Black Jesus


There is new comedy show appearing on cable TV.

The new show stars Gerald “Slink” Johnson as a modern-day black Jesus living in rough-and-tumble Compton, Calif., spreading “love and kindness” with a “loyal group of downtrodden followers,” according to Turner Broadcasting System’s press release.

In a statement, Adult Swim said “Black Jesus is a satire and one interpretation of the message of Jesus played out in modern day morality tales; and despite what some may consider a controversial depiction of Jesus, it is not the intent to offend any race or people of faith.”

Ha! Good luck with that. Religious groups are already condemning the show as blasphemous and have created a petition drive calling for its cancellation.

Here’s a preview.

What I find most promising about the show is that its creator is Aaron McGruder, creator of the excellent comic strip (1996-2006) and TV series (2005-2014) called The Boondocks which were edgy and funny in the way they dealt with politics, media, and race.

Here are two strips at the height of warmongering in the US when we were being lied to about the terrorist threat and Iraq’s involvement in the attacks of 9/11 in the successful effort to garner public support for the disastrous invasion of that country. The first is from March 11, 2003 and the second from May 15, 2003.

Boondocks 3-11-2003

Booondocks 5-14-2003

Comments

  1. moarscienceplz says

    Hey Mano, I still can’t log on from your blog. I have to go to another blog, log on, and then come back here.

  2. moarscienceplz says

    I like the idea of Jesus in the 21st century, but as a movie. I would think a TV series would run out of ideas pretty fast.

    Back in the 1970’s Stone Age, Cheech andChong did a good routine about Jesus trying to cross the border from Mexico into the US. (This was when they made comedy records, not movies).

  3. Chiroptera says

    moarscienceplz, #1:

    I already contacted the webmaster about that. (There’s a button on the top of the page labelled “Tech Issues.”) I was told that they do plan on putting a login button on the comment pages. For now:

    On the sidebar just below the list of other Free Thought Blogs, there is a search box; in that box is a login button. Use it. It log you in, but you’ll be at your profile page. Use the back button to get back to this page. Refresh so that it recognizes you’re logged in.

    Yeah, a few extra key strokes than I’d like, but I like it better than going to another blog to look for the log in button.

  4. Pen says

    What’s blasphemous about it? Half of medieval European Christianity was predicated on the idea of total identification with Jesus and thinking yourself into the role. That’s how there got to be white Jesus in the first place.

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