There have been a fair number of movies since the 70’s that have satirized, mocked or otherwise impugned Christian denominational beliefs and the church administration(s), but I don’t recall Judaism or Islam being taken to task in this manner in any mainstream movies.
Why are non-Christian beliefs off limits for mocking and beatdowns in the movies?
The church administration(s) part is easy. IIRC, neither Judaism or Islam has any. Neither religion has a hierarchy of bishops or anything like that. Every imam and rabbi is a separate entity. So mocking what one rabbi does in no way impugns on any of the others.
For the same reason every commerical has a dumb white guy and his smart black friend or his smart Asian friend. The black or Asian guy can only be presented as dumb if he’s paired with a girl.
It’s called poltical correctness. You can make fun of Jesus but not Muhammed (see South Park)
Charles Schulz was once asked why Lucy was so mean, he replied, "When a little girl hits a little boy that is funny. When a little boy hits a little girl that is NOT funny.
What? You never watched a Mel Brooks movie?
“Jews in Space!”
There have been some mocking films of Judaism – Wholly Moses, for example, but nothing really nasty. The fact that there are a lot of Jewish Hollywood executives – the people who greenlight a movie – would make it hard for a script to get produced. OTOH, there are few born-again Christians in Hollywood.
As for Muslims, most Americans are unfamiliar with Muslim belief, so it’s hard to ridicule.
Or Woody Allen.
Satire is intended to mock those in power. Christianity has always been the dominant religion in the U.S., to the point where some proclaim the U.S. to be a “Christian nation.” You therefore mock whites, males, straights, and Christians. Mocking minorities, females, gays, and non-Christians is now called negative stereotyping.
Last I looked, stereotyping still exists. The Naked Gun movies and other spoofs of that nature used Arab leaders as villains. Neurotic Jews are pretty common in movies, even ones not made by Woody Allen. Mostly, though, Hollywood hates to have any movies that make it a big deal to mock religions as such. I’m having trouble thinking of mainstream movies that mock Christianity as a whole, although some evangelists have been held up to ridicule.
Do you have examples of what you’re thinking about?
I wouldn’t even say that it mocks Judaism. It offers alternative and (supposedly) humorous versions of some Old Testament tales, but I wouldn’t say that it amounts to mockery.
Muslim characters in mainstream Hollywood movies are usually terrorists. Is that not enough impugning for you?
When it comes to comedy, I doubt many Americans know enough about Islam to get any jokes about specific denominational beliefs. It would be easier to get laughs making jokes about Klingon culture than it would by making light of the differences between the Sunni and Shi’a.
phouka kinda said what I was gonna say, in a much shorter way. Living down South years ago my only ideas about Jews/Judaism were from Catskills-type comics or from seeing pilies of dead bodies in WWII films, at least from popular culture. It was only when I interacted with Jewish people that I got a feeling for the religion and what it could mean to various Jews. The same is probably true of Christianity - that people have a skewed view from pop culture until they actually discuss with a participant.
A movie that at the time and ever since the makers have gone out of their way to insist in no way mocks Christianity at all, but was a satire on unthinking followers of all stripes.
It was also a satire of the version of Christianity and Judaism presented by Hollywood during the 50’s and 60’s in such “religious” epics like The Greatest Story Ever Told and (especially) Ben Hur.
Team America had a pretty easy time of it, but then they were deliberately setting out to be politically incorrect (and subversive at the same time, so it wasn’t even pure mockery). For the most part producers abstain for reasons of political correctness, not because it’s hard to do. I also don’t think that the Danish cartoon fiasco is much of a constraining force in the US, but in parts of Europe it might lead to a bias in the direction of over-censorship rather than pushing the envelope.
Price Above Rubies is fairly nasty with regard to the strictures and conventions of Hasidim in New York, painting all of them, save the heroine (played by Renee Zellweger) somewhere on a spectrum between nasty and judgmental to sexually abusive.
I loved the humor about Jewish traditions in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle with their two Jewish neighbors Goldstein & Rosenberg. They made a bong out of a shofar and had a mezuzah in the shape of a naked woman.
Judaism is never mocked? Honestly that seems a bizarre statement, I’d say the opposite is true, Judaism is mocked in US comedies way out of proportion to the relatively small portion of the US population that is Jewish. Presumably due to the preponderance of Jewish comedians and directors who enjoy making fun of their faith.
Islam less so, but then I don’t see many comedies making fun of Hinduism or Buddhism either. Presumably for the same reasons.
Christian beliefs, per se, don’t get mocked. Certain political and social aspects of it get mocked, but the basic doctrine itself never gets mocked. It mocks certain kinds of Christians, but not really Christianity. If you look at what really gets satirized, it’s stuff like hypocrisy, intolerance, self-righteousness and willful ignorance (how can you not mock creationists?).
Judaism is not evangelical and not aggressively politicized like Christianity is, so there it offers far less reason for ridicule. It also has no history of oppressing other religions.
Islam gets demonized as terroristic and violent. It doesn’t get mock, as such, but only because it’s presented as a scary “other” religion, not because it’s respected.
Anyway, the premise of the OP is flawed. Christian beliefs are not mocked. Christian hypocrisy, intolerance, aggressive proselytization, politicization and corruption get mocked.
It’s also a country in which the vast majority of people are Christians, so, of course, Christianity is going to be the representative religion in movies about America.
I would ask the OP: what aspects of Judaism do you believe movies should mock? What aspects of Christianity sghould not be mocked? Can you identify a clear example of a double standard?
I think the comment that we mock it because it is close and familiar is probably the most accurate. I have yet to see anything approaching “The Da Vinci Code” or “Dogma” that picture the church and/or faithful as misguided and hypocritical or even a documentary like “Jesus Camp" re Judaism and Islam. Perhaps Christianity is more inherently mockable beacuse it is more hierarchical and actually proselytizes, but I don’t see anyone taking on or even commenting in movies on things like the brutal WWII treatment and segregation of the Jews relative to how they regard and treat the Palestinians, or the Islamic claim of being a religion of peace” vs exhortations to kill as many infidels as possible. Directly addressing these topics in mainstream movies seems to be forbidden whereas any hypocrisies in Christianity are fair game.
There’s plenty of people who believe that kind of thing about Judaism. However people who believe this kind of thing have a history of murdering Jews, so at this point it’s not regarded as a good subject for comedy, including by most Christians.
Diogenes the Cynic makes several good points, the most important being the one about power. If you mock someone who has power, it’s satire; if you go after a minority it’s frequently seen as just plain mean. This is sometimes accurate and sometimes not, but it does apply here.
It is also difficult to lampoon Judaism because generally speaking, Jews have a sense of humor about their religion, and it’s harder to satirize something when its adherents have a sense of humor about it.