February 09, 2010
 
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| Ridiculous |
| by Matthew Lickona |
| 10/06/08 |
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I don't know if Bill Maher would call himself a comedian these days, but it's fair to say that his roots are in comedy. Religulous, his new film, features at least a couple clips from his stand-up days, including one from The Tonight Show back in the Carson era. A young Maher is riffing on having a Catholic father and a Jewish mother, and on drawing from both traditions. "I would go to confession, but I'd bring a lawyer with me. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned -- and I believe you know Mr. Cohen here." Funny!
These days, Maher is still funny about religion, but he's also angry. He regards religion as a dangerous mass delusion, one that twists otherwise rational, decent people into believing and doing things that are ridiculous and even evil. Now, comedy and anger are not antithetical -- quite the opposite. A lot of really great comedy fairly seethes with rage. (I remember reading an interview with John Cleese about why Monty Python ended its run. "We woke up one morning, and we weren't angry anymore.") But you know what is antithetical to comedy? Earnestness. And that's where Religulous betrays itself.
But first, more on the comedy. Almost the entire film is given over to Maher's hunt for absurdity within religion -- sort of a feature-length Believers Say the Darnedest Things. He's not seeking to understand and engage; he's looking for (and often finding) entertaining exchanges. So when he wants to ask how you can have something like the Trinity in a monotheistic religion like Christianity, he doesn't sit down with some hoary theologian to discuss the procession of persons. He talks to a guy who plays Jesus at Holyland USA -- a guy who thinks he's scoring points by making an analogy between the Trinity and water, which may, after all, be either solid, liquid, or gas. Maher just keeps his deadpan, and the moment works.
That's one of the highbrow scenes. There's plenty of lowbrow, too -- some more successful than others. I laughed out loud when a Muslim got annoyed at Maher's presence within the Dome of the Rock, and the film did a little mock translating: "I don't think this Jew is funny, and I know comedy. I've seen his show; it sucks." And Maher is quick with a quip: Interviewing a Christian minister who came out of Islam but still gets his custom-made suits at a special price from a Muslim tailor, Maher comments, "So you left Islam, became a Christian, and you shop like a Jew." But someone in the editing room should have told Maher to go easy on the clips from old Bible movies -- after the first dozen or so, they seem like padding. And there are plenty of places where the comedy feels mean: Interviewing a man who claims that Jesus' bloodline progressed through Europe and eventually wound up in Puerto Rico, Maher cuts from an antique map of the Old World to a shot of three Peurto Rican hootchie mamas letting it all hang out for the camera. And this is relevant how?
I don't begrudge Maher his anti-pilgrimage, and I don't think you should, either. Yes, he's attacking beliefs that people hold dear, but it's not like he's desecrating the Eucharist. (Though there is one religiously themed quasi-softcore scene he could have done without.) For the unbeliever, the manifold forms of religious expression offer plenty of raw comedic material, even surrounding things I happen to believe. (I confess to chuckling when the off-camera voice pitched Christianity as a Hollywood movie involving a space god, a virgin birth that results in a son who's also him, and a suicide mission.) Mostly, it's an entertaining run, with Maher coming off as a reasonable, good-natured skeptic who thinks people should be a little more thoughtful about the beliefs that shape their lives. It ain't Moliere, but neither is it Dane Cook complaining about the Mass. Earnest anger may be the engine that drives Maher's quest, but you'd never know it to look at him. In comedy, that's a good thing.
And then comes the end of the film, the great, thudding hammer-stroke of earnestness that undoes so much of what has come before. Maher had an ending. He was standing before the Rude Man in England, marveling at the local tradition of maintaining the image of an erect giant -- Maybe a fertility symbol? Maybe an alien carving? -- on a hillside. "And they don't really know why," he observed. "They just do it because they've always done it. Isn't that religion for you? Sometimes you kneel, sometimes you fast, and sometimes you go up on the hill and you cut the grass around the giant space penis." Heavy-handed, but hey, it's your exit line -- go for the gusto.
But no. Suddenly, we're back where the film began: Meggido, supposed site of Armageddon. And now Maher is talking about the end of the world, and how, thanks to nuclear weapons, religious extremists may now be in a position to bring it about. (In a nasty sleight of hand, he ropes the Christians into this group by talking to folks who are looking forward to the end of the world and the second coming of Christ -- which is a long way from wanting to actually launch the missiles.) And then comes The Speech, abridged here out of sympathy to the reader: The fact is, religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge having key decisions being made by religious people, by irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by knowledge, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. . . . Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It's nothing to brag about, and those who preach faith . . . are our intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense. . . . Religion is dangerous because it allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do. . . . If anyone tells you they know, they just know, what happens when you die, I promise you, you don't. How can I be so certain? Because I don't know, and you do not possess mental powers that I do not. . . . Grow up or die.
Now it's my turn to deadpan.
Matthew Lickona is a staff writer for the San Diego Reader, a weekly newspaper. He is also the author of the 2005 memoir Swimming with Scapulars: True Confessions of a Young Catholic. He lives in La Mesa, California, with his wife and children. (Content alert: Religulous contains sexual references and bawdy language, and is, it should go without saying, deeply irreverent.)
