I laughed and laughed. These posts are incredibly funny. The Crescat, about whom I know little otherwise, is a rather salty-tongued Catholic blogger (medium-range language warning on the site) who collects and doles out to her readers images of truly dreadful Christian art. They comment and suggest captions. She has some very funny readers, too. My favorite image so far, with the caption, is this one (linked here at Scott W's blog). The comments when Crescat originally put it up are hilarious as well. One reader asks why Jesus' tunic appears to have a zipper, and whether that's a hoodie flung over His shoulder. Another says that the picture is obviously a portrait of Gladly, the cross-eyed bear. (Groan.)
Then there's this picture and comment thread. I'm with the reader who wants to know what's with the male pattern baldness on the Lord.
Here is the entire set of posts under the "bad art" label. If you have a slightly strange sense of humor, as I do, and a slightly thick skin, read the comments and enjoy a good laugh.
A friend showed me a picture once by a Baptist artist that portrays Yahweh in the Burning Bush as Mr. Clean. I have to see if I can get the link...
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6 comments:
I always liked http://www.lolsaints.com/
Some of those are pretty funny. You'd have to understand the 'i can haz cheeseburger?' meme to get some of them.
I've gotten a kick out of Lolsaints, too, and these reminded me a bit of them. (I like the one where Satan is telling St. Michael, "Okay, ur hair's _not_ girly!" Especially since I always did think St. Michael's hair was too girly in that painting.) But I also felt guilty when I posted a link to the LOLsaints captioning of Raphael's "Marriage of the Virgin" and my blog colleague Steve Burton told me that it was funny but that I'd probably messed up his appreciation of a wonderful painting forever.
The great thing about Crescat's religious art humor is that the art is all _bad_, so one doesn't run into that problem.
Here is a link to a contest Crescat did among her readers for bad church art. It looks like it all had to be found in or on the outside of some church, perhaps always a Catholic church. It's really dreadful stuff. She only has captions on a few of them, but some of those are very funny. I like "Rock Monster will eat your priests."
http://thecrescat.blogspot.com/2009/07/submissions.html
Looking at it now, I see that Lolsaints is doing more with mocking dreadful art than they were when I first looked at them, when they were more captioning classical art in a humorous way.
By the way, my other recent hangup about lolsaints is that I've learned that they and lolcats are both run by some bizarro group of people that take pride in spam-attacking sites that they dislike and trying to bring them down that way. Which is kind of off-putting.
Hmm, I did not know they were related. That is troubling.
You do need some thick skin I suppose to read through them. (I haven't looked at them in ages, except as my memory has been jogged by this post.) Most of them are benign and unfunny. Others I laugh at and know I shouldn't. (i.e. there is a giant mural of Jesus with his hands out to the sides with the caption, "your sins hurt me this much.") And then there are ones like http://www.lolsaints.com/saints/2009/ticklez-stop which make me laugh.
The note about 'ruining' good art is well taken. There is an amazingly comical rendition of O Holy Night (google 'bad o holy night" if you dare) that has had me in tears, and it's difficult to not think of it when hearing the real song done well. (It's not too hard for me as I find this one of the most beautiful songs ever written—but my wife says she can't listen to it the same way.)
I've heard that "O Holy Night," but I always forget it when I hear (or sing) the real one, so it's not a problem. It is absolutely hilarious, especially since it starts out so normally and just gets crazier and crazier.
The thing I like about Crescat's and her readers' comments is that it's always clearly the bad art they are making fun of _because_ it is not good for genuine piety, theology, etc. So I feel like I can laugh as hard as I want to. :-)
CORRECTION: My previous informant tells me that he inadvertently misled me. Lolsaints is just, if I now understand him correctly, picking up on the "LOL" theme and is _not_ run by Internet bullies.
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