I had a friend whom I 100% knew didn't watch South Park and was a devout Mormon. After watching the episode, I asked him to tell me the basic Book of Mormon story and so much of what he said lined up with that episode. I nearly bit a hole through my lip trying not to laugh.
Hmm story of Book of Mormon according to me. Family chases out of Jerusalem. 2nd youngest son receives vision to build boat. Crosses ocean. 4 brothers split into tribes. Lamamites and Nephites are the "main characters" In general the "Nephites" are the "good guys", However both tribes go back and forth on being "good guys" or "bad guys" based in being "faithful" In general its considered Aztecs vs Mayans basically. They occasionally interact with tribes that were already there.. Such as Jaredites whom were in the Americas since the Tower of Babel. My favorite "story" is when the Nephites break up there Monarchy type system and try to set up a Republic type system. The last would be heir goes out to enemy territory. (The lamanites/aztecs) They try to capture him but he cuts off one arm every time they try. Delivers a bag full of arms to the main king. Becomes fully accepted as a result. Jesus visits after crucifixion but before he ascends. Around 400 a.d. they are basically wiped out. Mormon(name of person) compiles all the teachings into on compendium. Anyway. It reads nice. Flows better than the bible. I dont really believe any of it
Though fun fact, it has a minor basis in Old Testament fact. The Old Testament priests did have an urim and thummim which were used to divine the will of God. They were not used for translation, however.
@@TrekBeatTK I believe those were used to divine the answer to yes or no questions from God. The problem is, how do you know God is actually guiding the priest using them? I guess you could use them twice though...
@@davidtucker9498 I remember it being a little more complex than "yes" or "no," but no one's ever really figured out how the urim and thummim were actually used. No one's ever seen an urim and thummim either, so that doesn't help.
Matt and Trey claim that they had some trouble when creating this episode. They wanted to poke fun at Mormons because they found the story about Joseph Smith to be completely ludicrous. But at the same time, the Mormons they knew were such nice people that they didn’t want to be too harsh either.
Trey and Matt have expressed they have a lot of respect for the Mormon faith, even if they find it ridiculous at the same time. They also found a lot of Mormons can actually take it on the chin and have a bit of a laugh, unlike Issac Hayes when it came to making fun of Scientology.
What about those Jehovah Witnesses? They spend half their life knocking on doors. Then you got the other lot with their sharia law which they want us all to follow.
I once had a white mormon (lived in the rich neighborhood, across from the reservation) tell me that native folks are, and I quote "half evil" and that's why god changed their skin 🤡🤡🤡
My ex wife was raised Mormon. We were still together when I watched this, and I've never gotten so much stink eye in my entire life. I just told her she couldn't be pissed at me, they're the ones that believe this crazy shit.
I had to do a presentation about Mormonism for school here in Germany and I absolutely did watch that episode and only did a tiny bit of extra reading and got the highest grade possible. South Park captured the belief surprisingly well.
Yeah fellow ex-Mormon guy here, I remember when I was still in high school watching this episode when it came out and being confused as to whether I should be offended by what’s going on or not because it’s just too accurate, and then eventually I snapped that there actually inherent contradictions throughout all of Jo Smiths claims and one thing led to another haha
Is it true the missionary ones that go door to door will help with the chores if you ask them? Because I have a lot of fire wood I don't feel like splitting.
@@dustywaynemusic6297 and to think all this time i've been spraying them with the garden hose instead of having them to something constructive for me. What a waste.
There's a SP episode where a large group of people arrived in heaven and the gatekeeper would only let the Mormon's in, telling everybody else sorry but they picked the wrong religion.
I think that was in Hell. They were all told their religions were wrong until someone asked “Well which one was right?” “Ah that would be the Mormons.” Everyone in the crowd let’s out a collective AAARGG
Then, when Saddam Hussein dies and is being a real dick to his boyfriend Satan, Satan cuts a deal with God to transfer Saddam to heaven - where Saddam tries, an fails, to annoy the super polite and helpful Mormons there. And then later Saddam builds WMDs in heaven, so the US military has to bomb it.
I am not Mormon but this episode aired while a friend from England was staying over and he kept saying to me, "Is this real? I mean, does this really exist in America?" I had to tell him yes, he thought it was insane.
I'd argue that the English still in England (I am one, I moved to the US only in '78) are genetically-selected NOT to believe in Mormonism. LDS brought over tens of thousands of English over the 1840s and 1850s. To this day Utah/south Idaho is an island of Anglo in a sea of German and Mexican.
@@zimrielyou might have done a little bit too much LDS in the ‘60s. static.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/f/f5/LDS.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140213185103&path-prefix=en
I always assumed they had just exaggerated everything to make fun of mormons so the fact that she's implying the Joseph Smith song is somewhat accurate is blowing my mind.
I mean, yeah some of it is exaggerated to a silly level but overall I’d have to say this is the most accurate satirical representation of the church I’ve ever seen. *Especially* the people. I grew up surrounded by those exact people. It was scary accurate there.
It's not just mormons. If you put all religions on a board then threw a dart at it you'd hit a ridiculous religious belief. All organised religion is flawed and sometimes cynical
Have you seen the one on scientology? I thought that one was extremely exaggerated or not close to being true and it ended up being pretty accurate. It really seems like a science fiction fantasy movie (which it basically is considering it was written by a science fiction author). If you think about it, every religion is actually pretty insane. If you didn’t know anything about any religions. Then watched a movie/show telling the stories of each religion and was told this is what actually happened. You would think that’s absolutely insane!
The south park guys did a movie called Orgazmo,it's lead character is a Mormon missionary who becomes an adult film star by day and a superhero by night
"What makes a man? Is it the woman in his arms? Just 'cause she has big titties? Or is it the way, he fights every day? ...No, it's probably the titties"
When I saw this for the first time I was like "this is what they believe in???" Lol. South Park is notorious for taking real things that are ridiculous and representing them with rarely altering anything, so I never questioned them to be misrepresented here. I'm glad you clarified Lucy Harris is real though
@@Oleoay lol exactly. That's why when something completely ridiculous happens to me, I immediately go off like I'm Jeff Ross 😆 just to make myself laugh instead of getting angry
South Park shocked me plenty of times with its accuracy 😂 Like while watching the episode I think they’re totally exaggerating than I look up the topic and find out they’re spot on
The only thing I knew about Mormons before this episode of South Park was that back in the early 80s, my father was selling our old station wagon. He knew a Mormon family and let them take the car out for a test drive without anyone accompanying them. He said that they were the only people he'd let do that. While the religion is nonsense, many of the people are very good.
A good friend of mine in high school was (and probably still is) Mormon and he was awesome. His family were super friendly and it was great. (The following isn't specific to my friend or his family because at the time it never occurred to me to even discuss it with them, so if by some miracle you read this Joe S., please don't think I'm accusing you of the following.) The difficulty comes when you get down to specific beliefs about race, gender, and the like. I can disagree with people and still get along with them, but it's hard to buy into the whole "wholesome family image" thing when it's backed by a religion that features overt racism, sexism, anti-gay sentiment, and lots of specific behaviors that are deeply disturbing (ex: don't file a sexual assault complaint at BYU...).
They are very good, because they believe that they will be ranked into different heavens according to how Good they are. The best of the best get to go to the highest heaven, become gods, and create their own planets which they then populate by having sex with the multiple wives sealed to them while they were on earth. No, not making this up. Mormons who were less good go to a second-best heaven (Runner-up paradise) and the third place finishers, that is, nice people who weren't mormons, get a mere paradise and a juice box for participating. Okay, no juice box. 'Cause, you know, they didn't actually participate and weren't down with all the baptisms for the dead and all that. Reprobates, apostates (i.e. ex-mormons) and Hitler all go to "Spirit Prison" (Not Hell. All the signs on the wall in Spirit Prison say, "This is Not Hell.") and they spend 1000 years listening to Mormons from the runner-up heaven (seriously) who come to visit them (presumably on spirit-bicycles, wearing white spirit-shirts and little name-badges with their resurrection names on them ... but since the resurrection name depends on what month you were baptized, all the nametags say "Noah.") After 1000 years in IT'S-NOT-HELL the repentant reprobates, apostates, and Hitlers get to go to the third heaven, where they are issued sacred underwear. The non-repentant reprobates, apostates, and Hitlers get tossed into a lake of fire that is STILL-NOT-HELL!!! Yeah, I'd say that you can't make this stuff up, except that they did. Look, folks, let go of the counterfeit. Turn to the true Lord Jesus, who saves us, not by works, but by his Blood that He shed on the Cross. If you're working to get into Heaven, you made a wrong turn.
@@WhereWhatHuh Not quite. The terrestrial kingdom (second-best) is for people who are generally good and just didn't do all the LDS stuff. The telestrial kingdom (worst heaven) is for all the sinners who didn't actually learn the truth and then repudiate it. You can be a complete shitbag and still go to the telestial kingdom, because you never truly received the word of heavenly father in your heart and thus it's not *really* your fault. And yeah the telestial kingdom is still a paradise, but it's a paradise in the sense of what *mortals* would think of as a great place to be -- basically everything is awesome, so awesome you can't even quite imagine it on Earth. The damnation of it is you never get to hang out with heavenly father, or even Jesus, and you can only look up knowing you missed out on the really cool stuff. The spirit world is where you go waiting for the end of the world. It's sort of like purgatory but not bad at all. Pretty much everyone goes to the spirit world to wait for heaven -- it's not a place "bad" people are sent. Think of it as the lobby where you wait until heaven's business hours start. The nice thing about spirit world is that it's a "second chance" and with friends helping you back on Earth you can still make it to the celestial kingdom. This is where all the posthumous baptisms and posthumous marriages come in. If you were a jack mormon and never made it to the priesthood, or you did but still died a bachelor, or even if you never LDS at all, this can still be fixed as long as the deadline hasn't been hit. In the spirit world even if you don't do the LDS stuff you can still repent and whatnot and make it to the terrestrial kingdom. Spirit prison is the bad part of the spirit world where the really bad people go and you get kinda stuck there and it is a sucky place but you can still get a chance to repent and ascend, but your other option is you can wait out the 1000 years and still go to the telestial kingdom. Given this, it really makes me wonder why anyone would ever wind up in the telestial kingdom. "Oh wait, God is real and I really screwed up. I'm going to recognize all this and still sin like crazy because *evil is cool*. The *bad place* is Outer Darkness which isn't well defined but it's where you go if you're basically the antichrist. You get to spend forever in the closest thing LDS has to hell. It's basically impossible to get sent here and I don't even know why God would bother making it. To go here you basically have to declare yourself as God's sworn enemy and never ever repent. You can be the world's worst sinner and still not get sent here -- it's only for people who know all about the omnipotent omniscient entity that created and controls Earth, but for some crazy reason still think they can fight him. At that point I think the person should be forgiven on the basis of them being mentally ill.
@@NozomuYume So it's even more complicated (and works-based) than what I described. Good points. Thanks for the clarification. In the end though, you still need to be saved by Grace, and not by works. Works cannot bridge the divide to God (Father, as you say, though in Mormon-speak it means the Son, Jesus). In the end, we have to rely not on Temple Works and being diligent enough, but simply trusting Jesus. "Abraham Believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
@@WhereWhatHuh Well, the LDS idea is that works DO affect where you go -- hence the multiple kingdoms -- but everyone gets saved unless they actively reject it, and you get an extra period of proof of Jesus where you can improve yourself and it's basically impossible to not believe. Doing good works on Earth just gives you a head start. Progress in the spirit world is much, much harder because you no longer have a physical form to do good works with, so all your progress must be done internally, and with the help of those still alive who can help you on your way (again back to the posthumous baptisms). I don't know if the church ever clarified if you absolutely *needed* a living person to help you, but that it definitely makes it easier. Even though progress is harder in the spirit world, there is the advantage that you have a lot more time to do it. It is considered the responsibility of those in the paradise part of the spirit world to minister to those in spirit prison to help them progress out of it.
My only interaction with a Mormon was a girl I asked out on the bus, and she said she couldn't because she was Mormon. About a year later she told me she was turning 17 or something, and seemed to be implying something to me. Several years later I inferred that she was telling me she was aloud to date, all I told her was happy birthday.
