pretty accurate if they're going for allegory. Jesus didn't resist, he just submitted to whatever he was being accused of before being crucified.
@@RatzaChewy You are right, but personally I love how the expression of the "Jesus" Character isn't submitting or sad or scared but just kind of... put out. Like this is a bit of an inconvenience. Even when he's on the cross, looking down, he's like: "Oh, yeah, that's me.... it's kind of a funny story."
Especially Iron Man, he just goes " :( " xDD
The 'I'm walking on sunshine' followed by the out of time and key 'woah' is the pinnacle of live performance for all of human history and I will die on this hill.
I hadn’t watched that part when I read this comment and now that I have, I can say you’re absolutely right
It's somehow made funnier by the fact that it is completely unacknowledged by Jenny
the occasional out of context clips say more than jenny ever could
16:29
XD
I scrolled past this comment at first because I didn't know what you were talking about. Then it happened, and I cried with laughter, and had scroll back up just to tell you how right you were.
If only they would do a version of The Room.
YOUR TEARING ME APART JUDAS!
Oh hey Mark.
_Why Judas, why why! (thrashing the room)_
I did not stone her! I did not!
It's actually kind of interesting, now that you mention it, that these plays actually don't seem to have a Judas character (unless there was and Jenny just didn't mention it). The crucifiction is entirely orchestrated by a (sometimes literally) cartoonish villain -literally Satan in at least one of them- and there seems to be no parallel iconography to the betrayal/the silver coins etc, which is odd considering how important all of it is to the easter story. Idk if that's related to their being an evangelical church, idk the difference between different christian churches
I like to imagine a person really struggling in life, turning to the church for guidance, showing up on the holiest day of the year and seeing Buzz Lightyear crucified by Zurg and raised from the dead by a zipline and that somehow making everything right.
Also props to them calling the Iron Man sacrifice before Endgame.
Oh my God imagine
It is a very religious experience.
They even get the "I am iron man" line correct
It's fun to laugh at white people
With the I am Iron Man line and all
HUGE missed opportunity that they didn't go with "walk the plank" only for him to walk on water
OMG yes lmao that would've have been hilarious
You have to be careful with Water Walking. If World of Warcraft has taught me anything, if you activate it too early while falling from a great height, the water counts as "ground" and you can die from fall damage. I suppose that's not as much of a concern for Jesus/Simba/Batman though.
I'm so Jennypilled at this point that any time there's a dramatic moment like Jack Savior dying in the rigging I expect a hard cut to China Beach.
~through the mirror of my mind~
tHe sEries thAt brOUGtH wOMEn to thE fRONT liNE
*I.V.! JONES! STRAIGHT TO IT! NOW!* _helicopter noises_
@@abbywolffe4114 _whooooooosh ocean sounds shoooooooo_
no but that would've been sick 🤣
The Lion King should've done Africa by Toto with the lyrics changed to "God blessed the rains down in Africa." That seems like a freebie to me
Yeah but that would be creative and funny, so
"Bonus points for the pyrotechnics when Christ rises out of the dumpster."
A brand new sentence.
HAHAHHA
this whole video is so quotable omg
Hahahahah
There's almost no way that sentence had ever been uttered before in human history
This whole video is things you can’t make up
This has the vibe of when you come across someone's deviantArt gallery and they have a ton of fanart for a variety of fandoms, but they're themed around one particular thing that tips it off as a fetish.
I love that in this analogy the fetish is Easter and the resurrection of Jesus
@@trailblazer225 jesus is basically a fetish
This comment reminds me of sarispy56 with all her fanart of rice crispy characters, animaniacs, and danger mouse forcibly being wrapped in mummy bandages.
You put the thing into WORDS
YEAH like one time i came across someones ao3 where they wrote all nice found family fics for a fandom im in but in EVERY FIC someone was getting nonconsensually tickled??? this is that exact vibe
Overjoyed to see Jenny has returned to youtube in much the same way Jack Sparrow returned to life after his crucifixition.
Or like how Batman returned to life after his crucifixion.
Or Westley's return, after his crucifixion
lmao
But now I'm even more intrigued about the "3 hour video" she mentioned in the Evan Hansen video that she's been working on since the Vampire Diaries episode.
@@KO-vb4tg That's a very astute comparison! That reminds me of the time Jesse Mcfly returned to life after his crucifixion
I love how you can see Jenny’s laser blaster shield from the Starcruiser in the background
Wow, you can! I commend your eagle eyes
Wow, that really hammers home how long the Starcruiser video was in the works
Lol. The Luke joke you were confused about, "Altona" is a town/city in Manitoba near Winnipeg. There is a prominent religious population and many speak a form of low German. So it's just a local geography culture joke.
Yeah the Mennonites! Leia also makes a joke about them being pacifists and batman makes a stereotype joke about them being cheap lol.
Boosting this because I had to scour the comments to find the answer to this burning question
Most of the jokes are directed at Mennonites, who are famously pacifists. It seems more gentle ribbing than mean-spirited though.
