In the three years or so since Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Book Of Mormon hit Broadway you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who’s seen it who didn’t enjoy it. Despite it running for a while and having a national tour currently going, the show still sells out months in advance and people are still paying scalpers top dollar for tickets. Jon Stewart said the show is “so good it makes me f*cking angry,” and in a past post about it, I wrote, “Theater experiences like this one only come around once in a generation.”
So what I’m trying to say is that you’d probably have to be a pretty joyless f*ck to hate Book of Mormon. Yet somehow the New Orleans Times Picayune managed to find someone who hates it some much that he feels it’s an indicator that American culture is “slouching toward the abyss.”
Here’s a sampling of the gems dropped by Theodore P. Mahne, who I assume is at least 120 years old, in his Book of Mormon review.
Despite the anticipation and the hype, and despite the multiple Tony Awards and its blockbuster status, “The Book of Mormon” is little more than degrading, offensive trash.
“The Book of Mormon” could be the stuff of a satisfying and funny buddy story and fish-out-of-water comedy, even while poking fun at the inevitable clashes of cultures that erupt. But Parker, Stone and co-writer Robert Lopez fail to reach even for that degree of substance. Instead, they rely upon the most puerile laughs that are rarely aimed higher than vulgar, scatological humor. Such grotesque jokes usually lose their appeal once one hits puberty.
Far too many followers, however, have given the show a pass, claiming that because there are no limits to their attacks, at least Parker, Stone and Lopez are “equal opportunity offenders.” But the utter lack of originality in “The Book of Mormon,” combined with an often downright mean-spiritedness, drags the show to unforeseen depths.
If the humor was merely in poor taste, the show would be simply innocuous. But its offensive aim runs more deeply. The Mormon Church, and ultimately faith itself, bears the biggest bull’s-eye.
The lyrics to one key song, which also cannot be quoted here, were so horribly offensive, that I was tempted to walk out with the large handful of others at intermission.
Other material seen fitting for jokes includes sexual violence against women and children, as well as genital mutilation. Black Africans are depicted in a crude and demeaning manner not seen on stages since the time of minstrel shows. And don’t forget to throw in lots of barbs about AIDS and cancer. That’s sure to draw laughs.
Because it is all draped in mocking religious faith, however, its base insults have been deemed acceptable, even worthy of multiple Tony Awards. The politically correct crowd, which would usually be shouting from the rooftops, appears to be willing to accept the show’s virulent racism and sexism as pure lagniappe.
“The Book of Mormon” runs through Oct. 27. American culture, meanwhile, continues slouching toward the abyss.
Not surprisingly, Mahne — who sounds more like a Fox News commentator than he does a theater critic in a city famed for embracing debauchery, lewdness, perversion, excess, and vice — also hated Avenue Q, the music to which was also written by Robert Lopez. He has written glowingly about the Catholic Church and loved a recent re-creation of Bob Hope’s WWII variety show. Go figure.
(Lead image via Gambit)
Apparently he is a religion teacher at my old high school. That is embarrassing. No way he should be writing for the T-P.
Avenue Q was fucking awesome, and if this is even in the same ballpark, it’s got to be gold.
Agreed. Avenue Q is so far the only Broadway musical my wife and I have seen, and we fucking loved it. The next one on our list will almost certainly be The Book of Mormon.
@Otto & @Chamomiles…It’s right there with it. Personally, I like Avenue Q a little better just because it stars raunchy puppets. The filthy lines are somehow funnier when delivered by puppets.
It’s silly good. And the guy who plays the shlooby mormon in the traveling show (prob same in NOLA as Houston) is off the charts, AND it’s his first musical, ever.
Awesome, Bob.
My wife and I are planning on seeing this soonish.
Stop dragging your asses and go see it. You will not be disappointed.