There is an unwritten rule that you need to be married by a certain age. I think it's around 25 to 30. This is from Northern California so this may not be true for other areas.
@@insanumyu923 im an ex mormon, my family never put that rule on me, probably because im a man, and also i dont have any sisters. So i dont know, i guess it is more related to the person/family than the religion.
A few years ago my daughter told me some Mormons were trying to talk to her. I guess they asked what she knew about the religion. She told them "Everything I know about Mormons, I learned from South Park." I wish I was there. Because; "me too, but I would never have said that to them." Good video, thanks for sharing your pov.
There was a huge mormon family in my highschool band class. They all came to school in a huge van. Some of the nicest people I've ever met.... In a creepy way.
You’ll probably never read this but born and raised Mormon here. If you thought it was creepy your right narcissism is about 18x more likely in the Mormon church. And about 5x as many people with the inability to feel empathy (the psychopath gene) become psychopaths. If you thought it was creepy. Mormonism is a psychopath religion.
I’m appalled to say it but Ted Bundy considered by many to be the most prolific serial killer to ever lived joined the Mormon church after realising it’s literally a narcissism drug because everyone is so nice. You can put on a show like a psychopath wants to and you can be all Christy and you will receive praise and respect like no one else. Good deal for old Ted. Strong positive view on his character. The Mormon church’s members are responsible for well over 200 murderers and serial killers that have been caught. Many remain at large as they can kill, rape, and torcher while never being suspected by any of the others in their faith
I was married to a "restoration branch" mormon girl who didn't really believe what her dad preached daily. Her other 3 sisters were hardcore whatever dad says has to be true believers. I was regularly referred to as "the devil" and was told I was dragging their daughter "into the pit". They tried to convert me and I was shocked when I looked into the teachings. When I would tell them it all sounded like BS they said I didn't have the authority to speak against the church. They had several "words" about the day the world would end and those days came and went with no great earthquake or a giant wall popping up around Independence, MO to lock me "the devil" out forcing me to have to grow my own food. I was actually told that would happen on several occasions. When I asked why the end of times didn't take place I was always told elder old guy in white shirt with black tie had a "word" that the time wasn't right. It amazes me how people believe such insane stuff when it basically screams that it's just horse ploppys. Sorry for the long comment. I've got to get back to tending the fire and brimstone down here in the pit.
Ugh, the restoration branch... Yeah, the-for want of better terms, "Main "Mormons don't like them either. Basically they're regarded as the shallow, hypocritical and abusive off shoots... When you have actual mormons saying that about a particular branch of theirs, you KNOW you fucked up royally! XD
My best friend in highschool was Mormon until her mom, who married into the church, started questioning church doctrine, then they were all excommunicated. After that I showed her this episode and she laughed so hard she peed herself.
When missionaries tried (I was just curious because my twin converted Mormon but she didn't last long), I literally said very slowly "you believe the guy looked in a hat and someone just believed what he said" when they said yes they didn't understand why I facepalmed
You have that level of ridiculousness with every religion. It's just more obvious with recent religions like Scientology or the Mormons, because it hits closer to home than religions with a milennia old history. Like the merciful father who lets his alleged "son" be tortured to death for three days, because that’s the only way this all powerful being can come up with to release us from our so called "sins", that are all our responsibility for some weird reason. ^^
@@mori1bund Exactly. The lesson of the patently ridiculous faiths and spiritual systems created in the last few hundred years (like LDS, Scientology, and the cargo cults of Melanesia*) isn't to give credence to the greater veracity of older religions (which somehow feel more likely to contain at least some truth, at least to most Americans), but to essentially show that if humanity survives another 1,800 years, something like Scientology (if it still exists - the major faiths of the world today are survivors of a long process of spiritual attrition) will be perceived basically like Christianity is today.** *All religions have ludicrous origin stories.* Today's crackpot is tomorrow's "legitimate" person of faith. *If you're not familiar with cargo cults, look them up - they are absolutely fascinating proto-religions that exist only as a result of hunter-gatherer tribal cultures coming in contact with the technology and excess of modern Western peoples (starting in the Victorian period, and continuing to the present). **Indeed, if Scientology survives, it will certainly evolve (all religions do), making it quite possible that in as little as a few centuries, Tom Cruise will be known as a prophet (or even a minor deity) to those future believers, with people who grew up watching his movies and following his exploits in the celebrity-obsessed media, people like you and me, being seen as #blessed to have experienced the wisdom of a supernatural being firsthand.
My girlfriend is an ex Mormon and we always think its funny to call her a "recovering Mormon". Sucks though honestly the religion messed her up bad. She really is a recovering Mormon
This episode was so accurate in the fact that you don't even want to mock Mormons because they're so damn nice and polite you don't even want to mock them no matter how crazy the religion is. Even if you think it's fake politeness you still don't want to be a dick. It's the perfect defense mechanism
The Jehovah's witnesses are doing this now. They come door to door in my city, literally just standing outside of apartment buildings dialling random numbers to talk to anyone who will pick up and then trying to be nice enough for you to go down and talk to them. Only then do they do the big smile while calling you a sinner and that you deserve to burn, but it's ok because you can be saved! Hooray! It's so freaking evil and manipulative
Didn't work so well for early Christians because for the people who persecuted them, nailing people to crosses or feeding them to lions was an afternoon's fun
The South Park Mormon episode was brilliant. I’m kind of surprised Matt and Trey never did an episode about the Duggars though. That would have been great too
What are they going to make a whole funny show about? The oldest one went to prison for child pornography and accused of molesting minors. From there you say the wrong thing and you're getting sued. It is just one of those situations.
I remember when this episode aired. I was living in rural WA at the time, middle of the cascades far off of route 12. Small towns were dominated by mormon churches everywhere. Rural WA is basically a greener version of Utah. My neighbor down the mountain was a Mormon and I remember watching the episode in the den, from where I could look out the patio door window down the hill and stare at their property. I never laughed so damned hard. This episode helped encourage me to admit I was an Atheist and I'll never forget it. I even remember it's moral in the end - as with most SP episodes, there's a hard hitting truth bomb of a moral and the mormon kid admitting the story is bullshit but didn't care because it gave his family values that made them happy, was a huge eye opener. I'm rather anti-religious today because I still see organized religion as a vehicle that's constantly hijacked by fuckwits wanting power and control, but the idea that people being in something traditional and spiritual if it makes them and their loved ones happy and good to others is very respectful. Christianity is credited with giving a good chunk of what western civilization is today... it's also credited with holding a fuck ton of it back (dark ages and all that) but hey, you win some you lose some.
Theres a good reason why the term 'Dark Ages' is no longer really used by Medieval historians. One of the main reasons why Rome was able to further human knowledge is that it was an economic powerhouse, so people didnt constantly have to worry about starving or dying and many of its provinces relied on trade from other provinces to be able to function. So when Rome collapsed, it was such a major upset that it literally took centuries for many of its former provinces to recover and during that time it was hard to justify luxuries like studying science or maths when you weren't sure if there would be enough food to eat, or if your country would be invaded by a hostile power. But ultimately once Europe was mostly stabilised again, it was actually the Christian monks who kept the fire of knowledge alight. It was they who kept many books from before the fall and they who taught people how to read and understand Latin and Greek (The language most science and history books were written in). Many monasteries and churches were used as schools, and eventually became the first universities. So while I'm sure some priest somewhere in the world burned a book for being 'heretical'. The reality is that if Christianity had not existed after the fall of Rome, its entirely possible that thousands of years of knowledge may have been lost forever. TL;DR - Dark ages weren't really all that Dark largely thanks to Christianity.
@@shittyshitposter2157 the Dark Ages are considered Dark Ages as a descriptor, not as an actual Epoch. It's similar to how climatologists used Glaciacian or Ice Age to classify an era due to objective measured. A Dark Age is a massive regression in widespread knowledge and economic development. After the collapse of Rome, this did in fact happen and there is objective evidence of this. The Dark Age era is only a part of the Middle Ages, rather than the whole, but a good few centuries at the turn of the millennium was in fact a bad time. It's not only Dark Age to have existed in our history either. The Bronze Age Collapse also proceeded an immediate Dark Age period thar last 300 to 700 years depending on tbe region. Same objective markers apply, a collapse in economic development and wide spread knowledge. The reason why the Catholic Church gets a bad wrap with the Midieval era Dark Age is because they held the knowledge exclusively and did not share it to the general population. Monks recorded knowledge to keep the libraries growing but at times were selective at what knowledge was recorded (as some religious leaders were more offended by outside knowledge than others) and thus some Monastaries were not as inclusive as they could have been as a repository for knowledge. And because only the Church was deemed worthy of distribution, there was a hierarchy that often restricted the general population from over learning to read or write on purpose, so that the masses could not utilize the knowledge to begin with. This changed slightly over time and with the reestablishing of trade and economic growth following the fall of Rome and the plague later, Royals finally could rebuild what was left to rot and begin advancing again even with less than 10% of the population being able to read or write. Compared to the height of Rome, where the general plebian mass in metropolitan areas that would be considered the 'Middle class' today (the craftsman population), Roman citizens of such status and higher did in fact know reading and writing and also were quite prideful in their arithmetic. There was a game they would play in which when they'd pass one another on the streets, they'd ask 'what number are you?', and the reply was to use quick math to sum the number value of all the letters of their full name. This is where '666' came from for denoting who the Anti-Christ was. It was based off of a Roman game which became code for also identifying a particular Emperor that certain people didn't like... So compared to Roman times, the early Mideival period was in fact, less educated and less economically developed. This Church was party to that but clearly, wasn't the cause of it. They just didn't help much until later. They were the inspiration for Gutenburg in the 1450s because it was the Church's wanton of a standardized Bible that inspired Johannes Gutenberg to make use of his brand new European Printing Press invention. And within 30 years after he did, there was over a thousand such Printing Shops Printing millions of books, which was the official start of tbe Renaissance Age (beginning in Italy) as a result.
Being atheist is almost the exact equivalence of a lack of understanding, lack of intelligence and lack of wisdom as being an orthodox, indoctrinated theist is.. both poles of thinking are equally dimwitted and ignorant. at some point you will realize there is a creator but no he doesn't tell you that you gotta wash your hands and face 5 times a day or wear blessed cotton under garments or sanitize a baby's circumcised penis with your mouth. our creator endowed us with the authority and ability to discern the correct way to live and create our lives but we have to take responsibility for the need to achieve the wisdom to do it. not all the goofy stuff written in scripture or churches.
i love how this episode of the show turned into an award winning broadway musical that was on for 9 years, for 14 tony nominations and won 9 times. pretty amazing to think about haha
I saw that musical on broadway and it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever watched. I laughed the entire time and by the end, my sides legitimately hurt.
My late wife whom I met and married at USU considered herself a "Jack Mormon" but must say that every single Mormon I ever met were the friendliest, kindest and big hearted people you will ever meet.
@@danlabok7117 I used to be Mormon. My mother thought they were nice people and that I needed role models. My shelf broke when I learned of the racist past of the church as a young teen. The official stance of the church was that black skin is the cause of the curse of Cain and forbode blacks from holding the priesthood (essentially the ability to perform rites (ie. Bless sacrament, perform baptism etc) ). Mormonism also requires that Mormons marry Mormons, but forbode interracial marriage, imagine being a black Mormon person. So maybe you personally have not heard a Mormon utter anything bad about anyone, but their religion was founded on horrific and racist principles until the god of the book of Mormon changed his mind in 1978.
@@majorwakanda8858 it was an elder (head of the Mormon church at the time) that revamped the racist part to protect the religion not out of goodness of his heart. The religion ( like all religions) is based on a person (prophet) hearing a calling and then transferring that to further lies and to keep the fraud (and money) coming into the church's tax-free coffers. Ever wonder why only men somehow only hear from "god"? So I guess women have no sense of religious telepathy?
Matt and Trey said that they wrote this whole episode based on a conversation that they had with a Mormon family that they knew. So the fact that it lines up perfectly is no coincidence. They felt that the truth was so funny and wild that they needed no exaggeration.
Fr. At least Mormons don't stalk you and your family, and actively try to ruin your life. They just guilt trip you into complying by being SUPER nice and wholesome.
