Colbert Joke: A Banana Was ‘Crucified,’ ‘Saves Everybody.’ Not Jesus.
How a-peeling.
After noting how DC Comics and Marvel earned billions at the box office, comedian Stephen Colbert decided to sell his own superhero story. On his Sept. 19 “The Colbert Report,” the host joked that, instead of Jesus, a banana was crucified. He marketed his plot to San Diego’s Comic-Con attendees. “All of mankind is saved by the banana,” he explained.
When his first superhero creation, “Prince Hawkcat,” didn’t attract “adoring fans,” Colbert introduced his “animated Christmas movie called ‘Manana-Manana.’” “It’s the story of Jesus Christ, told from the point of view of a banana,” he clarified.
He then told his fellow Comic-Con attendees the banana’s story:
“[Jesus is] really lonely, because he's God, and people don't understand him. So he prays to God for a best friend, and God turns a banana into a man, and it turns into a ‘manana’ and they have fun together.
And then later, cut to, in the present day, there’s an atheist. And he’s a lawyer, it’s Clarence Darrow, the evolution lawyer. And he wants Jesus not to have saved mankind, so he gets in a time machine. And he goes back to try to defend Jesus against Pontius Pilate. And so, Jesus won't ever be crucified to save mankind.
He continued:
They get him off, then they get him in the time machine and bring Jesus to the present-day. The atheist lawyer thinks he's won. But what happened is, is that back in Jesus's time, they end up crucifying the banana. And all of mankind is saved by the banana, because he knew all of Jesus's teachings, and saves everybody anyway.”
For his last joke, he concluded, “We still are Christians, but we worship the banana.”
Colbert is on a roll this week, calling abortion “funny word” – just like “guacamole."
— Katie Yoder is Staff Writer, Joe and Betty Anderlik Fellow in Culture and Media at the Media Research Center. Follow Katie Yoder on Twitter.
