Mockery versus Satire
Religulous is Bill Maher’s 2008 documentary on the absurdity of religion. Life of Brian is Monty Python’s 1979 take on religion and the life of Jesus in particular. While both movies have fun at religion’s expense, only Life of Brian is an act of holy rascality.
Religulous mocks believers; Life of Brian challenges the nature of belief. Religulous equates religion with literalism; Life of Brian takes aim at literalism and says that this is what religion can, but should not, become. Religulous scoffs at religion and the religious; Life of Brian satirizes religion and the religious.
Spiritual culture jamming aims for the satire of Life of Brian and seeks to avoid the mockery of Religulous.
Bill Maher You are one of the very few people who are actually running this country. It worries me that people are running my country who believe in a talking snake.
Senator Mark Pryor You don’t have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though. (chuckles) (from Religulous)
And there shall in that time be rumours of things going astray, and there will be a great confusion as to where things really are, and nobody will really know where lieth those little things with the sort of raffia work base, that has an attachment. . . . At this time, a friend shall lose his friend’s hammer and the young shall not know where lieth the things possessed by their fathers that their fathers put there only just the night before around eight o’clock . . .
BORING PROPHET, Monty Python’s Life of Brian