@@movietimeateds69 They do very much stalk you and send people to check up on you and ask you to reconsider. They just stalk you in a nice way. For years and year and years.
@@al5306 That's only still a thing for fringe splinter groups in southern Utah. The official stance of the modern church on polygamy is to adhere to the law of the land. It's illegal in the States, so it is no longer practiced or encouraged.
@Nikki, the lds church has existed 2 times as long without polygamy than it has with polygamy. Plus there's more active lds members than there are jews, so if the lds where ever to start it again everybody would get mad quick.
As someone who has lived in Utah his whole life and was never mormon, I can safely say that my experiences with them are spot on accurate as they're portrayed in this episode.
@@Roar_Restored I always found it dumb, you just go through the motions because of family. The big “I’m done” moment was when a bishop wanted to me to out my best church friend for being gay. I chose friendship over religion. I made a wise choice at 14.
@@aaronhiggs I appreciate the follow up. It's hard to think freely for yourself in a religious upbringing. I get where you are coming from. Have a great day.
@@Roar_Restored well , for me , I always had an independent spirit about me. I knew very young that things were not right, at least in my ward. So I held to my own personal iron rod. Whilst I did learn good things, the church pushed me away from organized religions.
Having grown up a non-Mormon in Salt Lake City, Utah, I loved this episode when it first aired...and still do. However, since becoming familiar with the BITE Model of cult indoctrination, I can't help noticing how (A) inviting the kids over for dinner and (B) offering the angry dad some treats and inviting _him_ inside...are both forms of Love Bombing, a means by which to draw people in with overtures of friendship, when the _real_ goal is simply to, "...set them up for the pitch." In the episode, it's kind of silly. In reality, it's _insidious!_
Yes. I was the only member of the church in my Family, so some times I would get invited to participate on a “Family Home Evening” at someone else’s house. I´m not a member of church anymore, but those were actually kind of fun. We would play games and eat rice krispies, cakes, ice cream, pies, pizza, etc.
I resigned from the church in 2016 and it's the best decision I've ever made. There's so much truth in that episode that lines up with the church's "teachings" that looking back, I don't know how I was so foolish to get baptized.
because you were naive and indoctrinated at a young age - Mormons try to separate you from the outside world as much as possible. They give you tools to try and discredit "nonbelievers". Everything is about the heavenly Father when in fact it's just a bunch of old white guys holding on to patriarchal powers, subjugating women and making children compliant and silent. It breeds dangerous men
In the opinion of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and the major Protestant churches, you did not get baptised. Baptism is only valid in the name of the Trinity (some insist also on apostolic-succession). We Catholics will honour the baptism of, say, Lutherans because Luther never denied the Trinity and came from a monastic tradition, so was himself in apostolic-succession. We just mandate they go through RCIA for confirmation in our tradition.
My ancestors on mother's side were some of Joseph Smith's earliest converts. They've been part of the church since back in NY and have remained with LDS for generations. And every single day I am grateful that my mother left Mormonism in the early 70's due to her ideological differences (specifically church racism at the time and anti-feminism.) She always praised the community that surrounds LDS, but being a kind person doesn't negate deeply held racist, sexist, or homophobic beliefs. As my mom put it to me when I was a teenager, the Mormons might be nice folks, but that doesn't excuse generations worth of terrible actions in the name of their god.
Your mother sounds like am amazing woman from the way you described her. It takes a lot of courage to do what she did, especially in a time period like that. I know there's probably more to the story as well but I'm not gonna pry, but you know just being against racism, sexism and homophobia, would've been seen as extremely progressive back then. I salute her for doing what she did
@@Barkz01 It is a line from the song "I Believe" from the musical "The Book of Mormon", written by the same people who wrote this South Park episode. Lighten up.
I had a Mormon friend in high-school. He was just like that kid. He was good at everything and extremely popular. Nobody could ever get mad at him because he was so nice and helpful. He was also alpha AF.
Sounds just like this Mormon dude that went to my high school his name was Brennan. The dude was the shit at sports and a super nice dude. And nobody could really make fun of him being Mormon because he was nice asf even tho he was popular he didn't hate on anybody, but he got in trouble when his parents found out he "smashed" his girlfriend at the time, who he ended up marrying so iguess all is good. Lol Sorry for the random comment, just reminded me of the only Mormon I ever knew 😅
Damn, it's almost like a supportive family, strong ethics and values make you solid person. I honestly wouldn't mind if everyone was down for some latter day saintage.
There was a Mormon family who lived down the street from me. Their house was run down, and their garage door always up, showing their "years supply" of food. Their son went off to be a missionary, and came back all f*cked up...mohawk, tattoos, nipple rings and a nasty drug habit ( I heard rumors later he died of an overdose). The father who's own house was run down, was the groundskeeper for his his church, and kept the lawn immaculate and perfectly manicured. He'd call the cops on kids who dared to walk across the lawn, or ride their bikes in the churches parking lot. He was an evil bastard, and all the kids in the neighborhood hated him.
@@Skulllywag Sounds like that "restoration branch" mormons that was mentioned earlier in the comments section... Basically they're the dark side mormons that the main group kinda kicked out/disvowed-and with good reason, THEY'RE CRAZY!
@@Skulllywag Got to say this. I spent two years in SLC 7th and 8th grade. When my friends learned I wasn't Mormon (I didn't understand some of what they were saying) they stopped talking to me. Didn't even try to explain what they were talking about. Just dropped my like a hot potato. After that I hated SLC and all the Mormons who wouldn't include me in any way. I had to pass by the Mormon temple often so I proudly spat upon it's soil. Still proud of that today.
I grew up Mormon too. And in Salt Lake. It is funny how the church was never big on educating the members. And so many contradictions. It’s such bull shit.
Years ago, I worked with a woman who was an ex-Mormon. She told me that when she was a young girl, she asked some elder why there weren't any Black people in the Church. She was told that there were, but after they became Mormon, they turned white.
Church actually used to believe and TEACH that people with dark skin who "accepted the gospel" (aka became Mormon) would turn "white". It said so in the Book of Mormon.
@@zimrielthere was that scene in Ghostbusters where Winston told the mayor he’s seen shit that’ll turn you white. I guess the Mormon church has seen a lot of shit.
I saw this episode not knowing anything about Mormons. My friend and Battle buddy in the Army at the time was an Ex-Mormon. (He was excommunicated for not marrying the "Right" kind of women) I showed it to him and he was like, "O yea, that's pretty much the bull shit they believe. But even more stupid." I was shocked. Made sense to me after that why he was no longer part of that church.
yeah straight up lied to you, you have to do some serious shit to get excommunicated and who you marry def. doesnt fall into that catagory and i am ex mormon
Yeah...thats not true. Getting excommunicated isnt as rare or based on truth or logic as you think. If the parish council or council of elders or whatever doesnt like someone and wants them gone....they make it happen.
idk what kind of backwards branch you came from (if you habe ever actually been mormon) but i been in 12 different branches (my family moved alot) and i dont know anyone who has ever been excommunicated neither has my mother who has been in the church her whole life and my father for most of his life non of them have ever even heard of anyone being excommunicated for anything less then serious crimes and it was only once and "parish council" isnt even an a word ever used in mormon terminology meaning your just someone from the outside assuming or this is based of a sect of mormons that arent from the true main branch (there are some sects that claim to be LDS that actually arent) which isnt what the average mormon follows
@@jaredstearman3625 I said parish council or council of elders. You have selected reading skills, meaning you select the parts you like and discard the parts you don't. And of course you're going to defend your religion. Why would you know someone who was excommunicated? You're still in it and have no reason to engage with those who've been kicked out. Mormons use honey traps, aka sex, as a lure to get young men to convert. Young men and women promise marriage if only these people will convert. The victims do all the steps to convert and then find out their love has married someone else or disappeared to go lure someone else into the religion. Its a disgusting, dishonest tactic used often to fool people into joining. A religion that engages in that behavior isn't exactly trustworthy as to their word.
@@smokejaguarsix7757 1st of all if you actually read my first comment i am an ex-mormon i havent been to the church for 10 years and yes i have my problems with the church and its teachings what i cant tolerate is outright lies that people have made up to generate this demonizing picture of the church because the people there are the nicest people ive ever known in my entire life and hearing people say bs like "they use honey traps" pisses me off because its 100% bs and as for how i would know people were excomunnicated is because for most of my life my father was a member of the "high council" (thats its actual name btw) and he has never seen an excommunication event in his 30+ years as one across these multiple churches hes been too so dont tell me i dont know what im talking about i actually lived it you watched a south park special and heard a rumor and now think your some kind of expert on religion
This was really cool, Matt and Trey dont do interviews often but when they have been asked about religions they have always seemed to have a soft spot for Mormons. They seem to have grown up around Mormons and are fascinated by them. They even sort of defend them often as you can see at the end of this episode, they sort of have a positive last word for Mormons in general.
@@monkeykoder I dont think they were raised Mormon, from what I can gather listening to them they just lived in a very Mormon community so they had lots around them. Ive heard them say more than once that even tho they think the religion is kinda crazy they have never met a Mormon that wasn't a really friendly person.
@@skylarmccloud4080 I think Matt Stone is the blonde "All American" one and Trey is the Jewfro, i get confused tho lol they always appear together and do almost everything together.
I watched an Expedition Bible episode titled, "Test of a Prophet" where the host debated with a lifelong and devout Mormon. It was a blood bath, it was like that last scene in 'Braveheart' when William Wallace was strapped to the torture table and everyone in the crowd was yelling "Mercy!"... I felt so bad for the guy. By the end of the episode, the Morman's beliefs and faith was literally in tatters and he was near if not crying. Facts are facts and truth is truth and there's no way around that.
I have an Ex-Mormon friend who told me that, THAT episode was surprisingly accurate... lol. He said there is more but THAT episode covered the basic history very well.
I lived in Scotland for seven years. I learned a lot of the Scots language and some Gaelic. Also attended a series of lectures on Scottish/Irish folklore and celtic religion. When someone told me about Mormons, I noticed a lot of bits copied from books on this folklore that were first printed in the late 1700s and 1800s. The so called seerer stones and still made now as tourist gifts. They are made from hollow volcanic nodules that are sliced and polished.
I lived in Utah in high school and my first girlfriend was Mormon. I made her watch this episode and her only gripe was that, the way she was taught, Joseph Smith translated the plates from behind a curtain, instead of out of a hat.
I am a Utah born ex Mormon and I remember in seminary class questioning some of the things we were learning (not disrespectfully, genuine curiosity) and they always had an excuse on these things but they were different excuses I'd hear other mormons use and I didn't like the idea that this ONE ABSOLUTE religion had so many different translations of what things were supposed to be. And then I saw this episode and it really opened my eyes on how absolutely stupid we look to everyone. I'm not saying this episode got me out because I was already out the door but it definitely was the deciding factor
What did they say about blacks being cursed until 1978 when the god of the book of Mormon changed his mind? I used to be Mormon, I'm also biracial, but luckily as soon as my mother heard about this she dipped the fuck out. And never let the visiting teachers back in our house . This was 15 years ago. I never got the chance to ask a Mormon this again.
It was hilarious. But basically they were mocking ALL religions. They just happen to choose Mormon as their example. You can make a similar episode about Christianity, Islam or any other religion.
Living in Japan, I run into Mormon missionaries all the time (they're easy to spot), and as spreading the word to people like myself is outside their mission parameters, they just relax and chat happily. Absolutely lovely people, a credit to their upbringing. Mocking a religion because of their belief system is like complaining that a politician is corrupt, or an actor is a virtue signalling airhead hypocrite. It sort of goes with the territory. The end of the episode echos this view, and I liked that.
I'm not Mormon, but growing up I had two mormon friends. This episode cracked me up, because they actually were genuinely the nicest people I knew in school.