Readers have left 16 comments. Please click onto this movie review site (below). It's a Christian-based site that is quite comprehensive; I use it to determine whether a movie is morally suitable. This one of Bill Mayer's is NOT; I assure you! ![[smiley=angry]](http://insidecatholic.com/Joomla/components/com_jreactions/custom/templates/blog/smileys/smiley_angry.gif) It will cause you to realize just how vile and sick his movie really is! Save your hard-earned bucks for something better! http://www.movieguide.org/index.php?s=reviews&id=7889 Written by Carole From what I can gather, Bill Maher hates women, children, marriage, families, religion, on and on. This movie is nothing new or interesting. This movie sounds like a big bore to me, nothing that he hasn't covered 100X already. Written by Ann Mahr has his finger perminately stuck on the botton that offends all men of good will. The medias support of a failed, bankrupt entertainer proves its glotteny for trashing all Christians and all those whom donot believe the way they do. If it were up to them the Democrats, Liberals, Lefts, and all mental malcontents, would encarserate the rest of the American Population. No? Just look who they are running for President? King Marxists the lst. Written by Jimmy V. If anyone tells you they know, they just know, what happens when you die, I promise you, you don't. How can I be so certain? Because I don't know, and you do not possess mental powers that I do not. — The Speech Written by Ender Prayer is powerful. Pray for Mr. Maher's conversion. While you're at it, fast & pray for our next President.  Written by David Walley Thanks for this, Matthew. I had strong suspicions when I saw the Religulous trailer that I'd probably want to skip this one. And I can't say that your comments here inclined me otherwise. I was fascinated, however, by the point you raised about the problematic presence of earnestness in Maher's comedy. I think that's a very helpful way of understanding why this sort of enterprise is often doomed to artistic failure, no matter what its subject. You seem to be suggesting that his motivations in making the film end up being in direct conflict with his method. Makes sense. I'd bet that, despite his long-time reputation as a funny man, the earnestness is more important to him here than being funny. And that may prevent it from ever working as a piece of entertainment. Your shortened version of The Speech really reminded me of Pascal's wager. Maher doesn't seem prepared to take the "if you don't know, why gamble against it?" step yet, but it does seem like a logical progression if he keeps pushing that line of "attack." Still, I can't quite get around the fact that everyone seems to equate the unrationality of faith with irrationality. Not at all the same thing, methinks... Written by Joseph Susanka When a skeptic claims not to know the reasons people practice their religion, he assumes that there aren't any. Skeptic = ignoramus. And once he concludes that there aren't any reasons he crowns himself pope and tells everyone what MUST happen for humanity to be saved. Religion must die. Glad he couldn't resist the preachy moral at the end. Shows he doesn't trust his audience to draw the conclusion. Either he thinks his audience is stupid or he doesn't trust his own work to deliver. Written by Susie Lloyd Bill's movie should not be taken seriously by anyone. Bill has a reputation for lacking in candor, intelligence, and good will. Since there can be no respectful exchange with such an individual, why watch? Let's just wait for the day when this Saul gets knocked off his horse. Could happen! Written by Ron Spend your hard earned dollars on a better cause. Everyone should go see "Fireproof" instead. Written by Lisa How very sad that Mr. Maher has to resort to his ignorant tactics to put down the Catholic faith. It is pure ignorance on his part, to have to bad mouth someone else's faith to make himself feel self righteous. There is a "Higher Authority" that he will have to answer to someday, whether he believes it or not. As another person stated in a comment, Maher may well get knocked off his horse like St. Paul did. He too was self righteous, but after falling off his horse and being in contact with Jesus, he suffered for the faith and was eventually martyred for it, and willingly. at that. Written by Anita Just because something is unimagineable doesn't make it unbelievable. Written by Mike I have the same reaction to Bill Maher that I had toward the author of the Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman. They make me want to just put an arm around them. I imagined that Phillip Pullman's childhood was troubled--and turns out it was. This whole Golden Compass anti-religion thing was just a huge, childish "Fine, then! I'll be on my own!" Bill Maher is equally sad. I wonder what's behind it all. Whatever it is, I agree with David above--just pray for the man. If he ever converts he'll be a great warrior in our camp. Written by Regina I'm all for praying for the twitch on the thread for Maher, but I wouldn't count on him being a great warrior for our side afterwards. As Matt notes, sometimes when the anger stops, so does the comedy, and I don't think Maher has the brains for straight apologetics. If I were God, I would require obscurity of Maher post-conversion as a penance. He's already had way more fame than he deserves. Matt, we end sentences with interrogative adverbs why? Written by Angela L Never! Written by Lickona And writing like my teenagers talk is another! I'm sure this is all petty, but this is one of current grammatical pet peeves. Written by Angela L When I was a kid my parents took me to church and sunday school every weekend. I took what I learned there just as seriously as what I learned in regular school. As a child you simply believe what your parents and other authrity figures tell you. If my parents hadn't raised me Catholic, and had instead raised me Buddhist, that is what I would be today. I think one of the points that Bill Maher is getting across is that religion relies on man to continue its existence. Man is not infallable, and will add things to the religion to suit his needs. I think it is important to understand the positive things that religion offers, and be able to separate that from the man-injected garbage that allows religion to become a target. If nothing else, Bill Mahers film should be a wake up call to all religions to revisit exactly what they're preaching. Written by Greg |
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