Saw it on tour here in Austin a few weeks ago; after the show we went for some tacos and a very properly dressed young man was standing in front of the restaurant telling his friends how FURIOUS he was that the show was so disrespectful towards the LDS. We were still kinda high so cracking up right in front of him was, of course, our only viable reaction.
the use of the term “scatalogical humor” is always a good sign that the person who wrote it is a pompous, “i’m better than this” ass
When I saw it in DC the Mormon church had taken out ads in the playbill saying “The Book is Always Better” with a smiling Mormon model and info on how to get a BoM. I got to say I was impressed with how they handled it, and frankly I thought the play had the Mormons come off pretty well, as moral folks who really want to help others even if they stumble from time to time.
There were GIANT billboards in Times Square full of attractive people with the headline. “I AM MORMON.”
Say what you will about the Mormon Church, they seem to be the only major religion I can think of that doesn’t get their panties in a bunch when someone makes jokes about them. The South Park about Joseph Smith really nailed it.
@Archie: You’re right. They figure (basing this on my in-laws etc.) that being assholes is only going to further alienate people, so they let you know they get the joke, and they’re cool about it.
I’m sure that’s the same response “KORANTASTIC! The Musical” will generate when it debuts next year.
Hasa Diga Eebowai…..
Preach.
My mom saw it in San Francisco and later in Chicago. Apparently in Chicago they cut out stuff. I wonder if he saw a trimmed performance.
Man, I saw it with my mom and got “Why is f*** you, god” funny?” at intermission.
I took my mom to see it as well in SF; she spent the whole intermission looking up shit about Mormons.
I saw it in Chicago and there wasn’t anything cut out. They change a couple small jokes from performance to performance, but from why I know of the show and me owning the soundtrack prior to seeing it live, it was all there.
It’s not offensive! Four of of Five theater F@*S know that!
Really though, don’t you get the impression that some people just want to have something to rail against?
I’m suddenly way more excited to see it when it returns to LA!
lagniappe??
Lagniappe is a commonly used word in S. Louisiana that basically means to get something extra for free.
e.g.: “Buy our mayor and you get a city councilman for no extra charge.”
I saw it and it was fucking hilarious. I can accept that jokes about raping babies and maggots in your scrotum are not everyone’s cup of tea, but they should be. Also, props to the LDS for advertising in the Playbill inviting theatergoers to come read the Book the musical is based on.
I saw it here in Chicago and the audience consisted mostly of elderly wealthy types who laughed their facelifts off!
Overall, it was enjoyable, but typical Parker/Stone stuff. What I really loved was the fact that all these hoity toity crusty fucks got tricked into watching an episode of South Park without knowing it!
The greatest prank those guys ever pulled off :)
I just can’t with this. I don’t believe anyone could watch “Book of Mormon” in its entirety and actually conclude it was particularly mean spirited to either Mormons or faith. The ending might be the best pro-faith argument you can reasonably make. Not to mention I can’t take an “anti-faith” argument seriously if it doesn’t at least address how stereotypically represented Africa was.
“The lyrics to one key song, which also cannot be quoted here, were so horribly offensive, that I was tempted to walk out with the large handful of others at intermission.” Now he’s just fucking lying (unless he means that those people also did not leave–it’s a bit ambiguous–and that he was just intuiting their true feelings). Has this guy been to New Orleans? I don’t think anyone there is shocked by “vulgarity.” Jesus, I saw the show in Boston, along with a group of the oldest, whitest, theatreyist (YUP) people you’ve ever seen, and although a number of them clearly only heard “Tony winning,” and had no idea who Parker and Stone were, I didn’t see a single one head for the door.
And, no, I don’t think an aside where he lists all the things they stereotype/make fun of before saying, ‘now, let’s get back to what’s important: religion,’ is a sincere handling.
I love that he got his jimmies rustled at “General Butt Naked” calling it “unprintable – even in the show’s own program – all for the sake of another cheap joke”.
I wonder if he knows that General Butt Naked is a real person, and even more horrific and gruesome than portrayed in the show…
[en.m.wikipedia.org]
Correction, “Genereal Butt Fucking Naked” ;)
He hated Book of Mormon but loved Evil Dead: The Musical. Weird.
[www.nola.com]