Two Amusing Videos for Friday

February 4th, 2005

Filed under:
Mixed Bag

Two Amusing Videos for Friday

First, we have one of the better basketball shots (WMV) you’ll see this year. In a related article, the kid tries to replicate the shot, and does it on his 11th try.

Via BoingBoing, here’s an amusing biblical takeoff (AVI, 19 MB, 4:25) on “Baby Got Back”:

When a girl walks in with a KJV
And a bookmark in proverbs, You get stoked.

It got a name engraved,
you know this girl has been saved
It looks like one of those large ones,
With plenty of space in the margins.

It’s pretty funny, but what puzzles me about this video is the creator’s intentions. Is it?

A light-hearted amusement intended for a Christian audience?
A misfiring satire of Christianity?
A serious attempt to get people to read the Bible?

It doesn’t really matter, but it left me wondering.

Comments: 5 Responses so far

Jeremy
February 5th, 2005
2:25 am

It seems to me to be a combination of #1 and #3 - it’s doubtful that someone who simply wished to parody Christianity would speak about it so generously, and be so familiar with the subject matter. And there’s also plenty of Christian targets that would be easier to parody. Why go to the trouble of making this home-made video about modern Biblical doctrine, if you could just rant on one of many newsgroup about the horrors of the Crusades, etc.?
But I guess you’re right, in that it doesn’t really matter all that much. Regardless of the creator’s intentions, I certainly got a kick out of it!

[Reply]

Chris
February 5th, 2005
5:56 pm

Jeremy, I’m going to have to disagree with “it’s doubtful someone who simply wished to parody Christianity would … be so familiar with the subject matter.”

A lot of people who dislike Christianity were actually raised Christian. I’m definitely not a Christian (an atheistic agnostic Deist, for lack of a better description) and am quite critical of Christianity, but I spent all of high school playing piano in a Christian church (mostly because I liked playing piano) and am quite familiar with a lot of aspects of Christianity.

That said, based on the tone of the video, I’d say it’s not trying to mock. It was probably done for some Christian Bible School video contest or something.

[Reply]

Jeremy
February 5th, 2005
9:09 pm

Chris, I see what you mean, so perhaps I should rephrase what I said: I find it unlikely that someone that was so familiar with Christianity, would parody it in such a manner. In my own experience, those who grew up in a Christian environment but who have since left it for whatever reason, are either quite bitter (perhaps understandably so) or fairly indifferent. In either case, the general “mood” of the video seemed positive, so I don’t see either of these types of ex-Christian-type people going to the trouble. I didn’t mean to imply that disagreeing with Christianity was equivalent to being ignorant of it.

But I do think you hit the nail on the head - this definitely looks like the work of some Bible College students, or Youth Group leaders, etc.

[Reply]