Is Book of Mormon mocking Mormons and if so, why is that ok?

[Anonymous]

I keep hearing how funny Book of Mormons is. I’m not a Mormon and am not particularly a fan of Mormonism, but I do wonder why it’s ok to have a musical that mocks a religion. Swap out Mormonism for Judaism or Catholicism and tell me if it works. Or am I misunderstanding what the show is about? I’m curious to hear from people who have seen it.

[Anonymous]

Sister Act?

[Anonymous]

Stay away from South Park if you're that offended by free speech. SP is an equal opportunity offender and have poked fun at every race religion, stereotype, celebrity politician, controversial issue, etc.

[Anonymous]

You raise a decent point.

Like many things, I highly doubt that play would have been made in today's environment.

Sister Act though, I think is a bit different. It makes light of Catholicism for sure, but the entire premise of the movie is not to mock it. For Book of Mormon, it is.

[Anonymous]

I know a handful of LDS people. They have all seen it and thought it was hysterical.

[Anonymous]

I always took it to kind of mock all organized religion in a way, which didn’t bother me but did bother our very religious (non-Mormon) friends we went with.

[Anonymous]

Every ethnic or religious themed comedy is taking pot shots at target audience, and they are usually written by members of the target group. The point of comedy is often to make us lighten up about ourselves. It turns a corner when it is written by someone else and fails to also support the community and is only a trash job.

[Anonymous]

If you’re easily offended, it’s probably best to steer clear of anything created by the South Park guys.

[Anonymous]

I think one if not both of them creators of South Park are former Mormons.

They are equal opportunity offenders, if you’ve never watched South Park.

Book of Mormon is absolutely skewering Mormons, but it’s hilarious.

The LDS church actually takes out an ad in the playbill talking about the church, so I’m sure they actually get members who are more curious about the church via that marketing method.

They also have no problem proselytizing and growing their membership all over the world. Also by “baptizing their dead” (that’s why they’re all biginto ancestry.com, so they can find more dead ancestors to baptize). Also, by having 1 million children.

Read atheist.org for some interesting thoughts on all religions.

[Anonymous]

Please also watch what is my favorite South Park episode, the one about the origins of the Mormon church.

https://www.google.com/search?q=South+Park+episode+about+the+origin+of+Mormon+church&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You raise a decent point.

Like many things, I highly doubt that play would have been made in today's environment.

Sister Act though, I think is a bit different. It makes light of Catholicism for sure, but the entire premise of the movie is not to mock it. For Book of Mormon, it is.

Musical. And they make fun of everyone. Not just Mormons.

[Anonymous]

It’s “okay” because Mormons are predominately white and conservative and therefore deemed acceptable targets by the pc police. As much as people want to try to claim that the South Park creators are “equal opportunist” I think you realize that if they had created a 2 hour musical purely aimed at mocking the religious beliefs of Jews or Muslims it would have been received very differently by mainstream public opinion.

[Anonymous]

I’m not sure but I like that the Mormon church had a good sense of humor about it.

[Anonymous]

I’m Mormon. My favorite thing about the musical was that there was an advertisement for the Mormon church in the playbill.


It’s a totally offensive play but it’s okay because Mormons are not oppressors. Being offensive isn’t okay when you’re punching down, so to speak. So I think it’s okay to make fun of Catholics, Mormons, etc, but its not okay to make fun of, say, Jews (unless you’re Jewish) because Jewish people have suffered severe oppression and still experience prejudice (unless you’re talking about the state of Israel).

Plus Mormonism is a religion, not an ethnic group or ethno-religion. When you’re making fun of it you’re making fun of something people choose, not an immutable characteristic.

I thought it was both funny and uncomfortably offensive. But far worse were the stereotypes of Africans (sorry I forget the country they’re from).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please also watch what is my favorite South Park episode, the one about the origins of the Mormon church.

https://www.google.com/search?q=South+Park+episode+about+the+origin+of+Mormon+church&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

I’m Mormon and I think that is the best South Park episode ever made. (I’m not a very good Mormon thoigh)