You must watch “Faith Off,” the second episode of the BBC’s five-part “Cunk on Earth” series. After watching two of the episodes, I’ve concluded that while they have their funny moments (one of them noted by reader Barry below), the Philomena trope has trouble sustaining a long series. The bit about “Philomena’s castle” at the end is a weird and unamusing digression.
Moreover, now clearly some (but not all) of the academics and scholars she interviews are in on the fact that it’s a spoof .
Barry, who sent me this link, noted a bon mot from La Cunk:
In case you haven’t seen her latest: “When Christ was born he had a magic flaming circle on his head, which would have set fire to all the hay and pubes as he came out.”
The treatment of Islam is pretty funny, what with the blackouts, but note that there are two ads that interrupt in the show.
I’ll post the other three half-hour segments in the coming days.
I just watched this while exercising. Hilarious! Hard to say if the interviewees were in on the shtick or not.
Was the demon expelled?
I’d be amazed if any of the academics were not aware that they were involved in a spoof. Even if they were not previously aware of who Philomena Cunk is, as soon as she asked her first question, it would be obvious.
—
As for Barry’s quote, he missed the best bit out. She actually said
Guess teenage virgins in 1st century CE Galilee didn’t know from the full Brazilian?
Technical detail: a Brazilian leaves a small stroke to indicate the right aim, he fully shaved dressing is called a Hollywood. Very popular among young women here.
Yeah, anything with “pubes” is a bon mot and sure winner in the witty repartee department, nyuk nyuk nyuk. It’s cracking me up!
“Faith Off”
Pretty sure that’s a play on “face off” – I love that humor… whatever it’s called… like saying “face” but there’s a speech pathology…
Colbert does that too – hilarious word substitutions for idioms or expressions.
Yes, I immediately thought of a lisping “Face Off” too.
I bet Richard Dawkins would have had a lot of fun being interviewed. As a sinner, of course.
Hi Jerry
I use MediaHuman’s Youtube downloader (cheap) https://www.mediahuman.com/en16/ to snatch all the vids I want to see (unherd, Michael Shermer, etc) – and watch em at my leisure, without the ads. Cunk is great, even with the ads.
Apart from the fact that it’s almost inconceivable that academics didn’t already know about Diane’s parodies, the fact is that she has an incredibly distinctive voice that is used in several ads. She’d be immediately recognised simply by this. I think the academics contribute greatly by keeping straight faces, trying to give genuine answers to the ludicrous questions.
I rather liked Philomena’s castle. And she heroically did it all in one continuous take.
I enjoy listening the accent which I share having my childhood years within a few miles of hers in Bolton NW England. She has moderated her vowels a little but its unmistakable.
“When Christ was born he had a magic flaming circle on his head, which would have set fire to all the hay and pubes as he came out.”
Note, Mary was a virgin in conceiving Jesus and a virgin in giving birth to him. The baby could not have exited her body thru the birth canal. If he had, her hymen would not have remained intact! The baby was in her body and then, miracle of miracles, outside her body! Praise the Lord!
My XH was so excited when he learned the canonical explanation for this. Something in Acts about Jesus going through a door without opening it. Some medieval monk made the connection. Now I’m a happily single atheist.
She conceived a virgin, nothing about after birth, ‘Virgin Mary’ refers to Jesus’ immaculate conception.
Not for nothing we don’t talk about a ‘Christian section’.
The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s conception, not Jesus’s. The doctrine is that Mary, who presumably had two biological parents, was nonetheless conceived without sin (unlike everyone else since Abel and Cain) and was therefore a uniquely eligible vessel to receive God’s seed.
Checkmate, Atheists.
If U Google, “Mary, ever virgin” U will see that she remained a virgin in giving birth to Jesus per Catholic doctrine but not Protestant.
Checkmate, Atheists.
Spoof or not, the false claim that the moslems created the first libraries and universities is quite something…
I don’t think she’s taking the mickey out of religions, she’s taking the mickey out of TV documentaries: the walking towards the camera shot, the interviewing of bemused academic experts and telling them what they need to say in order to fulfil the director’s plan, the ignorant presenter with a script, etc. I must admit she hasn’t hit what, to me, is the most infuriating thing about historical documentaries, the way the professional historians insist on using the present tense for events that happened centuries ago. But I still think her target is not religion so much as the clichés of television.