You just triggered a memory of mine. I remember in my freshman year of college, in the dorms there was one mormon guy who was the nicest person in the world. Everyone liked him, but since it was 1st year college, for fun everyone would go to parties and get totally wasted except for him. I remember one Friday he went around all the dorm rooms with a sled asking people if they wanted to go sledding on a big hill nearby (since it snowed). Poor guy was only able to convince one person to go with him. I felt so bad, when he asked me and I told him I had plans to go out to have some drinks with people, and he just said so disappointingly "that's what everybody else's plan is too",
i was also raised in the mormon church, i watched this episode toking it up with the homies and spent the entire laughing my ass off. literally made my week
interesting fact: Joseph smith is ancestor of mine. and after finding out my ancestor was joseph smith some Mormon friends of mine asked me why i wasn't a Mormon, so to have fun with them. i told them that Joseph smith had a series of journals and that in these Journals he talked about how he made the religion up for money. they whole heartedly believed me, i never told them the truth that i made up the journal story
I learned a long time ago, South Park is pretty darn accurate when it comes to the things that count. Reading between the jokes, there are many things i've learned from South Park.
It is surprisingly accurate when my family decided to be Christian, Mormons showed up and were basically saying "let us enlighten you guys" and when I gave it thought, it was hilarious how they claimed these things were all true
Not a mormon, but I know that South Park is excellent for satire, so I knew that they weren't really lying about anything. They may embellish it for effect or emphasis, but they're great crib notes on many subjects.
South Park goes in-depth alot. One example of dropping the ball was with the Ethiopian "Starving Marvin" where christianity was portrayed as foreign and western to the ethiopians. When in reality the Ethiopians are the oldest christianized culture on earth. Christianity is not foreign to Ethiopia at all.
Grew up going to Mormon churches until my teen years, then moved cross country and started attending southern Baptist churches. (culture shock). My parents were under the impression that "church" meant "church" and it didn't matter which one, just go to the one closest to you and everything else falls into place. The biggest difference I remember about the two religions is the Mormons were nice and spoke casually. The new preachers were kinda loud and angry all the time. Great reaction video! I Loved it!
When this episode came out, I honestly thought it was all a joke because of how ridiculous it all sounds. Like I couldn't fathom how anyone could learn how the Book of Mormon was written and think "yeah, that sounds totally legitimate"
Fun story. My 5th great grandfather was one Joseph smiths guards. When the Mormons where driven out to Utah where he was one of the lead expiditioners of what would be known as the Mormon trail. They later settled in Utah and Isaac (my 5th great-grandpa) sold his home for 5 bushels of corn I believe. He also burnt down his previous home because he really didn’t want it going to other religious ppls. Yea Mormons are a different breed.
My best guess is that Lucy Harris threw the pages in the fire place? You would think even if she hid them in a really good spot that someone over a hundred years would eventually find them even by accident?
This and the Scientology episode are still my favorite South Park episodes. When they have a go at religion, they hit deep, no matter what religion it is. lol "Joseph Smith, he was a prophet, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@stephenferguson9756 Well, Comedy Central won't let them. They had Muhammad as one of the Super Best Friends for like 12 years b4 THEY had to point it out to everyone. And that the episode had been re-running ever since the whole Muhammad controversy happened.
Honestly, I thought the ending was too soft on Mormons. It makes Stan out to be the bad guy "because what the church teaches now is loving your family and being nice and helping people." That statement is about as true of Mormonism as it is true of every religion.
🎶 Lucy Harris (Smart Smart Smart), Martin Harris (Dumb)🎶😂 __ 🎶Even though nobody-else-ever-saw-them (dum dum dum dum dum)🎶 Always loved the jaunty march-like music SP used for the Joseph Smith scenes!
I grew up in Las Vegas. I had mormon friends that I went to Friday night dances. Then I went to the mormon conference and to church. They were nice and had fun, but they never told me any of this. Didnt become a mormon.
I saw this *while* I was in the Mormon church at 12 years old. So fucking hilarious. None of the boys in my church group talked to me for a while. Dum dum dum dum dum
I look at this episode (and Book of Mormon which is one of my two favorite musicals) like Kevin Smith's Dogma. Any religion is full of contradictions but it's generally good to believe in something, whether it's religion or science or in yourself. Also, pretty much every Mormon I've met has been extremely nice, but I also hear horror stories about people leaving that religion.
When I was in a Protestant church, I always heard strange things about Mormons, but never got definitive answers WHY. My research later on lead me to a Catholic website, that spelled all the weirdness out. Naturally, this lead to my conversion to the Catholic Church! I don’t have anything against Mormons, it’s really because of them I found my true home! And this South Park episode cracked me up!
*fistbump* also a convert to Catholicism, in my case from the Anglicans. I do feel for the Mormon kid's last comment, however. I confess I am a little ambivalent about Eucharistic miracles, Fatima, and some of the other stuff. I interpret the Real Presence as a Platonic form. Still, if some nonCatholic gets in my face about the silly stuff I'll probably hold my ground and cite, oh, maybe the two thousand years of Catholics (and Syrian and Greek Orthodox, mostly in communion with us at the time) keeping classical knowledge alive through the Avar, Hun, and Viking invasions. Which is more than all those pagans were able or willing to do.
My neighbors are Mormon. I'm friends with the father and we talk pretty often. I get the impression he is just going through the motions. He doesn't believe it. His wife on the other hand... They are a wonderful family. I'm lucky to have them as neighbors.
My best friend in grade school was a Morman. This episode had not come out yet, but my one vivid memory was going to their house, and watching a church video. I proceeded to go home and told my family how great the video was. It was at this point my brother jokingly told me they were trying to convert me. They really weren't, and we to this day remain acquaintances after he moved to Montana (i live in NY). But anyways, this episode didn't really nail their family aspect, as my friend had a twin brother and they would fight (never fist fight but argue and wrestle each other), where in this episode they are portrayed as a "perfect" family that never quarrels.
I appreciate your honest reaction. And purple hair, it's dazzling. I've been an Atheist for well over a decade, but I don't think I could give an exact "divorce" date from when I used to be convinced of things I thought I had a good reason to and when I realized I didn't. I try not to be an asshole as best I can. Sometimes, people get pissy when things like "tradition" or "custom" get called out for being stupid and obsolete when it doesn't comport with reality.
The South Park guys are nearly EGOT winners. That’s Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. They’ve won every big award except the Oscar. They’re incredibly competent musicians. Their show ‘Book of Mormon’ has been on Broadway for years lol
As pretentious as the Oscar's are, who gives af... The Oscar's are just a big circle jerk for all the Hollywood pedo POS's anyways. They only nominate films that have been approved by all the Hollywood big wigs, and the ones who do win it are usually in the club. I don't merit a show on it's award's, but by it's content.
My family was Mormon growing up, but was phased out as life got increasingly hectic. I can remember going to church and a few other things. By early teenage years we had stopped going altogether. Pretty glad we did.
I had a friend whom I 100% knew didn't watch South Park and was a devout Mormon. After watching the episode, I asked him to tell me the basic Book of Mormon story and so much of what he said lined up with that episode. I nearly bit a hole through my lip trying not to laugh.
🤐😂🤣
Hmm story of Book of Mormon according to me.
Family chases out of Jerusalem. 2nd youngest son receives vision to build boat. Crosses ocean. 4 brothers split into tribes. Lamamites and Nephites are the "main characters"
In general the "Nephites" are the "good guys", However both tribes go back and forth on being "good guys" or "bad guys" based in being "faithful"
In general its considered Aztecs vs Mayans basically.
They occasionally interact with tribes that were already there.. Such as Jaredites whom were in the Americas since the Tower of Babel.
My favorite "story" is when the Nephites break up there Monarchy type system and try to set up a Republic type system. The last would be heir goes out to enemy territory. (The lamanites/aztecs) They try to capture him but he cuts off one arm every time they try. Delivers a bag full of arms to the main king. Becomes fully accepted as a result.
Jesus visits after crucifixion but before he ascends.
Around 400 a.d. they are basically wiped out. Mormon(name of person) compiles all the teachings into on compendium.
Anyway. It reads nice. Flows better than the bible. I dont really believe any of it
How did he react to the episode as a whole?
Was Dum,dum, dum, dum ,dum playing in your head?
@@oblivion85 Haha! It sure was!
“Growing up the church was not that open about the rock and the hat thing”
lol I wonder why 😂😂
It was taught in church.
Though fun fact, it has a minor basis in Old Testament fact. The Old Testament priests did have an urim and thummim which were used to divine the will of God. They were not used for translation, however.
@@TrekBeatTK I believe those were used to divine the answer to yes or no questions from God. The problem is, how do you know God is actually guiding the priest using them? I guess you could use them twice though...
@@davidtucker9498 I remember it being a little more complex than "yes" or "no," but no one's ever really figured out how the urim and thummim were actually used. No one's ever seen an urim and thummim either, so that doesn't help.
@@davidtucker9498 so basically we're talking about a divine magic 8 ball 🤣
Matt and Trey claim that they had some trouble when creating this episode. They wanted to poke fun at Mormons because they found the story about Joseph Smith to be completely ludicrous. But at the same time, the Mormons they knew were such nice people that they didn’t want to be too harsh either.
That’s why they made the Book of Mormon, to be savage and yet kind at the same time lol
Well I think they succeeded. They got to make fun of the religion and still portrayed the Mormon family as some of the nicest people in town.
Pretty much any ex-mormon talks about the mental abuse the church puts them through.
Trey and Matt have expressed they have a lot of respect for the Mormon faith, even if they find it ridiculous at the same time. They also found a lot of Mormons can actually take it on the chin and have a bit of a laugh, unlike Issac Hayes when it came to making fun of Scientology.
What about those Jehovah Witnesses? They spend half their life knocking on doors. Then you got the other lot with their sharia law which they want us all to follow.
I am First Nations (Native American) so everytime I watch this episode I laugh at the “white skinned” Native American 😂🤣
So mormons thought you were white, and blk Hebrew Israelites say you were blk Africans. What a conundrum. 😂
I once had a white mormon (lived in the rich neighborhood, across from the reservation) tell me that native folks are, and I quote "half evil" and that's why god changed their skin 🤡🤡🤡
Well I mean Cherokees were very open do being with other races lmao
as funny as a white Jesus but just less common
@@roxas4439 I guess? That's not how race was seen by all tribes.
" Mormons hate crosses" Mormons are vampires confirmed
🧛🏼♂️🧛🏼♀️🦇🤣
I also heard they can turn into bats, so...
Huh, Stephanie Meyers is a mornon, and she wrote the Twilight books. Hmm. 🤔
@@sebswede9005 it's confirmed then💯🤣
So THAT'S why they have to be *invited* to dinner!!!! I see their scam!!!
This episode is the sum total of my education in Mormonism.
Oh you too huh?
It's all you need to know
@@Jeremycook_ as a former Mormon in Utah, I can confirm.
@@ChewyChicken589 as a former Mormon in Seattle WA. Same.
You ever watch Trey Parker and Matt Stone movie “Orgazmo”, if not I recommend
My ex wife was raised Mormon. We were still together when I watched this, and I've never gotten so much stink eye in my entire life. I just told her she couldn't be pissed at me, they're the ones that believe this crazy shit.
Lol fantastic
No more weird pajamas for you👍
Emphasis on EX-wife
@@Blazedasonic like the saying goes: Why is divorce so expensive? Because it's fucking worth it.
That’s why y’all divorced? Cuz she was crazy?
You think the next one won’t be? Lol
I had to do a presentation about Mormonism for school here in Germany and I absolutely did watch that episode and only did a tiny bit of extra reading and got the highest grade possible.
South Park captured the belief surprisingly well.
In Germany we call this "Geschichten aus dem Paulaner Garten"
Getting school grades by watching South Park...... 🤣- Classic ! That's awesome.....
That's awesome. Lol
We watched the episode in class.
Yeah fellow ex-Mormon guy here, I remember when I was still in high school watching this episode when it came out and being confused as to whether I should be offended by what’s going on or not because it’s just too accurate, and then eventually I snapped that there actually inherent contradictions throughout all of Jo Smiths claims and one thing led to another haha
Oh how I love this comment. I also would have been confused about whether I was supposed to be offended haha
Is it true the missionary ones that go door to door will help with the chores if you ask them? Because I have a lot of fire wood I don't feel like splitting.
@@NPK476 Lol
@@NPK476 yes they will. My roommate asked them to help pick up beer cans off our porch once and they did
@@dustywaynemusic6297 and to think all this time i've been spraying them with the garden hose instead of having them to something constructive for me. What a waste.
There's a SP episode where a large group of people arrived in heaven and the gatekeeper would only let the Mormon's in, telling everybody else sorry but they picked the wrong religion.
