Every now and then I like to sit back, relax, and relieve stress…

                By watching movies of course! And what better way to easy some tension than by laughing at the insanity that religion can be. I did leave out documentaries for this particular list so I could do a different one later, but until then check out my list for Top 5 Movies That Poke Fun At Religion:

5. Carrie

Carrie was Stephen King’s first novel and was made into a movie in 1976 (and a remake, but we won’t get into that), telling the story of a young girl suffering at home from an abusive overly religious mother. It speaks volumes when you watch their interactions and the kind of things Carrie goes through at home and at school. I can’t imagine how horrifying it would have been to get my period at school and have no fucking clue what was happening to me. I’d think I was bleeding to death too!

How am I not dead right now?

                The mother takes the cake in this movie, showing how an oppressive religious environment can cause someone to snap, especially someone as impressionable as a teenager. At least everyone gets what’s coming to them in the end right?

4. Saved!

A little know movie, Saved! satirizes the lives of students at a Christian high school, showing how one wrong move can cause you to be ostracized and demonized in a heartbeat. Mary, played by Jenna Malone, ends up having sex with her boyfriend Dean after he tells her he might be gay. She hits her head and sees a vision of Jesus, telling her to do everything in her power to help him. Well what does any Christian girl do to make sure her boyfriend isn’t gay? She has sex with him. Not surprising, she ends up pregnant, and a cascade effect occurs as all her friends abandon her.

It’s really telling of the Christian household, especially overly Christian, as they don’t speak to their children about sex and sexual safety. Personally, the best part of the film is Eva Amurri, who plays Cassandra, the only Jewish girl in a Christian school. Her jokes are hilarious and the part where she starts speaking in tongues in order to freak out the students at an assembly is priceless. She even attempts to rip her shirt off in order to shock the masses.

She’s speaking God’s language! Hallelujah!

3. The Invention of Lying

Ricky Gervais, well known Atheist, stars in this film in which people live in a world without lying. Meaning no can lie. Ever. Meaning, no religion. However, when Gervais’s character’s mom is dying in a hospital, he tells her of a wonderful afterlife, introducing lies for the first time. Everyone takes him at his word, shocked and awed that maybe there is a great man in the sky and maybe there is a Heaven. Who knew making a religion was so easy?

A little tooo easy.

                The point I took from the film is to make you realize how easy it is to dissuade people, and how if you tell a lie often enough eventually it becomes the truth to them.

2. Dogma

Dogma is a great film when it comes to poking fun at religion. Two angels, Loki and Bartleby, have been living in Wisconsin as a punishment after being cast out of heaven. After discovering a loophole in the Catholic Dogma that would allow them back in, they set out for New Jersey to find this church that will ‘cleanse them of sin’. Loki’s (Matt Damon) exchange in the beginning of the film at the airport are hilarious, as he convinces a nun that it’s really not even worth it.

What have I been doing with my life?

                Kevin Smith had some amazing actors brought into this film. Making Alanis Morissette God was just icing on the cake, and watching her prance around the church yard doing handstands says a lot about the Christian God. It makes God out to not only be a woman, but to be childish and forgiving in the most nonsensical ways.

1. Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life

I think this film pretty much speaks for itself. You’ve got songs like “Every Sperm is Sacred”, which makes fun of the Catholic’s views of masturbation, and “Galaxy Song”, which speaks heavily on evolution. It’s basically a slap in the face to the Catholic church, and certainly a fun movie to watch in order to get a good laugh.

Monty Python’s been pretty famous for making films that poke fun at religion, and any of them could have made this list, so be sure to check them out as well.

Honorable Mention: The Life of Brian

Social Media has spoken, and so with all the requests, I present an honorable mention of The Life of Brian (or substitute “Meaning of Life” with it). The Life of Brian can best be summed up by IMDB‘s storyline writeup about it: Irreverent satire of Biblical films and religious intolerance focuses on Brian, a Jew in Roman-occupied Judea. After joining up with an anti-Roman political organization, Brian is mistaken for a prophet, and becomes a reluctant Messiah. - The Secular Nerd

So there you have it, the Top 5 Movies that poke fun at religion, hope you enjoyed the list! What are some of your favorite movies out there? Any that didn’t make the list? Let us know in the comments!

Until next time,

- That Heathen Girl