This post is written by Eric Olsen…

Last week, I created “Good Friday”, a parody of the infamous Rebecca Black’s
song, “Friday”. This video achieved brief mainstream notoriety when celebrity
blogger, Perez Hilton posted the video on PerezHilton.com. To be honest, I was nervous
about whether or not non-Christians would “get it”.

But more than that, I was shocked by how many Christians didn’t “get it”.

I would have been fine with mere outrage at crucifixion lyrics juxtaposed against an
incredibly bubbly pop tune–you know, if they simply thought the joke was one or more steps too far across the blasphemous line. But that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that many Christians simply didn’t understand the whole thing was satire.

THE TOP 3 SATIRE TIP-OFFS

• I refer to Rebecca Black’s song “Friday” as “the greatest art in the secular world.”
• I claim that hiding Christian lyrics in pop songs can “dupe people into being converted.”
• Just in case someone didn’t pick up on any of these absurdities as clear clues, I actually come clean at the very end of the video. I hated having to do it–you know, explain the punch line. But I resigned myself to this foolproof measure–just in case.

But not even that worked!

Oh, Perez Hilton got the joke, judging by his “Ha! Just wait for like the last three seconds!” line.

But many, including some here at Jesus Needs New PR, apparently didn’t. The comments included:

“sigh… I’m tired of relevancy…. “gotta do it Daddy’s way….. blood is gushing….” ????????
I’m tired of it all…. Why, why must we make Christ and his death relevant and cool and
cute”

“Now – far be it from us to speak for Jesus, but we don’t think he necessarily wanted
to “dupe” people into following him.”

Seriously?

The sad lesson I learned last Friday was that the idea of someone in the church creating this song to better engage a visiting audience on Easter weekend isn’t outside the realm of possibility. On one hand, that’s what makes good satire work. On the other, that’s why so many didn’t get it. I simply was not prepared for how cynical our view of the Americanized church really is.

Clearly, Jesus needs new PR.