I think that was in Hell. They were all told their religions were wrong until someone asked “Well which one was right?” “Ah that would be the Mormons.” Everyone in the crowd let’s out a collective AAARGG
Season 4 episode - "Probably", and fonkirby is right
Then, when Saddam Hussein dies and is being a real dick to his boyfriend Satan, Satan cuts a deal with God to transfer Saddam to heaven - where Saddam tries, an fails, to annoy the super polite and helpful Mormons there.
And then later Saddam builds WMDs in heaven, so the US military has to bomb it.
Also in the Season 9 ep 'Best Friends Forever," they show Heaven full of only Mormons and angels 😅
@Reverend Ape No, that's God. Jesus was just Jesus, and he was killed in Iraq while trying to rescue Santa from terrorists.
I am not Mormon but this episode aired while a friend from England was staying over and he kept saying to me, "Is this real? I mean, does this really exist in America?" I had to tell him yes, he thought it was insane.
I'd argue that the English still in England (I am one, I moved to the US only in '78) are genetically-selected NOT to believe in Mormonism. LDS brought over tens of thousands of English over the 1840s and 1850s. To this day Utah/south Idaho is an island of Anglo in a sea of German and Mexican.
@@zimrielyou might have done a little bit too much LDS in the ‘60s.
static.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/f/f5/LDS.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140213185103&path-prefix=en
My dad was raised mormon growing up and I remember watching this episode with him and he laughed his ass off when Moroni showed up
I love the “dum dum dum” and “smart smart smart” lyrics. So funny
It's almost like they are trying to tell you something haha
Pretty sure they were going for “dumb”, not dum
@@moobutt 🎶smart smart smart smart🎶
Still quoted regularly in my household
@@moobutt The "b" in "dumb" is silent.
I always assumed they had just exaggerated everything to make fun of mormons so the fact that she's implying the Joseph Smith song is somewhat accurate is blowing my mind.
I mean, yeah some of it is exaggerated to a silly level but overall I’d have to say this is the most accurate satirical representation of the church I’ve ever seen. *Especially* the people. I grew up surrounded by those exact people. It was scary accurate there.
Pretty sure the creators are ex mormons too
No South Park doesn’t exaggerate in that way. They are very good at keeping actual topics on topic but showing the ridiculousness
It's not just mormons. If you put all religions on a board then threw a dart at it you'd hit a ridiculous religious belief. All organised religion is flawed and sometimes cynical
Have you seen the one on scientology? I thought that one was extremely exaggerated or not close to being true and it ended up being pretty accurate. It really seems like a science fiction fantasy movie (which it basically is considering it was written by a science fiction author). If you think about it, every religion is actually pretty insane. If you didn’t know anything about any religions. Then watched a movie/show telling the stories of each religion and was told this is what actually happened. You would think that’s absolutely insane!
The south park guys did a movie called Orgazmo,it's lead character is a Mormon missionary who becomes an adult film star by day and a superhero by night
"What makes a man?
Is it the woman in his arms?
Just 'cause she has big titties?
Or is it the way, he fights every day?
...No, it's probably the titties"
Now you're a mmmmwwwwawwwwaaaaaaaaaaNnnn!
@@TheKipperjones lmfao
Dave the lighting guy is the best in that movie
@@HeslaySnave I think unicorns are real kickass.
When I saw this for the first time I was like "this is what they believe in???" Lol. South Park is notorious for taking real things that are ridiculous and representing them with rarely altering anything, so I never questioned them to be misrepresented here. I'm glad you clarified Lucy Harris is real though
sometimes real things are funnier than fiction
@@Oleoay lol exactly. That's why when something completely ridiculous happens to me, I immediately go off like I'm Jeff Ross 😆 just to make myself laugh instead of getting angry
remnder there is a reason they'll soemtimes have a disclaimer that reads "(insert religion/beleif groop here) really beleive this"
South Park shocked me plenty of times with its accuracy 😂
Like while watching the episode I think they’re totally exaggerating than I look up the topic and find out they’re spot on
The only thing I knew about Mormons before this episode of South Park was that back in the early 80s, my father was selling our old station wagon. He knew a Mormon family and let them take the car out for a test drive without anyone accompanying them. He said that they were the only people he'd let do that. While the religion is nonsense, many of the people are very good.
A good friend of mine in high school was (and probably still is) Mormon and he was awesome. His family were super friendly and it was great.
(The following isn't specific to my friend or his family because at the time it never occurred to me to even discuss it with them, so if by some miracle you read this Joe S., please don't think I'm accusing you of the following.)
The difficulty comes when you get down to specific beliefs about race, gender, and the like. I can disagree with people and still get along with them, but it's hard to buy into the whole "wholesome family image" thing when it's backed by a religion that features overt racism, sexism, anti-gay sentiment, and lots of specific behaviors that are deeply disturbing (ex: don't file a sexual assault complaint at BYU...).
They are very good, because they believe that they will be ranked into different heavens according to how Good they are. The best of the best get to go to the highest heaven, become gods, and create their own planets which they then populate by having sex with the multiple wives sealed to them while they were on earth. No, not making this up. Mormons who were less good go to a second-best heaven (Runner-up paradise) and the third place finishers, that is, nice people who weren't mormons, get a mere paradise and a juice box for participating. Okay, no juice box. 'Cause, you know, they didn't actually participate and weren't down with all the baptisms for the dead and all that.
Reprobates, apostates (i.e. ex-mormons) and Hitler all go to "Spirit Prison" (Not Hell. All the signs on the wall in Spirit Prison say, "This is Not Hell.") and they spend 1000 years listening to Mormons from the runner-up heaven (seriously) who come to visit them (presumably on spirit-bicycles, wearing white spirit-shirts and little name-badges with their resurrection names on them ... but since the resurrection name depends on what month you were baptized, all the nametags say "Noah.")
After 1000 years in IT'S-NOT-HELL the repentant reprobates, apostates, and Hitlers get to go to the third heaven, where they are issued sacred underwear. The non-repentant reprobates, apostates, and Hitlers get tossed into a lake of fire that is STILL-NOT-HELL!!!
Yeah, I'd say that you can't make this stuff up, except that they did.
Look, folks, let go of the counterfeit. Turn to the true Lord Jesus, who saves us, not by works, but by his Blood that He shed on the Cross. If you're working to get into Heaven, you made a wrong turn.
@@WhereWhatHuh Not quite. The terrestrial kingdom (second-best) is for people who are generally good and just didn't do all the LDS stuff. The telestrial kingdom (worst heaven) is for all the sinners who didn't actually learn the truth and then repudiate it. You can be a complete shitbag and still go to the telestial kingdom, because you never truly received the word of heavenly father in your heart and thus it's not *really* your fault. And yeah the telestial kingdom is still a paradise, but it's a paradise in the sense of what *mortals* would think of as a great place to be -- basically everything is awesome, so awesome you can't even quite imagine it on Earth. The damnation of it is you never get to hang out with heavenly father, or even Jesus, and you can only look up knowing you missed out on the really cool stuff.
The spirit world is where you go waiting for the end of the world. It's sort of like purgatory but not bad at all. Pretty much everyone goes to the spirit world to wait for heaven -- it's not a place "bad" people are sent. Think of it as the lobby where you wait until heaven's business hours start. The nice thing about spirit world is that it's a "second chance" and with friends helping you back on Earth you can still make it to the celestial kingdom. This is where all the posthumous baptisms and posthumous marriages come in. If you were a jack mormon and never made it to the priesthood, or you did but still died a bachelor, or even if you never LDS at all, this can still be fixed as long as the deadline hasn't been hit.
In the spirit world even if you don't do the LDS stuff you can still repent and whatnot and make it to the terrestrial kingdom. Spirit prison is the bad part of the spirit world where the really bad people go and you get kinda stuck there and it is a sucky place but you can still get a chance to repent and ascend, but your other option is you can wait out the 1000 years and still go to the telestial kingdom.
Given this, it really makes me wonder why anyone would ever wind up in the telestial kingdom. "Oh wait, God is real and I really screwed up. I'm going to recognize all this and still sin like crazy because *evil is cool*.
The *bad place* is Outer Darkness which isn't well defined but it's where you go if you're basically the antichrist. You get to spend forever in the closest thing LDS has to hell. It's basically impossible to get sent here and I don't even know why God would bother making it. To go here you basically have to declare yourself as God's sworn enemy and never ever repent. You can be the world's worst sinner and still not get sent here -- it's only for people who know all about the omnipotent omniscient entity that created and controls Earth, but for some crazy reason still think they can fight him. At that point I think the person should be forgiven on the basis of them being mentally ill.
@@NozomuYume So it's even more complicated (and works-based) than what I described. Good points. Thanks for the clarification. In the end though, you still need to be saved by Grace, and not by works. Works cannot bridge the divide to God (Father, as you say, though in Mormon-speak it means the Son, Jesus). In the end, we have to rely not on Temple Works and being diligent enough, but simply trusting Jesus. "Abraham Believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness."
@@WhereWhatHuh Well, the LDS idea is that works DO affect where you go -- hence the multiple kingdoms -- but everyone gets saved unless they actively reject it, and you get an extra period of proof of Jesus where you can improve yourself and it's basically impossible to not believe.
Doing good works on Earth just gives you a head start. Progress in the spirit world is much, much harder because you no longer have a physical form to do good works with, so all your progress must be done internally, and with the help of those still alive who can help you on your way (again back to the posthumous baptisms). I don't know if the church ever clarified if you absolutely *needed* a living person to help you, but that it definitely makes it easier.
Even though progress is harder in the spirit world, there is the advantage that you have a lot more time to do it. It is considered the responsibility of those in the paradise part of the spirit world to minister to those in spirit prison to help them progress out of it.
My only interaction with a Mormon was a girl I asked out on the bus, and she said she couldn't because she was Mormon. About a year later she told me she was turning 17 or something, and seemed to be implying something to me. Several years later I inferred that she was telling me she was aloud to date, all I told her was happy birthday.
Mormons don't date till 16 depending on the family some wait till 18
I’d say you dodged a pretty big bullet there bud
You had more game than me at that age, or now for that matter.
There is an unwritten rule that you need to be married by a certain age. I think it's around 25 to 30. This is from Northern California so this may not be true for other areas.
@@insanumyu923 im an ex mormon, my family never put that rule on me, probably because im a man, and also i dont have any sisters. So i dont know, i guess it is more related to the person/family than the religion.
A few years ago my daughter told me some Mormons were trying to talk to her. I guess they asked what she knew about the religion. She told them "Everything I know about Mormons, I learned from South Park." I wish I was there. Because; "me too, but I would never have said that to them." Good video, thanks for sharing your pov.
There was a huge mormon family in my highschool band class. They all came to school in a huge van. Some of the nicest people I've ever met.... In a creepy way.
You’ll probably never read this but born and raised Mormon here. If you thought it was creepy your right narcissism is about 18x more likely in the Mormon church. And about 5x as many people with the inability to feel empathy (the psychopath gene) become psychopaths. If you thought it was creepy. Mormonism is a psychopath religion.
I’m appalled to say it but Ted Bundy considered by many to be the most prolific serial killer to ever lived joined the Mormon church after realising it’s literally a narcissism drug because everyone is so nice. You can put on a show like a psychopath wants to and you can be all Christy and you will receive praise and respect like no one else. Good deal for old Ted. Strong positive view on his character. The Mormon church’s members are responsible for well over 200 murderers and serial killers that have been caught. Many remain at large as they can kill, rape, and torcher while never being suspected by any of the others in their faith
I was married to a "restoration branch" mormon girl who didn't really believe what her dad preached daily. Her other 3 sisters were hardcore whatever dad says has to be true believers. I was regularly referred to as "the devil" and was told I was dragging their daughter "into the pit". They tried to convert me and I was shocked when I looked into the teachings. When I would tell them it all sounded like BS they said I didn't have the authority to speak against the church. They had several "words" about the day the world would end and those days came and went with no great earthquake or a giant wall popping up around Independence, MO to lock me "the devil" out forcing me to have to grow my own food. I was actually told that would happen on several occasions. When I asked why the end of times didn't take place I was always told elder old guy in white shirt with black tie had a "word" that the time wasn't right. It amazes me how people believe such insane stuff when it basically screams that it's just horse ploppys. Sorry for the long comment. I've got to get back to tending the fire and brimstone down here in the pit.
