Religious satire is a form of satire targeted at religious beliefs. From the earliest times, at least since the plays of Aristophanes, religion has been one of the three primary topics of literary satire, along with politics and sex. Satire which targets the clergy is a type of political satire, while religious satire is that which targets religious beliefs.
Religious satire is also sometimes called philosophical satire. Religious satire can be the result of agnosticism or atheism. Religious satire surfaced during the Renaissance, with works by Chaucer, Erasmus and Durer.
Notable examples of religious satire and satirists
Bill Maher
Monty Python
George Carlin
Bill Hicks
Ricky Gervais
Doug Stanhope
Pat Condell
Lenny Bruce
Dave Allen
Hannibal Buress
Jim Jeffries
Richard Pryor
Theo van Gogh
Tim Minchin
Douglas Adams
The Holy Mountain (1973 film) (1973)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
Orgazmo by Trey Parker and Matt Stone (1997)
Dogma by Kevin Smith (1999)
Saved! by Brian Dannelly (2004)
Religulous by Larry Charles and Bill Maher (2008)
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)
The Invention of Lying by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson (2009)
OMG – Oh My God by Umesh Shukla (2012)
How to Lose Your Virginity (2013)
PK by Rajkumar Hirani (2014)
Sausage Party by Conrad Vernon and Greg Tiernan (2016)
Zarquon is a legendary prophet from Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy who was worshipped by a number of people. His name was used as a substitute for "God."
Collection of stories The Canterbury Tales (14th century) by Geoffrey Chaucer
Essay The Praise of Folly (1509) by Desiderius Erasmus
Novel A Tale of a Tub (1704) by Jonathan Swift
Robert Burns poem Holy Willie's Prayer (1785), which is an attack on religious hypocrisy
Letters from the Earth, book of essays by Mark Twain
The Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis, 1943
Christian satire and humor magazine The Wittenburg Door (since 1971)
Robert A. Heinlein's novel Job: A Comedy of Justice (1984)
Christopher Moore's absurdist novel Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (2002)
The controversial "Islamophobic" Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons (2005)
Tartuffe (1664) by Molière
Inherit the Wind (1955), which fictionalizes the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 1920s
Jerry Springer: The Opera, notable for its irreverent treatment of Judeo-Christian themes
A Very Merry Unauthorized Children's Scientology Pageant (2003), which makes fun of L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology
Altar Boyz (2005) Off-Broadway musical about Christian Boysband
Saturday's Voyeur is a parody of life in Utah and Mormon culture
The Book of Mormon (2011) A broadway production about two young Mormon Missionaries sent to Uganda, written by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Futurama episode "A Pharaoh to Remember" features a religious ceremony in which a priest chants, "Great Wall of Prophecy, reveal to us God's Will, that we might blindly obey!" and celebrants answer, "Free us from thought and responsibility."
Curb Your Enthusiasm has episodes that have satirized Orthodox Judaism and Christianity
South Park has satirized Christianity, Mormonism, Judaism, Islam, Scientology, and other religions
Family Guy has satirized elements of Christianity and other religions in several episodes
Satirical Australian documentary miniseries John Safran vs God (2004)
British sitcom Father Ted, which lampooned the role of the Catholic Church in Ireland
Blackadder episode The Archbishop sees Edmund invested as Archbishop of Canterbury amid a Machiavellian plot by the King to acquire lands from the Catholic Church.
Princess Clara of Drawn Together is a devout Christian who is often used to lampoon conservative Christian viewpoints
Ned Flanders of The Simpsons is an Evangelical Christian who practices sola scriptura
Sinfest, an internet comic strip by Tatsuya Ishida that frequently stresses religious issues (since 2000)
Semiweekly comic Jesus and Mo (since 2005)
Comedic short film series Mr. Deity, which stars God, his assistant, Jesus, Lucifer, and several other characters from the Bible (since 2006)
The LOLCat Bible Translation Project, a wiki-based project by Martin Grondin (since 2007)
Net Authority, a site that purported to be a Christian Internet censorship site (2001-2008).
Betty Bowers plays a character called "America's Best Christian". In the persona of a right-wing evangelical Christian, she references Bible verses, using the persona to point out the inconsistencies in the Bible
Boogyism is a fun loving cult that follows the teachings of The Great Booga, an 8 ft stuffed bunny look-alike who created the entire universe after an accident involving an unattended barbecue. It has its own religious text, The Spiritual Arghh.
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of the "Pastafarian" parody religion, which asserts that a supernatural creator resembling spaghetti with meatballs is responsible for the creation of the universe. Its purpose is to mock intelligent design.
The Invisible Pink Unicorn is a goddess which takes the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink. These attributes serve to satirize the apparent contradictions in properties which some attribute to a theistic God, specifically omniscience, omnipotence, and omnibenevolence.
Discordianism is centered around the ancient Greco-Roman goddess of chaos, Eris, but draws much of its tone from Zen Buddhism, Christianity, and the beatnik and hippie countercultures of the 1950s and 1960s (respectively). Its main holy book, the Principia Discordia contains things such as a commandment to "not believe anything that you read," and a claim that all statements are both true and false at the same time.
The Church of the SubGenius pokes fun at many different religions, particularly Scientology, Televangelism (and its associated scandals), and other modern beliefs.
The worship of "Ceiling Cat" among Lolcats. Ceiling Cat's enemy is Basement Cat, a black cat representing the devil.
Voltaire
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a street performance organization that uses Catholic imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality.
The Brick Testament, a project in which the stories of the Bible are illustrated with Lego.
Purim Torah, traditional parodies of Jewish life written out, and/or acted out, for the holiday of Purim.
Reactions, criticism and censorship
Religious satire has been criticised by those who feel that sincerely held religious views should not be subject to ridicule. In some cases religious satire has been censored - for example, Molière's play Tartuffe was banned in 1664.
The film Life of Brian was initially banned in Ireland, Norway, some states of the US, and some towns and councils of the United Kingdom. In an interesting case of life mirroring art, activist groups who protested the film during its release bore striking similarities to some bands of religious zealots within the film itself. Like much religious satire, the intent of the film has been misinterpreted and distorted by protesters. According to the Pythons, Life of Brian is not a critique of religion so much as an indictment of the hysteria and bureaucratic excess that often surrounds it.
The issue of freedom of speech was hotly debated by the UK Parliament during the passing of the Religious Hatred Bill in January 2006. Critics of the original version of the Bill (such as comedian Rowan Atkinson) feared that satirists could be prosecuted, but an amendment by the House of Lords making it clear that this was not the case was passed - by just one vote.
In 2006, Rachel Bevilacqua, a member of the Church of the SubGenius, known as Rev. Magdalen in the SubGenius hierarchy, lost custody and contact with her son after a district court judge took offense at her participation in the Church's X-Day festival.
Richard Dawkins frequently points out that there is no reason to exclude religion from objective studying like any other social phenomena.
