Satan Is My Superhero

In this episode I investigate John Milton’s classic 1667 poem about the fall from Grace, Paradise Lost.

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In this episode we will tell the story of a long haired hippy with a dream to do something spectacular. With the help of his talented friends and against the powers of the land he made that dream into a reality. Then thousands of years later 2 middle class British toffs turned that story into a multi hundred million dollar enterprise with a Hollywood film, a lavish stage show and the epitome of 70s culture the concept double album.

How did a 24 year old Tim Rice, an assistant producer in the record industry and 21 year old composer Andrew Lloyd Webber end up with a hit single, hit album, hit stage show and hit movie?

And how was this potentially blasphemous production received by the Chri$tian world?

This episode features special guest star appearances from Olympic Studios, London, The Rolling Stones, Sympathy for the Devil, MCA, The Likes of Us, Joseph and the Amazing Technocolour Dreamcoat, Bob Dylan, With God on Our Side, Judas Iscariot, Roman Empire, Rome, Romans, Roman Emperor, Billy Graham, Samuel L. Gaber, Anti-Defamation League of the B’nai B’rith, Mary Magdalene, Faith Free Presbyterian Church, South Carolina, Ted Neeley, Norman Jewison, Pope Paul VI, Vatican, New York Times, Curtis Bill Pepper, Pope Francis, Newtownabbey Free Presbyterian Church, Newtownabbey Independent Christian School, Pastor Brian McClung, Irvin Himmel, The Gospel Guardian, Got Questions Ministries, Richard Hollerman, Graham Russell, Russel Hitchcock, Air Supply, Love and Other Bruises, Lost in Love, All Out of Love, The One That You Love, Young Love, Making Love Out of Nothing at All, The Power of Love, Faith in Love, Richard O’Brien, Sylvester Stallone, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Irene Cara, John Legend, Mel C, Rik Mayall, Indigo Girls, Tim Minchin, Gary Cherone, Roger Daltrey, Corey Glover, Ian Gillan, Alice Cooper, Sebastian Bach, Burger King, Johnny Rotten, John Lydon, Graves Hollow.

Sauces

https://religionnews.com/2018/03/29/the-splainer-the-stormy-surprising-history-of-jesus-christ-superstar/

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/31/archives/they-wrote-it-and-theyre-glad-they-wrote-superstar.html

http://www.freepres.org/pamphlet_details.asp?superstar

https://www.villagevoice.com/2003/11/04/mel-gibsons-jesus-christ-pose/

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/24/1058935783/michael-jackson-jacket-capitol-rioter-jan-6-actor-james-beeks-oath-keepers

https://www.songfacts.com/blog/writing/jesus-christ-superstar-ted-neeley-tells-the-inside-story

http://newlinetheatre.com/jcschapter.html

THE MUSICAL ‘JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR’ IS A BLASPHEMY OF CHRIST!

Pastor Brian McClung

https://michaeljeshurun.wordpress.com/tag/jesus-christ-superstar-opera/

https://www.wordsfitlyspoken.org/gospel_guardian/v22/v22n38p9-10.html

https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-Christ-Superstar.html

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/501993/facts-about-jesus-christ-superstar-andrew-lloyd-webber-tim-rice

http://www.archivioradiovaticana.va/storico/2014/05/15/vatican_radio_welcomes_%E2%80%9Cjesus_christ_superstar%E2%80%9D/en-1100657

Battell, James. "The Year of Three Popes." Ex-Catholics For Christ. ETC Ministry, Apr. 2005. Web. 29 Mar. 2016.

Martina Hejcovä The Rock Opera Jesus Christ Superstar - Analysis of the Critical Reception Over the Decades Bachelor's Diploma Thesis

https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/10/archives/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-pope-pope-paul-vi.html

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/jesus-christ-superstar-rockers/

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In this episode I will investigate homophobic demonization in the modern era. From father of the Christian Right in the U.S. Baptist Minister Robert to televangelists like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson screaming blue murder against LGBT rights.

We also find out what Second Runner Up in the Miss America Pageant and anti LGBT rights campaigner Anita Bryant revealed to Playboy Magazine about her own sex life.

We explore conspiracy theories about ‘The Gay Agenda’, the holocaust and the ‘Lavender Scare’.

Reality TV star Phil Robertson shows his age and of course Westboro Baptist Church get a mention.

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In this episode we look back on favourite sketches of 2023, as chosen Tee Tease. You are about to have the most fun you've ever had. By the end of this episode you will realise you've only been imitating fun your whole life. If I were you, I would take off my pants. You’re about to shit yourself.

There are sketches from Highway to Hell, the tale of ACDC’s first taste of global success.

In Cross Road Blues, the story behind the Ralph Macchio vehicle of the same name and some Robert Johnson guy, we did a sketch featuring cultural icon Bob Dylan.

Judas Iscariot: True Hero of Easter, featured some classic white guy rapping. We call that wrapping. And ‘The Duke’ John Wayne makes an appearance.