I was about to comment the same thing. It seems like they make a lot of jokes about the Amish in this plays
Isn't this the same area Dwight Schrute from The Office is supposed to be from?
that section in the princess bride play where vizzini takes a too long pause between 'I'm walking on sunshine' and then screaming instead of singing 'woah' is my new ring tone
Best part of this video for sure
oh god the part where I need to sing the 'woah' is coming up soon. it's got got that high e note that I always struggle to nail in rehearsal couldn't they have rearranged it to suit my voca... oh shhh, did I miss it? no I can still make it. perhaps I don't need to. but my audience expects it. well here we go..."
"Wggghaaaaowwwhhh!!!"
nailed it (just like our lord and saviour amen 🙏 )
Stopped the video, went back and clipped it as soon as I could stop laughing.
16:29
I've only watched as far as the Ace Ventura part but I'm looking forward to the Princess Bride part.
I get so sucked into Jenny's commentary that I forget that one of the characters in this play is going to get horribly and hilariously crucified in just a few short moments.
Back from the future's crucifixion made me spit my drink
It's so jarring. Other than some questionable racial stereotyping, these plays are so anodyne, squeaky clean and super cheesy. Then boom, one of the characters is fucking dead from crucifixion. I get that they gotta do it, it being an Easter play and all, but how weird would that be without the context of religion? Like, you're watching a cutesy kids' cartoon about talking farm animals and then the farmer casually chops off Mr. Chicken's head; it's just whiplash tone shifts.
it's funny every time
@@nemo-zl1vm you don't "GOTTA" do it...my church as a kid had way more subtle Easter plays with completely original material. I wouldn't say the writing was great, but it was better than this dreck. No crucifixions, except maybe allegorical. I think our congregation would have been pretty offended to see Jack Sparrow or Tony Stark made literally into Jesus. Of course, the youth pastor who wrote our plays turned out to be a child molester, so...you win some, you lose some, I guess.
@@dickbuttkis 💀💀 genuinely thought it was parody
The concept of an Anti Archeologist destroying relics of any culture not worshipping his god is actually terrifying
In their defense, crucifying Batman on the Batsignal DOES seem like the kind of cliffhanger the Adam West show would use, so points for spiritual accuracy.
That actually happened in a Batman children's book that I read as a kid, I think it was called "Five Riddles for Robin"
I was gonna say Batman being crucified on the Bat Signal is something I can totally see in the edgier Batman comics, especially the ones of the 90s/early 2000s.
That's something Zack Snyder wishes he could think of
I feel like it would've been something Dark Knight Rises Bane would probably do. They should've saved Batman for 2012.
Agree on the Adam West comment. It could even use the terrible pun: "Batman! How did you come back!" "Well chem, I guess you could say I...saw the light."
If no one else has said it, the "Altona" joke is a reference to a town outside of Winnipeg, Altona, which was settled by Mennonites from Russia who spoke a variant of low German. So it's like, a REALLY local joke, it's referencing that religious heritage in the punchline. Also the joke of like, "Altona sounds like a Star Wars planet"
Godspeed Canadian correspondent
also, Altona is a district of Hamburg.
@@KnoppersBomber ... in Germany, and in that area low german is the traditional dialect.
Do Evangelicals hate Mennonites or something? There's so much Mennonite jokes in these plays.
Also the joke about pacifism is about world war 2 and not biblical history from what I understand
as someone who builds sets for theatres… it’s very depressing that these shows have a higher budget than any show i will ever work on
they appear to have a higher budget than Hamilton
If you want to have a bigger budget then you need to make certain compromises....
@@keith5615 ...like working for a megachurch instead lol
I NOTICED LMAO
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's theatre set
When “kung fu fighting” started playing I said “oh my god” out loud to no one
Yet we all heard it
I’d like to think that somewhere in that church, there’s a child who has never seen the original Star Wars, and they grow up truly believing that it’s canon. This child grows up; randomly their friend group starts talking about Star Wars, the child wants to fit in and without hesitation shouts, “oh I saw that when I was a kid!! It was so crazy when Luke Moonwalker got stuck in carbonite! And then died for our sins!”
The continual use of "string him up" no matter the universe or characters to begin the crucifixion always amuses me
Especially because there was absolutely no string involved in Roman-style crucifixions.
Lynching. Just…. Just saying….
The soft ‘ahhr’s in the background 8:57
@H4hT53 How else would they fasten them to the cross?
@@Attilablabla >_>
As a musician who is frequently contracted by churches to accompany their plays, I can tell you that churches (mainly Catholic churches) are some of the biggest supporters of the arts, and always pay well (and quickly... which is rare elsewhere). Additionally, they tend to have directors who are fun to work with. The cast, of course, varies based on the congregants, but sometimes you get some really good leads that you later see on the professional circuit. I knew someone who went from playing Beast in a Church-produced Beauty and the Beast musical to playing the lead in a number of opera productions for a (relatively) high profile company.
oh Catholic productions are a VERY different beast to Evangelical productions (and Evangelicals don't generally pay well if at all, and mostly rely on volunteers from their congregation - hiring a non-Christian would be a big no-no)
It took me 5 months to realize that "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword" is an actual quote from the Bible.
Dorian Electra actually said it first, about 2000 years later
@@chaotickreg7024 Dumor said it right now... So get your facts right kid.