Synopsis
What do you get when you combine Monty Python, Mel Brooks, and the Passion of Christ? I don’t know, but it’s been going on for 390 years at this point. In this episode, Em and Jesse discuss what Jesse did on her summer vacation (or part of it): a trip to see the passion play in Oberammergau. With digressions on the 1972 Olympics, the film Munich, Nazis, and Bernd das Brot.
The official website and some fun articles about the play:
Oberammergau’s official history with the history of the play: https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/play/history
At the bottom of this page, you can click through a lot of the tableaux (hover over the left or right side of the pictures): https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/en/play/play
A good article about the play: https://religionnews.com/2022/05/09/oberammergau-passion-play-enters-a-new-era/
Notes
1/ The 1972 Olympics
Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Tony Kushner. (trailer). You can see some of the stuff Jesse discusses—people watching the stuff on the TV. They also show them discussing the telephone bomb.
Tony Kushner is a playwright most famous for Angels in America.
2/ For more on the PLAGUE, see ep. 2.
For more on passion plays, see episode 1 (note 23), episode 25 (note 19), episode 17 (note 6). Probably a bunch of other episodes, too.
For more on Passover and Easter, see episodes 3 and 4.
3/ Quick, somebody write a gothic novel where no one died at all since they made the vow, and now 400 years later they still have the same cast…
4/ Orlando Theme Park (deceased), the Holy Land Experience: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Land_Experience
5/ In one of the great moments of This American Life, Ira Glass took a U of Chicago Medievalist to Medieval Times (a restaurant—it’s in Schaumburg, not Rosemont, don’t @ me): https://www.thisamericanlife.org/38/simulated-worlds/act-three-7
6/ The story of Papa Hemingway liberating Shakespeare & Co. can be found in the book Shakespeare and Company, by Sylvia Beach.
7/ I can’t find the scene of Aziraphale and Crowley discussing the crucifixion on YouTube, but it’s the opening of episode 3. It’s still on Amazon. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you haven’t seen it.
The full Douglas Adams quote, from the very beginning of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish:
And then, one Thursday, nearly two thousand years after one man had been nailed to a tree for saying how great it would be to be nice to people for a change, a girl sitting on her own in a small café in Rickmansworth suddenly realized what it was that had been going wrong all this time, and she finally knew how the world could be made a good and happy place. This time it was right, it would work, and no one would have to get nailed to anything.
David F*cking Bowie, guys. Did I say before that Barthes would have a lot to say about that haircut they’ve stuck on Mr. Bowie? Oh my god. That haircut. (Okay, we did this rant in episode 3, note 18.)
9/ Menorah is a generic term for a candelabra that holds seven to nine candles. The menorah specifically for Hanukkah is a Hanukkiah.
10/ Okay, so the story of “Al Capone”: in about 2003, Jesse and Em went on a trip to Italy. Jesse speaks Italian, Em speaks…French. So as they took trains around the country, they’d meet people, and Em would listen to Jesse have conversations with them, but they’d try to speak in English once they realized Em couldn’t really participate. Which meant a lot of this:
Italian couple: Where are you from?
Jesse: Chicago.
Italians: Oh.. Al Capone!
Or occasionally, when Jesse mentioned she was born in Detroit:
Italian couple: Oh! Eminem!
I think the fact that they knew about Eminem is why I didn’t connect it to being specifically about Al being Italian-American until just now.
11/ Apologies to all German speakers for my pronunciation of your language.
The accent here is very different from some of the other versions, which is interesting. Since the channel is “Naturpark Ammergauer Alpen,” I assume this is the accent of the region.
Actual lyrics:
Heut’ kommt der Hans zu mir,
freut sich die Lies.
Ob er aber über Oberammergau,
oder aber über Unterammergau,
oder aber überhaupt nicht kommt,
das is net g’wiss.
Here is an introduction to Bernd das Brot. Willkommen auf der KiKa Lounge. [Apparently he’s a loaf of pullman bread. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_das_Brot –Jesse]
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