The Book of Mormon Redux

General Discussion
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I saw a production of the musical today. I wouldnta wanted to see it but it was on a subscription we have, so….just some reflections:

The Broadway production opened 15 years ago. 2011.
And now, it shows its age.

I remember thinking at the time that its appearance was an attempt to normalize Mormonism, maybe in preparation for Romney’s presidential run. And lemme say that everything I know about the sect I learned either from Christopher Hitchens’ book “God is Not Great”, or from the online research I did into Mormonism that year.

It is a play about Mormonism in the same spirit as that comedy “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You”. (And for that matter in the same spirit as those jokes @Gerard and I have been trading on the humor 5hread.) Anyway: back in 2011, there were a few things EVERYBODY knew about Mormonism: no booze, no coffee, sacred underwear, no black people, ( oh and polygamy, which the musical does not touch).

The “no blacks” thing, which was obviated by a new revelation before Romney’s campaign, looms large in the musical. It’s why the last scene, (which isn’t very funny now) was a laffriot back then, with the entire “African” cast showing up as Mormon missionaries.

And so does FGM ( female genital mutilation) which, it’s hard to remember, was a very big issue before being totally eclipsed by transsexualism. I mean, having your vagina stitched shut is reversible: having your genital organs excised, not so much. And the funny thing is, the furor was over whether young girls, at the very least, should be shielded from such surgeries. Oh the GIRLS! The poor African girls. (Yes it’s largely an African custom; they do it in Eritrea, famously a Christian country.) Who’da thunk that a decade later we’d be encouraging American girls to make even more drastic such decisions before puberty, and honoring their whim as an inviolable command?

I was also struck by how…non-global we were in 2011.Back then just the mention of the young missionaries being sent to Uganda was funny, it was like Kazakhstan in the Borat movies . Hey I mean those are real places, and they can hear us. It’s not safe or , ah, tasteful, to use them as the butt of a joke.

Seeing this show again was one of those experiences which takes you up short, makes you realize how much we as a country have changed since what seems like only yesterday.

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Seriously?

Given the inclinations of the theater kids, that’s about as likely as Mitt Romney sucking down a whole bottle of Jack Daniels. The Left is all about hit pieces, whether on Broadway or in Hollywood — not to mention the legacy media. AJAB.

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The show made the creed seem cute and funny, like “Do Black Patent leather shoes really reflect up?” which was also an off-Broadway show title. One of the songs is, “A Mormon Just Believes” and the show actually sketches out the Joseph Smith story and beliefs about the lost tribes of Israel, the location of the garden of Eden in Missouri,indicating that yes it’s all quite incredible but that’s where faith comes in. I mean, the Catholic Church and the old Prot sects like Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, etc, can TAKE humor, they’re too big to fail. Making fun of them is punching up. I don’t know how this show came to be written and produced, but it seems to me it’s an attempt to elevate Mormonism to that status. (Of course, it is hardly a “minority “ creed, it’s big in this country and around the world, but we don’t think about it much except when a Warren Jeffs type character seizes national attention.) But it does seem funny that there is no mention of polygamy in the show, so many comedic opportunities there…..

I just looked it up: the show wasn’t written or created by Mormons but by the creators of South Park. But the Mormon Church took advantage of it: instead of condemning it, they embraced it as exactly what I was writing about : an opportunity to mainstream their cult. They actually stationed missionaries outside the theater. And they put up billboards:”You’ve seen the show, now read the Book!” Brilliant.

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More accurate to say they made the best of a bad situation. On the whole, they would have preferred if it never existed but once it’s out there, you have to play the hand you’re dealt.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are in the business of ridiculing, not promoting. They are equal opportunity satirists. Team America: World Police made fun of Islam and Hollywood. Durka Durka!