We gave Charles Manson a starring role in Helter Skelter and let spoon bending grifter Uri Gellar in Pokémon.

Our episode about Motley Crue’s Shout at the Devil came with monkey poo.

We almost let Benny sing in Benny Hinn: He Touched Me.

We had Sympathy For The Devil AND Artificial Intelligence but we left behind Kirk Cameron and Kevin Sorbo.

Welcome to Hell featured all the best names, Judas Priest, Venom, Jesus Chri$t, Mantas, Titans, Gaia, Father Sky, Cronos, Abbadon and Alan Winston.

Michael Aquino and Anton LaVey found themselves in an H.P. Lovecraft nightmare.

In Black Sabbath, Toni Iommi and Geezer Butler discussed the song writing process.

The Book of Revelation had a water skiing joke.

The Witches of Shakespeare got Elizabeth I swearing like Witchfinder General Mathew Hopkins.

We learn the very best evidence is forced confession in The Salem Witch Trials and Cotton Mather.

Lexi’s performance as a drunk Ursula from The Little Mermaid in Disney Witches is hilarious.

In Jesus Christ Superstar we learn what helps the poo go down. Information we could have used back in the Shout at the Devil episode.

Genshin Impact featured therapy.

We have some white woman rapping. We call that wrapping also because cultural appropriation does not recognize gender boundaries.

And it couldn’t be considered a best of anything without Marjorie Taylor Greene so we let her on to swear at us.

#SketchComedy #Sketch #Comedy #Sketch Comedy #Atheist #Science History #Atheism #ConspiracyTheory #Sceptical #Scepticism #Mythology #Religion #Devil #Satan #Skeptic #Debunk

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In this episode we will investigate the gateway drug to hell known as Dungeons & Dragons. A table top fantasy role playing game that I’m sure you have at least heard of.

We follow the games invention by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974 to moving 750 000 copies per annum by 1984.

We look at the official magazines it spawned and the arrival of and attractive new character, Satan, introduced by Alexander von Thorn in 1979.

Former lord of the 9 Hells, this shape shifter whose most potent power is temptation was toppled from his throne by a more powerful demon called Asmodeus, according to D&D lore.

As the Satanic Panic of the 80s got underway and D&D got caught in the crossfire the devil found himself sidelined. The Newsweek article read out by Eddie Munson, played by Joseph Quinn in Stranger Things is real!

From 1986 until 2007 the mere mention of The Wicked One was forbidden in official D&D products.

We trace D&D’s contribution to the Satanic Panic to the 1979 disappearance of 16 year old James Dallas Egbert III and the public allegations made by the private investigator hired by the family to find him, Bill Dear who describes himself as ‘the real James Bond’.

We look at how Dear capitalized on the media frenzy around the case now known as ‘The Steam Tunnel Incident’ and published a memoir entitled, ‘The Dungeon Master: The Disappearance of James Dallas Egbert III’

Through Dear’s love of the spotlight we talk about the exhumation of Lee Harvey Oswald in 1981, his claims O.J. Simpson is innocent and he can prove it and his involvement in the infamous, ‘Alien Autopsy’ video for the Fox special, ‘Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.’

We also follow D&D’s public scrutiny at the height of the panic through Rona Jaffe’s novel, ‘Mazes and Monsters.’

Which was turned into a made for TV movie starring Tom Hanks just a year later.

Then we turn our attention to the most prolific anti-D&D campaigner Patricia Pulling and lobby group called, B.A.D.D. reminiscent of Tipper Gore’s PMRC campaign.

We investigate claims in Pulling’s 1989 book, ‘The Devil’s Web: Who Is Stalking Your Children for Satan?’

Pulling claimed to have investigated the subject of teenage devil worship for 7 years and created educational material for schools and police departments which she distributed all across the U.S.

In her uniformly uninformed way she claimed the number one pathway to hell, even above Role Playing Games was ‘Black Heavy Metal Music.’

We’ll take a close look at her 38 page pamphlet, ‘Dungeons & Dragons: Witchcraft, Suicide, Violence.’

In which she quotes convicted murderer Mitchell Rupe and Church of Satan founder Anton Levay as if they are comparable.

We’ll pull apart her particular offense to the ‘Girdle of Femininity/Masculinity’. A D&D artefact that can change the gender of any character. She also gets very upset that the Player’s Handbook allows players to choose the gender of their character.

Then we introduce our hero of the piece author Michael Stackpole who in 1990 published ‘The Pulling Report’

Accusing Pulling of inaccuracies in her so called data showing she was not an expert in anything. For example this so-called Satanist investigator does not even know the Necronomicon was a fictional creation of H.P. Lovecraft.

Favourite of the show, Thomas Jefferson gets a mention. Virgil’s epic poem ‘The Aenid comes into it and somehow D&D finds itself wrapped up in the ‘New Age’ movement.

Finally we will see the rise and disgraceful fall of founder of the National Coalition on TV Violence, psychiatrist and lawyer Thomas Radecki.

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