Ugh, the restoration branch... Yeah, the-for want of better terms, "Main "Mormons don't like them either. Basically they're regarded as the shallow, hypocritical and abusive off shoots... When you have actual mormons saying that about a particular branch of theirs, you KNOW you fucked up royally! XD
@@Aussieroth7 RLDS, or now "Community of Christ" split off because they didn't want polygamy.
@@natekettlewell5169 RLDS... Reorganized latter day saints?
@@natekettlewell5169
No, they split off because they wanted to continue practicing polygamy...
@@Aussieroth7 York Rite Freemasons vs Scottish Rite Freemasons...
Oh man Matt and Trey never cease to amaze me with their sheer savagery.
"Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb"
Smart smart smart smart smart
@@SM-tq6xc no no no no no
Joseph smith is Dumb de dumb
My best friend in highschool was Mormon until her mom, who married into the church, started questioning church doctrine, then they were all excommunicated.
After that I showed her this episode and she laughed so hard she peed herself.
Did she actually pee herself?
@@VeraxMusicwell ..she said so, so it must be true...the foundation of every religion ever basically...
When missionaries tried (I was just curious because my twin converted Mormon but she didn't last long), I literally said very slowly "you believe the guy looked in a hat and someone just believed what he said" when they said yes they didn't understand why I facepalmed
You have that level of ridiculousness with every religion. It's just more obvious with recent religions like Scientology or the Mormons, because it hits closer to home than religions with a milennia old history.
Like the merciful father who lets his alleged "son" be tortured to death for three days, because that’s the only way this all powerful being can come up with to release us from our so called "sins", that are all our responsibility for some weird reason. ^^
@@mori1bund Exactly. The lesson of the patently ridiculous faiths and spiritual systems created in the last few hundred years (like LDS, Scientology, and the cargo cults of Melanesia*) isn't to give credence to the greater veracity of older religions (which somehow feel more likely to contain at least some truth, at least to most Americans), but to essentially show that if humanity survives another 1,800 years, something like Scientology (if it still exists - the major faiths of the world today are survivors of a long process of spiritual attrition) will be perceived basically like Christianity is today.** *All religions have ludicrous origin stories.* Today's crackpot is tomorrow's "legitimate" person of faith.
*If you're not familiar with cargo cults, look them up - they are absolutely fascinating proto-religions that exist only as a result of hunter-gatherer tribal cultures coming in contact with the technology and excess of modern Western peoples (starting in the Victorian period, and continuing to the present).
**Indeed, if Scientology survives, it will certainly evolve (all religions do), making it quite possible that in as little as a few centuries, Tom Cruise will be known as a prophet (or even a minor deity) to those future believers, with people who grew up watching his movies and following his exploits in the celebrity-obsessed media, people like you and me, being seen as #blessed to have experienced the wisdom of a supernatural being firsthand.
"and as punishment, God turned their skin red"
Me unable to get sunburn: I'm okay with that 🤷🏽♂️😁
Me of mostly northern European decent:
"Screw you."
Seriously. 10 minutes in the sun in May and I make lobsters jealous.
@@Lordoftheapes79 🦞🦞🦞😂
I feel you on that one.
@@Lordoftheapes79 LoL 😄
Lucky. I'm ginger so I get it worst.
As a recovering Mormon myself I can confirm the accuracy of the South Park episode.
My girlfriend is an ex Mormon and we always think its funny to call her a "recovering Mormon". Sucks though honestly the religion messed her up bad. She really is a recovering Mormon
Recovering. Love that.
This episode was so accurate in the fact that you don't even want to mock Mormons because they're so damn nice and polite you don't even want to mock them no matter how crazy the religion is.
Even if you think it's fake politeness you still don't want to be a dick.
It's the perfect defense mechanism
Right. I like to pride myself in respecting all religions until they hate gays or say my family is red because God punished us lol
The Jehovah's witnesses are doing this now. They come door to door in my city, literally just standing outside of apartment buildings dialling random numbers to talk to anyone who will pick up and then trying to be nice enough for you to go down and talk to them.
Only then do they do the big smile while calling you a sinner and that you deserve to burn, but it's ok because you can be saved! Hooray!
It's so freaking evil and manipulative
Didn't work so well for early Christians because for the people who persecuted them, nailing people to crosses or feeding them to lions was an afternoon's fun
The South Park Mormon episode was brilliant. I’m kind of surprised Matt and Trey never did an episode about the Duggars though. That would have been great too
What are they going to make a whole funny show about? The oldest one went to prison for child pornography and accused of molesting minors. From there you say the wrong thing and you're getting sued. It is just one of those situations.
"And that's how they wrote the Book of Mormon! Dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb-dumb!"
That Shit is in my head for years now😂😂
Lucy Harris "Smart Smart Smart Smart Smart!" 🔥
you so cleva!!!
Martin Harris dumm
Me waking up: NOT A MORNING PER-SON! GRR GRR GRR GRR GRRRRRR!
Lmao
This episode is literally what had me question the church, i was 13 and left at 19.
I remember when this episode aired. I was living in rural WA at the time, middle of the cascades far off of route 12. Small towns were dominated by mormon churches everywhere. Rural WA is basically a greener version of Utah.
My neighbor down the mountain was a Mormon and I remember watching the episode in the den, from where I could look out the patio door window down the hill and stare at their property.
I never laughed so damned hard.
This episode helped encourage me to admit I was an Atheist and I'll never forget it. I even remember it's moral in the end - as with most SP episodes, there's a hard hitting truth bomb of a moral and the mormon kid admitting the story is bullshit but didn't care because it gave his family values that made them happy, was a huge eye opener.
I'm rather anti-religious today because I still see organized religion as a vehicle that's constantly hijacked by fuckwits wanting power and control, but the idea that people being in something traditional and spiritual if it makes them and their loved ones happy and good to others is very respectful. Christianity is credited with giving a good chunk of what western civilization is today... it's also credited with holding a fuck ton of it back (dark ages and all that) but hey, you win some you lose some.
Theres a good reason why the term 'Dark Ages' is no longer really used by Medieval historians.
One of the main reasons why Rome was able to further human knowledge is that it was an economic powerhouse, so people didnt constantly have to worry about starving or dying and many of its provinces relied on trade from other provinces to be able to function.
So when Rome collapsed, it was such a major upset that it literally took centuries for many of its former provinces to recover and during that time it was hard to justify luxuries like studying science or maths when you weren't sure if there would be enough food to eat, or if your country would be invaded by a hostile power.
But ultimately once Europe was mostly stabilised again, it was actually the Christian monks who kept the fire of knowledge alight. It was they who kept many books from before the fall and they who taught people how to read and understand Latin and Greek (The language most science and history books were written in). Many monasteries and churches were used as schools, and eventually became the first universities.
So while I'm sure some priest somewhere in the world burned a book for being 'heretical'. The reality is that if Christianity had not existed after the fall of Rome, its entirely possible that thousands of years of knowledge may have been lost forever.
TL;DR - Dark ages weren't really all that Dark largely thanks to Christianity.
Former atheist turned theist here.. I'll pray for your soul
@@shittyshitposter2157 the Dark Ages are considered Dark Ages as a descriptor, not as an actual Epoch. It's similar to how climatologists used Glaciacian or Ice Age to classify an era due to objective measured.
A Dark Age is a massive regression in widespread knowledge and economic development. After the collapse of Rome, this did in fact happen and there is objective evidence of this. The Dark Age era is only a part of the Middle Ages, rather than the whole, but a good few centuries at the turn of the millennium was in fact a bad time.
It's not only Dark Age to have existed in our history either. The Bronze Age Collapse also proceeded an immediate Dark Age period thar last 300 to 700 years depending on tbe region. Same objective markers apply, a collapse in economic development and wide spread knowledge.
The reason why the Catholic Church gets a bad wrap with the Midieval era Dark Age is because they held the knowledge exclusively and did not share it to the general population. Monks recorded knowledge to keep the libraries growing but at times were selective at what knowledge was recorded (as some religious leaders were more offended by outside knowledge than others) and thus some Monastaries were not as inclusive as they could have been as a repository for knowledge. And because only the Church was deemed worthy of distribution, there was a hierarchy that often restricted the general population from over learning to read or write on purpose, so that the masses could not utilize the knowledge to begin with.
This changed slightly over time and with the reestablishing of trade and economic growth following the fall of Rome and the plague later, Royals finally could rebuild what was left to rot and begin advancing again even with less than 10% of the population being able to read or write.
Compared to the height of Rome, where the general plebian mass in metropolitan areas that would be considered the 'Middle class' today (the craftsman population), Roman citizens of such status and higher did in fact know reading and writing and also were quite prideful in their arithmetic. There was a game they would play in which when they'd pass one another on the streets, they'd ask 'what number are you?', and the reply was to use quick math to sum the number value of all the letters of their full name. This is where '666' came from for denoting who the Anti-Christ was. It was based off of a Roman game which became code for also identifying a particular Emperor that certain people didn't like...
So compared to Roman times, the early Mideival period was in fact, less educated and less economically developed. This Church was party to that but clearly, wasn't the cause of it. They just didn't help much until later. They were the inspiration for Gutenburg in the 1450s because it was the Church's wanton of a standardized Bible that inspired Johannes Gutenberg to make use of his brand new European Printing Press invention. And within 30 years after he did, there was over a thousand such Printing Shops Printing millions of books, which was the official start of tbe Renaissance Age (beginning in Italy) as a result.
Being atheist is almost the exact equivalence of a lack of understanding, lack of intelligence and lack of wisdom as being an orthodox, indoctrinated theist is.. both poles of thinking are equally dimwitted and ignorant. at some point you will realize there is a creator but no he doesn't tell you that you gotta wash your hands and face 5 times a day or wear blessed cotton under garments or sanitize a baby's circumcised penis with your mouth. our creator endowed us with the authority and ability to discern the correct way to live and create our lives but we have to take responsibility for the need to achieve the wisdom to do it. not all the goofy stuff written in scripture or churches.
@@shittyshitposter2157There is a book called “How the West Won” which elaborates your comment. It’s s good read!
As a non mormon who really has no Mormon friends or neighbors, I'm shocked at how accurate this actually was.
Thank you for your insight
You should see them take on how insane scientology is
@@SJamesGill88 rip chef🥺
i love how this episode of the show turned into an award winning broadway musical that was on for 9 years, for 14 tony nominations and won 9 times. pretty amazing to think about haha
Still on
I'll drink to that, LOL.
book of mormon is back soon I saw the poster in Times square last week
I saw that musical on broadway and it was one of the funniest things I’ve ever watched. I laughed the entire time and by the end, my sides legitimately hurt.
still going. i still haven't gotten to see it but they did it in hollywood last winter. the lines were crazy at the pantages
My late wife whom I met and married at USU considered herself a "Jack Mormon" but must say that every single Mormon I ever met were the friendliest, kindest and big hearted people you will ever meet.
Until you consider the virulent racism.
@@majorwakanda8858 never heard a Mormon utter a single derogatory word about anyone. Did you live in Utah?
@@danlabok7117 I used to be Mormon. My mother thought they were nice people and that I needed role models. My shelf broke when I learned of the racist past of the church as a young teen.
The official stance of the church was that black skin is the cause of the curse of Cain and forbode blacks from holding the priesthood (essentially the ability to perform rites (ie. Bless sacrament, perform baptism etc) ). Mormonism also requires that Mormons marry Mormons, but forbode interracial marriage, imagine being a black Mormon person.
So maybe you personally have not heard a Mormon utter anything bad about anyone, but their religion was founded on horrific and racist principles until the god of the book of Mormon changed his mind in 1978.
@@majorwakanda8858 it was an elder (head of the Mormon church at the time) that revamped the racist part to protect the religion not out of goodness of his heart. The religion ( like all religions) is based on a person (prophet) hearing a calling and then transferring that to further lies and to keep the fraud (and money) coming into the church's tax-free coffers. Ever wonder why only men somehow only hear from "god"? So I guess women have no sense of religious telepathy?
