The Church Play Cinematic Universe

The character the pastor is doing an impression of in “Joy Story” as he plays Ken is an old Saturday night live skit. It was Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon play two Austrian Body builders. Their catchphrase is “We want to pump *clap* you up.” I think they were meant to be making fun of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Anyway, I think that’s where the accent and references to fitness come from. A parody of a parody, just like the Michael Jackson/Weird Al reference. It wasn’t that funny

I once thought this was peak Jenny, but she keeps peaking.

I think Robin’s “Devil went down to Georgia” nightmare might be a weird reference to “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream” from “Book of Mormon”. Maybe. That feels like a pretty controversial reference for a Mega church though so idk

The moment in the medieval themed one where the drawbridge lowers and Jesus is just sitting there smiling, the fake British accent “he’s alive!” followed by the off pitch “everybody dance now!” Is comedy GOLD. I rewatched that part four times. This video is my comfort video sometimes I get the songs stuck in my head specifically how they are sung in these church plays so I have to come rewatch it.

That pastor seems pretty far up his own ass. And every time there are girls on stage the men make the vibe wierd. Also why do these old people star in this instead of kids? It's like people living out their big Broadway fantasy. It's so wild.

I swear the actor who plays Luke Moonwalker, Marty McFly, and a bunch of other roles is a blonde Lance Guest who played the lead in The Last Starfighter. I scoured the internet for proof and couldn’t find any so either I’m totally wrong or Lance erased all evidence of his involvement in these productions!

Rewatched this and I have a new conspiracy theory about the Tombstone one: they wanted to do the horsey dance move from Gangnam Style and the western setting was all spun out from that.

My friend sent me the public link to this video in early August and, after watching everything else on your channel, you've become the one and only Patreon I subscribe to. I love your work!

A bad "Hamilton" church play from Texas just hit social media. Jenny, thank you for making this video so I look like an expert on weird pop culture church plays in front of my friends.

Soooooo gooood !!!

This was great

this was so wild! kinda nice to laugh at after all my childhood church trauma lmao probably one of my fav videos so far!

I watched this shortly after it came out, and then as I was listening to a podcast (that I'm behind on) the next day, they joke about a Shrek themed Easter musical (I hope this comes to be), and in the next episode someone mentions these very church musicals and they even played the sound clip if Iron Man's crucifixion. Weird but also great timing for me.

So, a friend of mine used to live in Winnipeg, and knows people who went/go to this church. To the point of being background performers in some of the Easter plays (probably nothing past Robin of the Hood). Turns out the Choir Director lady, who I have come to think of as Choir Director Thea (because she stole that lady's job), is a professional theatre actress in Winnipeg. So I guess she goes to that church, and one year they asked her to be their ringer, and she decided she was fine taking a week to do a little skit and belt some Adele songs while movie characters are crucified behind her. My friend reported zero drama about Choir Director Thea's predecessor, and I definitely asked, I was powerfully curious about what happened there. Anyway no wonder she's Jenny's favourite, she does this for a living.

One criticism in this video that's a bit odd is the way that any song, movie or meme that was over a year old at the time the play was performed is seen as a bafflingly irrelevant inclusion - unless it's something Jenny likes.

The existence of God is debatable either way, but after watching this, there is no doubt in my mind that the Devil exists.

That awkward energy when a pop culture character's crucifixion is funnier than any of the actual jokes in the play but you can't laugh because it would be blasphemous...

That mash-up is legit good and I need more of it.

This was amazing and joyful and wholesome. Love your storytelling. Motivated me to join your Patreon.

I’ve watched it four times already

another vid to hold us over until barbie 😭

This is a nightmare: I've watched it too many times now and that first rendition of <i>I'll Be There</i> where it sounds like someone trying to strangle Donald Duck is stuck looping in my head 😆 halp

As far as sudden unexpected crucifixions in secular movies go, I can offer you THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM: "After a three-day search, Webb's body has yet to be found." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKCJHel6mh0

Church of the Rock when their crucifixion play features Norse gods: This is good Church of the Rock when Habitat for Humanity rents their venue and Indigenous children try to do a traditional dance (on THEIR OWN traditional land): this is wholly incongruent with our Christian values!

the low german joke is a reference to amish and mennonites. they make a few mennonite jokes throughout

Jenny's "what the heck am I watching?!" expression in the thumbnail keeps cracking me up.  Thanks for another great video Jenny! I'm willing to bet that the CPCU has peaked with this entry lol.

