Prop 8: Jack Black as Jesus

It seems like Jack Black is getting a taste for Bible Films. Having recently finished filming The Year One, he has just appeared as Jesus in a short film at FunnyOrDie.com.

Prop 8 - The Musical was written by Marc Shaiman, (who wrote Hairspray and several of the songs from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) as a protest against the newly passed Californian law Proposition 8. Black features alongside other stars such as John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Neil Patrick Harris and Maya Rudolph. Incredibly, in its first day of existence it got 1.2 million hits, and now, five days later, it's been viewed over 2.5 million times.

There's an interview with Shaiman about the piece at the New York Times where, amongst other things, he expresses his dismay that he didn't do this before the day of the vote. Had he done so this might have been propaganda with a purpose, but as it is "six weeks too late" (as he puts it), it just feels a little bit like it's playing to the gallery. There's a couple of amusing lines in the film, but for a work that is accusing its enemies of being motivated by hate, it seems, to me at least, to be a little guilty of the same. I suppose the such vividly drawn caricatures are part of its Avenue-Q vibe, but I don't think it will encourage much dialogue, which I think is the only real way of moving forward on this issue.