Matt and Trey said that they wrote this whole episode based on a conversation that they had with a Mormon family that they knew. So the fact that it lines up perfectly is no coincidence. They felt that the truth was so funny and wild that they needed no exaggeration.
ex-mormons get to say at least i wasnt a scientologist : P
😂😂😂😂😂
Fr. At least Mormons don't stalk you and your family, and actively try to ruin your life. They just guilt trip you into complying by being SUPER nice and wholesome.
Same shit different cult.
@@movietimeateds69 They do very much stalk you and send people to check up on you and ask you to reconsider. They just stalk you in a nice way. For years and year and years.
@@movietimeateds69 nope my friend was an exmormon and they broke our skateboards
They both grew up around Mormons and I think Trey Parker said that his first girlfriend in High School was Mormon
But did he get other girlfriends and tell them to call each other "sisters"?
@@al5306 No.
@@al5306 That's only still a thing for fringe splinter groups in southern Utah. The official stance of the modern church on polygamy is to adhere to the law of the land. It's illegal in the States, so it is no longer practiced or encouraged.
I’m not surprised since they wrote “The Book of Mormon”
@Nikki, the lds church has existed 2 times as long without polygamy than it has with polygamy. Plus there's more active lds members than there are jews, so if the lds where ever to start it again everybody would get mad quick.
The fact that this is actually accurate makes it even funnier. I love South Park
As someone who has lived in Utah his whole life and was never mormon, I can safely say that my experiences with them are spot on accurate as they're portrayed in this episode.
Thank you for telling me this I'm planning to move shortly and my choices are down to Utah and Wyoming
I’ve lived in Utah my whole life and this gave me more education about Mormonism than all my life here could ever
Ex-Mo here and OMG this episode hits on a diffrent level if you are an EX-MO. The inside jokes are so funny.
What made you ultimately walk away?
@@Roar_Restored I always found it dumb, you just go through the motions because of family. The big “I’m done” moment was when a bishop wanted to me to out my best church friend for being gay. I chose friendship over religion. I made a wise choice at 14.
@@aaronhiggs I appreciate the follow up. It's hard to think freely for yourself in a religious upbringing. I get where you are coming from. Have a great day.
@@Roar_Restored well , for me , I always had an independent spirit about me. I knew very young that things were not right, at least in my ward. So I held to my own personal iron rod. Whilst I did learn good things, the church pushed me away from organized religions.
I wanna hear one of the jokes. I'm not even bein a dick, I very much so wanna hear a Mormon's inside joke.
There's really a handful of South Park episodes about Mormons, but this is the most dedicated one.
Having grown up a non-Mormon in Salt Lake City, Utah, I loved this episode when it first aired...and still do. However, since becoming familiar with the BITE Model of cult indoctrination, I can't help noticing how (A) inviting the kids over for dinner and (B) offering the angry dad some treats and inviting _him_ inside...are both forms of Love Bombing, a means by which to draw people in with overtures of friendship, when the _real_ goal is simply to, "...set them up for the pitch." In the episode, it's kind of silly. In reality, it's _insidious!_
Now I wanna see an ex-scientologist watch that scientology episode lol
TIL that "family home evening" is a real thing.
Yes. I was the only member of the church in my Family, so some times I would get invited to participate on a “Family Home Evening” at someone else’s house. I´m not a member of church anymore, but those were actually kind of fun. We would play games and eat rice krispies, cakes, ice cream, pies, pizza, etc.
It’s normally on mondays lol
@@MackenzieNoelle You're beautiful.
😍
@@Miblive
I love the fact that Rice Krispie cakes is a real thing with Mormons. Thanks for sharing.
@@MackenzieNoelle lest we forget Mutual and such on Tuesdays (mixture of Boy Scouts and Mutual, lol)
I resigned from the church in 2016 and it's the best decision I've ever made.
There's so much truth in that episode that lines up with the church's "teachings" that looking back, I don't know how I was so foolish to get baptized.
Religion is brainwashing
because you were naive and indoctrinated at a young age - Mormons try to separate you from the outside world as much as possible. They give you tools to try and discredit "nonbelievers". Everything is about the heavenly Father when in fact it's just a bunch of old white guys holding on to patriarchal powers, subjugating women and making children compliant and silent. It breeds dangerous men
Look man. All religions are fake. Just a bunch of rules u agree to follow. The Mormons are really good guys in general.
In the opinion of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and the major Protestant churches, you did not get baptised. Baptism is only valid in the name of the Trinity (some insist also on apostolic-succession). We Catholics will honour the baptism of, say, Lutherans because Luther never denied the Trinity and came from a monastic tradition, so was himself in apostolic-succession. We just mandate they go through RCIA for confirmation in our tradition.
My ancestors on mother's side were some of Joseph Smith's earliest converts. They've been part of the church since back in NY and have remained with LDS for generations. And every single day I am grateful that my mother left Mormonism in the early 70's due to her ideological differences (specifically church racism at the time and anti-feminism.) She always praised the community that surrounds LDS, but being a kind person doesn't negate deeply held racist, sexist, or homophobic beliefs. As my mom put it to me when I was a teenager, the Mormons might be nice folks, but that doesn't excuse generations worth of terrible actions in the name of their god.
Your mother sounds like am amazing woman from the way you described her. It takes a lot of courage to do what she did, especially in a time period like that. I know there's probably more to the story as well but I'm not gonna pry, but you know just being against racism, sexism and homophobia, would've been seen as extremely progressive back then. I salute her for doing what she did
‘And I beliieeeve that in 1978 god changed his mind about black people.’
‘BLACK PEOPLE!’
@@tyerker what does that have to do with anything and it wasn't "god" that changed his mind it was god correcting his prophets
@@Barkz01 It is a line from the song "I Believe" from the musical "The Book of Mormon", written by the same people who wrote this South Park episode.
Lighten up.
What did they say about black people? In the 60s, people some churches said they had the mark of Cain and were forever cursed by God.
I had a Mormon friend in high-school. He was just like that kid. He was good at everything and extremely popular. Nobody could ever get mad at him because he was so nice and helpful. He was also alpha AF.
Sounds just like this Mormon dude that went to my high school his name was Brennan. The dude was the shit at sports and a super nice dude. And nobody could really make fun of him being Mormon because he was nice asf even tho he was popular he didn't hate on anybody, but he got in trouble when his parents found out he "smashed" his girlfriend at the time, who he ended up marrying so iguess all is good. Lol
Sorry for the random comment, just reminded me of the only Mormon I ever knew 😅
Damn, it's almost like a supportive family, strong ethics and values make you solid person. I honestly wouldn't mind if everyone was down for some latter day saintage.
There was a Mormon family who lived down the street from me. Their house was run down, and their garage door always up, showing their "years supply" of food. Their son went off to be a missionary, and came back all f*cked up...mohawk, tattoos, nipple rings and a nasty drug habit ( I heard rumors later he died of an overdose). The father who's own house was run down, was the groundskeeper for his his church, and kept the lawn immaculate and perfectly manicured. He'd call the cops on kids who dared to walk across the lawn, or ride their bikes in the churches parking lot. He was an evil bastard, and all the kids in the neighborhood hated him.
@@Skulllywag Sounds like that "restoration branch" mormons that was mentioned earlier in the comments section... Basically they're the dark side mormons that the main group kinda kicked out/disvowed-and with good reason, THEY'RE CRAZY!
@@Skulllywag Got to say this. I spent two years in SLC 7th and 8th grade. When my friends learned I wasn't Mormon (I didn't understand some of what they were saying) they stopped talking to me. Didn't even try to explain what they were talking about. Just dropped my like a hot potato. After that I hated SLC and all the Mormons who wouldn't include me in any way. I had to pass by the Mormon temple often so I proudly spat upon it's soil. Still proud of that today.
I grew up Mormon too. And in Salt Lake. It is funny how the church was never big on educating the members. And so many contradictions. It’s such bull shit.
Left out the best part at the very end where the Mormon kid goes off on Stan.
Years ago, I worked with a woman who was an ex-Mormon. She told me that when she was a young girl, she asked some elder why there weren't any Black people in the Church. She was told that there were, but after they became Mormon, they turned white.
Half true. There were black people in the earliest church. After they became Brighamist the *church* turned white...
Church actually used to believe and TEACH that people with dark skin who "accepted the gospel" (aka became Mormon) would turn "white". It said so in the Book of Mormon.
@@zimrielthere was that scene in Ghostbusters where Winston told the mayor he’s seen shit that’ll turn you white. I guess the Mormon church has seen a lot of shit.
I saw this episode not knowing anything about Mormons. My friend and Battle buddy in the Army at the time was an Ex-Mormon. (He was excommunicated for not marrying the "Right" kind of women) I showed it to him and he was like, "O yea, that's pretty much the bull shit they believe. But even more stupid." I was shocked. Made sense to me after that why he was no longer part of that church.
yeah straight up lied to you, you have to do some serious shit to get excommunicated and who you marry def. doesnt fall into that catagory and i am ex mormon
Yeah...thats not true. Getting excommunicated isnt as rare or based on truth or logic as you think. If the parish council or council of elders or whatever doesnt like someone and wants them gone....they make it happen.
idk what kind of backwards branch you came from (if you habe ever actually been mormon) but i been in 12 different branches (my family moved alot) and i dont know anyone who has ever been excommunicated neither has my mother who has been in the church her whole life and my father for most of his life non of them have ever even heard of anyone being excommunicated for anything less then serious crimes and it was only once and "parish council" isnt even an a word ever used in mormon terminology meaning your just someone from the outside assuming or this is based of a sect of mormons that arent from the true main branch (there are some sects that claim to be LDS that actually arent) which isnt what the average mormon follows
@@jaredstearman3625 I said parish council or council of elders. You have selected reading skills, meaning you select the parts you like and discard the parts you don't. And of course you're going to defend your religion. Why would you know someone who was excommunicated? You're still in it and have no reason to engage with those who've been kicked out. Mormons use honey traps, aka sex, as a lure to get young men to convert. Young men and women promise marriage if only these people will convert. The victims do all the steps to convert and then find out their love has married someone else or disappeared to go lure someone else into the religion. Its a disgusting, dishonest tactic used often to fool people into joining. A religion that engages in that behavior isn't exactly trustworthy as to their word.
@@smokejaguarsix7757 1st of all if you actually read my first comment i am an ex-mormon i havent been to the church for 10 years and yes i have my problems with the church and its teachings what i cant tolerate is outright lies that people have made up to generate this demonizing picture of the church because the people there are the nicest people ive ever known in my entire life and hearing people say bs like "they use honey traps" pisses me off because its 100% bs and as for how i would know people were excomunnicated is because for most of my life my father was a member of the "high council" (thats its actual name btw) and he has never seen an excommunication event in his 30+ years as one across these multiple churches hes been too so dont tell me i dont know what im talking about i actually lived it you watched a south park special and heard a rumor and now think your some kind of expert on religion
This was really cool, Matt and Trey dont do interviews often but when they have been asked about religions they have always seemed to have a soft spot for Mormons. They seem to have grown up around Mormons and are fascinated by them. They even sort of defend them often as you can see at the end of this episode, they sort of have a positive last word for Mormons in general.
I mean, yeah, they also created The Book of Mormon (the musical), if one needed any more proof of that. ^^
@@singenstattatmen5096 Really wanna see Book of Mormon
@@monkeykoder I dont think they were raised Mormon, from what I can gather listening to them they just lived in a very Mormon community so they had lots around them. Ive heard them say more than once that even tho they think the religion is kinda crazy they have never met a Mormon that wasn't a really friendly person.
@@gantorisdurran710 Steve Park is the Jewish one right? The one with the, as he put it. "Jewfro". Or is that Matt Stone?
@@skylarmccloud4080 I think Matt Stone is the blonde "All American" one and Trey is the Jewfro, i get confused tho lol they always appear together and do almost everything together.
I watched an Expedition Bible episode titled, "Test of a Prophet" where the host debated with a lifelong and devout Mormon. It was a blood bath, it was like that last scene in 'Braveheart' when William Wallace was strapped to the torture table and everyone in the crowd was yelling "Mercy!"... I felt so bad for the guy. By the end of the episode, the Morman's beliefs and faith was literally in tatters and he was near if not crying. Facts are facts and truth is truth and there's no way around that.
