Has anyone else seen Book of Mormon?

[CathyTheQueen]

And thought it was a load of racist crap?

I thought the songs were great. I went with a black friend, and she was very uncomfortable with the Africa scenes, as was I.

Some of it was very funny (I loved “Turn it Off”)

Some of it was incredibly racist and unfunny

But how is it racist?

It isn’t racist, it’s poking fun at those with racist and homophonic views!

It’s satirical, that’s why the characters are stereotypes. It was recommended to me by a priest friend, and I enjoyed it. Though I found the language too much in places and I use a lot of flowery language.

I took away that it’s satirising Western perceptions of Africa.

They mention raping babies in a song that takes the piss out of ‘Hakuna Matata’ - their song translates as ‘fuck you, God’ as opposed to ‘no worries for the rest of our days.’ The Ugandan characters who sing it are literally saying that trying to cure AIDS by raping babies is an abhorrent practice.

Life in Uganda is tough. Why pretend otherwise?

I loved it (have seen it twice) but I have a very dear friend who incidentally teaches theatre performance and music - she found it incredibly racist and won't teach the songs to any student who requests them. She doesn't feel comfortable with it, nor with the mimicking of the Swahili accents from performers who are not black.

I guess the performers make that personal choice - are they OK with participating in the performance with the knowledge that the racial stereotypes and behaviours are attributed to the insane warlord and the "bad guys"?

The writers deliberately tried to make it as shocking as possible, as is their MO.