Episode 19: Divine Comic Horniness

Young Adult Movie Ministry

Details, credits, errata: This week’s guest is the wonderful Alan Scherstuhl, whose incredible Studies in Crap column is one of the great works of 21st century journalism and can be read here. Alan suggested we watch Carl Reiner’s 1977 box office smash Oh, God!, starring John Denver as a schmoe and George Burns as God. It’s a really interesting artifact of the period if not a particularly good movie (Terri Garr, who is awesome in everything, is worth the price of admission), and it was hugely controversial largely because the title was a swear.

1977 is a wild year in the movies—Star Wars, Saturday Night Fever, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Eraserhead, The Hills Have Eyes, Annie Hall, Smokey and the Bandit and Network all came out that year. This, believe it or not, made more money than most of those! It can be watched on the streaming service of your choice for a fee—the Redbox link is here. This movie is based on Avery Corman’s 1971 novel of the same name, and can be bought here.

Our episode art for this week is Michelangelo Buonarotti’s The Creation of Adam, from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a portrayal the film’s God ranks below John Denver’s appearance on The Dinah Shore Show, for reasons known only to Him.

Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. Oh, God! is copyright 1977 Warner Bros., and brief audio excerpts are used herein for purposes of review. No other copyright is intended or implied. All other content is copyright 2020 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson.

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