#pffr

The Jesus Christ Show! is an all-puppet retelling of the New Testament where Jesus is a weed-smoking hippie who's also bald and green and has claws for hands. Jesus Christ, our polyamorous stoner messiah, is a 31-year-old failure-to launch in the most economically and politically unstable city in post-nuclear Judea. His mother says he's the son of God and she believes he is destined for a life greater than that which he is currently living - at home, smoking weed and living each day dreading his soul-killing, dead-end carpentry job. After pissing off his step-dad Joseph for the last time, he goes on the road with the dream of becoming a folk musician and finding his true purpose.

Meanwhile, fascism has long since taken over Rome and its colonies. Throughout the series, he and his disciples visits many cities with a variety of social, economic, political, and public problems and tries to use his ministry to fix whatever comes his way. On this journey, he learns to prioritize those most in need of help through the means of those with the most ability to help, however his dedication to the ministry repeatedly isolates him and obstructs his relationships to the people closest to him.

The IndieGoGo campaign to fund the pilot episode of the Jesus Christ Show! is now LIVE!!! If you love freaky stoner puppets and COOL MERCH you can donate to receive any of the prizes below!!

Voiced by Natasha Lyonne

I bought a DVD of the first season of Wonder Showzen a few months back, and I’m finally getting around to watching season two on archive.org. The show uses the schtick of a kitschy kid’s show—crude animation, puppets, smart mouthed children—to make mincemeat out of every touchy subject imaginable. The result is a show that is capable of offending everyone on earth. And sometimes that even includes me!

A few clips of it have apparently gone viral in recent times (Bush was still in office when it was originally on the air) because people just can’t tell if the show’s brutal satire is for real or not. I think there is something very powerful about something like that, something that continues to make people uncomfortable. It forces people to confront the true nature of the problems they would rather not think about, the things that even the most gung ho social commentators on all sides of the political spectrum would rather sweep under the rug. In a world where polite ignorance is more socially acceptable than actually dealing with deeply rooted problems, Wonder Showzen tackles those problems and their absurdities all at once with a shuffle and a wink at the camera. That’s what I like about it.