WOW this was fascinating, never would've predicted a video on this but this topic was so entertaining. Thanks as always, Jenny! ALSO: 16:32 with the walking on sunshine jump cut made me laugh so hard i cried

Completely wasted opportunity to not crucify one of those toys. That’s the embodiment of leaving money on the table. I do want them to do Jurassic Park but I want the T-Rex or Blue (cuz they will mix generations of JP movies), to be the one that gets crucified.

I love the video overall but it did kind of feel weird not even mentioning that this church is explicitly homophobic and transphobic according to their website (which also says they're against racism, go figure) https://www.churchoftherock.ca/about-us/doctrine/. Like, I know it probably goes without saying that an evangelical church is going to be like that, and that at no point did you endorse the church or its views. But it still feels weird potentially giving these people attention and money by spotlighting them without even mentioning "oh by the way, these people suck, don't support them". I'm all for laughing at their corny plays but it feels like an oversight.

Always feel guilty seeing my name included at the end of these masterpieces when all I did was donate a few measly dollars while Jenny put in all the hard work. But I'm also extremely honored because I know my name will never be attached to anything as great as these videos :')

Can confirm that "Bud the Spud" is a very well known song here in Canada! I don't like it, but it is very famous.

As a Canadian please accept my insincere apologies for all this.

I went to a Christian school that had a drama department, but the church would only let us use the chapel/theater if the plays were “ministry”, so we had two original musicals written and performed every year that had painfully on the nose evangelical messaging. Who doesn’t want to watch a 16 year old get fake beheaded for not taking the mark of the beast?!

would love to see them do trainspotting. i am dying to know what edits they would make to the lyrics of atomic.

:)

Also, I've been kind of in to DC lately so Batman getting crucified on the Bat-Signal was just *chef's kiss*.

I'm having hilarious flashbacks to church plays I saw as a kid and a teen. There was the one with swing-dancing demons, because swing-dancing was popular with the kids. Then there was the musical about Queen Esther, featuring the best song ever, "Born to Be a Eunuch," which was performed by a very enthusiastic group of teenage boys.

Seems to be getting a ton of views! I mean, I'm not exactly sure what's the yardstick, but I remember* Jenny musing that an Evermore video could be a bit niche and might only clock up 300k-500k within a week. <i>The Church Play Cinematic Universe</i> strikes me as if-anything an even smaller niche and we're on course to bust 500k within the first 24 hours 📈 *this is a complete lie ofc i went back & checked 😆

Okay I commented this on YouTube as well, but the Nazis in Indiana Jones are definitely rip-offs of characters from a tv show called Hogan’s Heroes which aired in the 60s, and the only person I know who ever watched it was my dad?!

This might be my favorite Jenny video yet.

I'm having a hard time believing any of this exists and that it takes place in a pocket dimension hellscape.

Im pretty sure that the undertaker is also timon and not the pastor

Canadian (and former Church-going thespian: 5-time Judas, 1 time Jesus) here, and this was hilarious! Sadly my friends from Manitoba say this church is suuuper anti-LGBTQ+ :/ (which probably explains why hula-drag Timon's lack of wife and kids is a thing to declare)

!!!

Cool

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I've watched this twice already

I'm sorry but the way they spray-painted a maple leaf over the Captain America star juuuust enough to leave (heh) a couple of the white star legs still visible...omg. Incredible. Captain Canada in all his knock-off glory is fantastic.

So, I don't think the racist actor from Tombstone is the pastor. If you see Timon in The Lion King it's the same actor as the Chinese man. They have the same jawline. The pastor's jaw is a little too narrow. I am comparing images from this though so I could be wrong. But I don't think this man has appeared in other performances (oddly enough).

Now I kind of want to see a vid of Jenny watching the real Holy Grail movie for the first time 🥺