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{"id":923,"date":"2008-04-12T12:20:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-12T12:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/04\/hes-got-a-lot-to-offer-but-hes-not-funny\/"},"modified":"2008-04-12T12:20:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-12T12:20:00","slug":"hes-got-a-lot-to-offer-but-hes-not-funny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/04\/hes-got-a-lot-to-offer-but-hes-not-funny.html","title":{"rendered":"“He’s got a lot to offer, but . . . he’s not funny.”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Making irreverent quips about Jesus is not exactly a conventional way to promote a romantic comedy, but that\u2019s what Forgetting Sarah Marshall<\/a><\/i> co-stars Jason Segel and Kristen Bell did recently when answering a question that arrived via e-mail:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/cdn.channel.aol.com\/aolexd_widgets\/aolwidget_9.swf
Click here<\/a> if the video file above doesn\u2019t play properly.<\/p>\n

Daring, especially for a promotional campaign. Do they risk losing any potential audience members over this? Who knows. You might not ordinarily expect religiously sensitive people to go to a raunchy, R-rated comedy, but producer Judd Apatow did make some fans among the socially conservative set thanks to the seemingly pro-abstinence and pro-life themes in The 40-Year-Old Virgin<\/a><\/i> (2005) and Knocked Up<\/a><\/i> (2007). So, who knows.<\/p>\n

At any rate, this video does raise an interesting question. While it may be true that Jesus was not a professional comedian, is it necessarily true that he was not a funny guy<\/a>? Certainly a number of recent filmmakers have made a point of emphasizing the humourous side of Jesus\u2019 life and teachings \u2014 the most extreme example, perhaps, being Bruce Marchiano\u2019s performance in The Visual Bible<\/a><\/i> (1993-1996; my reviews<\/a>). The comic sketches based on the parables in Godspell<\/a><\/i> (1973) also come to mind, but I am not sure to what degree they bring out the humour inherent in the parables or to what degree they simply burlesque the parables VeggieTales<\/a><\/i>-style. And then, of course, there is the scholarly discussion regarding the role of humour in Jesus\u2019 ministry, which I don\u2019t have time to get into right now \u2014 but it\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

In any case, you may be wondering if anything resembling this \u201cblasphemy\u201d \u2014 as Segel puts it \u2014 exists in Forgetting Sarah Marshall<\/i> itself. So for now, let\u2019s just say that one subplot concerns a newlywed couple that has bedroom \u201cissues\u201d of a religious nature. More details to come when my review goes up on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"