I watched this episode with my girlfriend who is ex-mormon, she loved it too.
I have an Ex-Mormon friend who told me that, THAT episode was surprisingly accurate... lol. He said there is more but THAT episode covered the basic history very well.
I lived in Scotland for seven years. I learned a lot of the Scots language and some Gaelic. Also attended a series of lectures on Scottish/Irish folklore and celtic religion. When someone told me about Mormons, I noticed a lot of bits copied from books on this folklore that were first printed in the late 1700s and 1800s.
The so called seerer stones and still made now as tourist gifts. They are made from hollow volcanic nodules that are sliced and polished.
I love how the most accurate parts are inviting people to dinner, the house decorations, the family night, and the jello
I lived in Utah in high school and my first girlfriend was Mormon. I made her watch this episode and her only gripe was that, the way she was taught, Joseph Smith translated the plates from behind a curtain, instead of out of a hat.
I am a Utah born ex Mormon and I remember in seminary class questioning some of the things we were learning (not disrespectfully, genuine curiosity) and they always had an excuse on these things but they were different excuses I'd hear other mormons use and I didn't like the idea that this ONE ABSOLUTE religion had so many different translations of what things were supposed to be. And then I saw this episode and it really opened my eyes on how absolutely stupid we look to everyone. I'm not saying this episode got me out because I was already out the door but it definitely was the deciding factor
What did they say about blacks being cursed until 1978 when the god of the book of Mormon changed his mind?
I used to be Mormon, I'm also biracial, but luckily as soon as my mother heard about this she dipped the fuck out. And never let the visiting teachers back in our house . This was 15 years ago. I never got the chance to ask a Mormon this again.
It was hilarious. But basically they were mocking ALL religions. They just happen to choose Mormon as their example. You can make a similar episode about Christianity, Islam or any other religion.
Living in Japan, I run into Mormon missionaries all the time (they're easy to spot), and as spreading the word to people like myself is outside their mission parameters, they just relax and chat happily. Absolutely lovely people, a credit to their upbringing. Mocking a religion because of their belief system is like complaining that a politician is corrupt, or an actor is a virtue signalling airhead hypocrite. It sort of goes with the territory. The end of the episode echos this view, and I liked that.
Mormanism is a cult though it fails the BITE model
I'm not Mormon, but growing up I had two mormon friends. This episode cracked me up, because they actually were genuinely the nicest people I knew in school.
Don't know who said it, perhaps Bill Mahr, but it was something to the effect of "Mormons are the nicest cult members you will ever meet".
alot of mormons are like that because they think they should or need to be but in reality alot of them are very narcissistic
@@yaruqadishi8326 what?
@@yaruqadishi8326 like them wrongly or join their cult?
You just triggered a memory of mine. I remember in my freshman year of college, in the dorms there was one mormon guy who was the nicest person in the world. Everyone liked him, but since it was 1st year college, for fun everyone would go to parties and get totally wasted except for him. I remember one Friday he went around all the dorm rooms with a sled asking people if they wanted to go sledding on a big hill nearby (since it snowed). Poor guy was only able to convince one person to go with him. I felt so bad, when he asked me and I told him I had plans to go out to have some drinks with people, and he just said so disappointingly "that's what everybody else's plan is too",
Lmao "The best part of the Joseph Smith story. The one that proves he was for real!" 😂
i was also raised in the mormon church, i watched this episode toking it up with the homies and spent the entire laughing my ass off. literally made my week
interesting fact: Joseph smith is ancestor of mine. and after finding out my ancestor was joseph smith some Mormon friends of mine asked me why i wasn't a Mormon, so to have fun with them. i told them that Joseph smith had a series of journals and that in these Journals he talked about how he made the religion up for money. they whole heartedly believed me, i never told them the truth that i made up the journal story
Nice to see you keeping up the traditions of just making up whatever you like on the spot. Joseph would be proud.
wow, they believed you!?
were they not at least shocked??
Joseph Smith definitely pulled some shit out of his ass and a whole lot of people ate it up like hot cakes.
@@mancubusjam ah! Runs in the family!
He's Joseph smithing everyone and you all eating it up like rice Krispies.🙄
Most of the mormons I knew when this came out, including my family, thought this was hilarious.
"When ever the spirit tells me to I make a video"
Man, was that a missed opportunity to say "whenever I look in my hat and it tells me too" instead.
I learned a long time ago, South Park is pretty darn accurate when it comes to the things that count. Reading between the jokes, there are many things i've learned from South Park.
I think he was digging up a random person’s grave and that’s why there was a cross. Lol 😂
I love Rice crispy squares 😆
The "Dumb dumb dumb" being repeated so much while they are writing the book gets me every time. lol
It is surprisingly accurate when my family decided to be Christian, Mormons showed up and were basically saying "let us enlighten you guys" and when I gave it thought, it was hilarious how they claimed these things were all true
Lived in the Salt Lake area for a few years and went to college there. OMG . So much messed up crap. And its all perfectly normal for them.
Ex-mormon here, I thought this episode was hilarious. Appreciate seeing your take on it!😂🤘
Giant Mormon Elephant in the room here (can we just say that this woman is gorgeous and her smile is amazing)
Jugs
Yep she got some B.A.T.s
She seems very sweet great personality very pretty.
Down bad
Not a mormon, but I know that South Park is excellent for satire, so I knew that they weren't really lying about anything. They may embellish it for effect or emphasis, but they're great crib notes on many subjects.
South Park goes in-depth alot. One example of dropping the ball was with the Ethiopian "Starving Marvin" where christianity was portrayed as foreign and western to the ethiopians. When in reality the Ethiopians are the oldest christianized culture on earth. Christianity is not foreign to Ethiopia at all.
Grew up going to Mormon churches until my teen years, then moved cross country and started attending southern Baptist churches. (culture shock). My parents were under the impression that "church" meant "church" and it didn't matter which one, just go to the one closest to you and everything else falls into place. The biggest difference I remember about the two religions is the Mormons were nice and spoke casually. The new preachers were kinda loud and angry all the time. Great reaction video! I Loved it!
Satan loves people that 'play' Church...
@@heresmytake2782 No he doesn't because they are harder to derail.
I'm an ex Southern Baptist kid. Can confirm the loud and angry bit.
@@heresmytake2782 you mean the made-up church satan - the one designed to scare people into "believing". another fantasy tale
When this episode came out, I honestly thought it was all a joke because of how ridiculous it all sounds. Like I couldn't fathom how anyone could learn how the Book of Mormon was written and think "yeah, that sounds totally legitimate"
Yup, that one and sciencetology episode really opened my eyes how all religions are fucking stupid.
Fun story. My 5th great grandfather was one Joseph smiths guards. When the Mormons where driven out to Utah where he was one of the lead expiditioners of what would be known as the Mormon trail. They later settled in Utah and Isaac (my 5th great-grandpa) sold his home for 5 bushels of corn I believe. He also burnt down his previous home because he really didn’t want it going to other religious ppls. Yea Mormons are a different breed.
My best guess is that Lucy Harris threw the pages in the fire place? You would think even if she hid them in a really good spot that someone over a hundred years would eventually find them even by accident?
I watched it with a Mormon that was in his sixties. He loved it.
This and the Scientology episode are still my favorite South Park episodes. When they have a go at religion, they hit deep, no matter what religion it is. lol
"Joseph Smith, he was a prophet, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
There is no way they would ever go after Islam the way they did Mormonism.
@@stephenferguson9756 they did do a Islam one. It was not as bad as this though your right
@@stephenferguson9756 Well, Comedy Central won't let them. They had Muhammad as one of the Super Best Friends for like 12 years b4 THEY had to point it out to everyone. And that the episode had been re-running ever since the whole Muhammad controversy happened.
Agreed, plus "make love, not warcraft"
Honestly, I thought the ending was too soft on Mormons. It makes Stan out to be the bad guy "because what the church teaches now is loving your family and being nice and helping people." That statement is about as true of Mormonism as it is true of every religion.
🎶 Lucy Harris (Smart Smart Smart), Martin Harris (Dumb)🎶😂
__
🎶Even though nobody-else-ever-saw-them (dum dum dum dum dum)🎶
Always loved the jaunty march-like music SP used for the Joseph Smith scenes!
I grew up in Las Vegas. I had mormon friends that I went to Friday night dances. Then I went to the mormon conference and to church. They were nice and had fun, but they never told me any of this. Didnt become a mormon.
This episode is where I first learned of Mormonism. I'm glad they got it mostly right. South Park also taught me about Scientology.
I saw this *while* I was in the Mormon church at 12 years old. So fucking hilarious. None of the boys in my church group talked to me for a while.
Dum dum dum dum dum
xD
Glad you made it out.
@@alexmarkadonis7179 Sane!
My brothers watched it and thought it was funny. They're still in the church, I'm not
For the record, all religions believe some crazy stuff. Mormons aren't special in that regard.
I look at this episode (and Book of Mormon which is one of my two favorite musicals) like Kevin Smith's Dogma. Any religion is full of contradictions but it's generally good to believe in something, whether it's religion or science or in yourself. Also, pretty much every Mormon I've met has been extremely nice, but I also hear horror stories about people leaving that religion.
When I was in a Protestant church, I always heard strange things about Mormons, but never got definitive answers WHY. My research later on lead me to a Catholic website, that spelled all the weirdness out. Naturally, this lead to my conversion to the Catholic Church! I don’t have anything against Mormons, it’s really because of them I found my true home! And this South Park episode cracked me up!
*fistbump* also a convert to Catholicism, in my case from the Anglicans.
I do feel for the Mormon kid's last comment, however. I confess I am a little ambivalent about Eucharistic miracles, Fatima, and some of the other stuff. I interpret the Real Presence as a Platonic form. Still, if some nonCatholic gets in my face about the silly stuff I'll probably hold my ground and cite, oh, maybe the two thousand years of Catholics (and Syrian and Greek Orthodox, mostly in communion with us at the time) keeping classical knowledge alive through the Avar, Hun, and Viking invasions. Which is more than all those pagans were able or willing to do.
My neighbors are Mormon. I'm friends with the father and we talk pretty often. I get the impression he is just going through the motions. He doesn't believe it. His wife on the other hand... They are a wonderful family. I'm lucky to have them as neighbors.
If he has a loving wife, he is smart to go along.
...how do Mormons feel about a lowercase "t?"
They just skip that episode of Sesame Street?
Burn a lower case t for time to leave
My best friend in grade school was a Morman. This episode had not come out yet, but my one vivid memory was going to their house, and watching a church video. I proceeded to go home and told my family how great the video was. It was at this point my brother jokingly told me they were trying to convert me. They really weren't, and we to this day remain acquaintances after he moved to Montana (i live in NY). But anyways, this episode didn't really nail their family aspect, as my friend had a twin brother and they would fight (never fist fight but argue and wrestle each other), where in this episode they are portrayed as a "perfect" family that never quarrels.
I appreciate your honest reaction. And purple hair, it's dazzling. I've been an Atheist for well over a decade, but I don't think I could give an exact "divorce" date from when I used to be convinced of things I thought I had a good reason to and when I realized I didn't. I try not to be an asshole as best I can. Sometimes, people get pissy when things like "tradition" or "custom" get called out for being stupid and obsolete when it doesn't comport with reality.
As a former Mormon myself I've been waiting to see a reaction to this.
i love that she picked up on the dum dum dum dum dum joke for some reason it goes over peoples heads until its in there face with the wife scene
The South Park guys are nearly EGOT winners. That’s Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. They’ve won every big award except the Oscar. They’re incredibly competent musicians. Their show ‘Book of Mormon’ has been on Broadway for years lol
As pretentious as the Oscar's are, who gives af... The Oscar's are just a big circle jerk for all the Hollywood pedo POS's anyways. They only nominate films that have been approved by all the Hollywood big wigs, and the ones who do win it are usually in the club. I don't merit a show on it's award's, but by it's content.
My family was Mormon growing up, but was phased out as life got increasingly hectic. I can remember going to church and a few other things. By early teenage years we had stopped going altogether. Pretty glad we did.
100% guaranteed you are all still in their official number count.
My favorite part of that episode is the end where the kid tells Stan " I'm happy, FUCK YOU Stan" and walks away.
Stan is the almost always miserable and it his own fault.