Bill Maher’s Irreverent Lens
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
“Religulous” seems poised to be 2008’s most irreverent film, a merging of the creative talents of “Borat” film director Larry Charles and comedian and TV host Bill Maher. The documentary follows Maher, known for his biting satire and political commentary, as he meets with representatives of various world religions and members of different belief systems.
Promotional materials for the film include everything from a poster displaying Maher’s face on a grilled cheese sandwich with the tagline “Do you smell something burning?” to the creation of a Web site called disbeliefnet.com — a spoof of beliefnet.com, a site devoted to religion and spirituality. Disbeliefnet.com is stocked with material mocking religious sects, with headlines as politically incorrect as “Burkini Babes” and a glaring ad demanding that viewers help “Save California From Satanic Homosexual Marriage.” The site (which bears the tagline “You won’t believe what people believe”) takes jabs at the anti-Zionist ultra-Orthodox fringe group Neturei Karta and presents kosher cell phones, which offer calling plans that shut down on the Sabbath and block “over 10,000 phone sex numbers — whether you want them to or not.”
“Religulous” is slated for release in October.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
