WWJB?

Sorry I’ve been neglecting this blog for so long, dear friends. I got swept up into my prospectus and a diss chapter and have barely just come out to take a breath. I hope to defend the prospectus in January (yea!), and finish this premodern/nativism/style chapter by May. My fingers are crossed REALLY TIGHT.

Today I want to talk about this fascinating documentary called What Would Jesus Buy (available on netflix’s watch instantly). First off, it’s freakin hilarious, so you all should go watch it immediately. (How’s that for persuasive rhetoric? hehe.) It’s a great Christmas anti-consumer movement entirely forwarded through over-stylized fundamentalist and evangelist “preaching.” This group travels around the U.S., stopping in malls and Walmarts, telling people to quit consuming because Jesus didn’t consume. It’s hilarious.

As I watched it, I couldn’t help but wonder how this group single-handedly collapses religiosity into simply a marketing technique. “Jesus” is simply a term to invoke pathos, which then is supposed to tug at our little “universal Christian” hearts (gag me with a spoon) and make us consume “Jesus” instead of Walmart’s low low prices. The leader of this group, who spends hours upon hours on his platinum blonde rockabilly hair, performs this evangelist persona so parodically that it’s no wonder no one takes this group seriously. I am struck by how the group exaggerates this form of fanatical religiosity to the point that their entire agenda is farcical. Yet, the documentary wants its audience to believe that this group is serious, that this group actually has a message.

The documentary demonstrates, I believe, how parody is unable to be critical. Any of the people in Walmart’s parking lot listening to this group preach were there for the performance; no one actually took the message to “heart.” If parody is supposed to exaggerate the realism of its text, what happens when realism isn’t even on the table? What happens when parody is just a parody of itself? Does it just become mindless entertainment for the masses to buy?

~ by vinatabapeche on December 9, 2008.