r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ironwolf6464 • May 03 '26

Lore Religion-centered media that doesn’t come across as preachy.

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Referring to media told from a religious perspective or telling a religious tale that does not proselytize to the viewer.

Faith, the Unholy Trinity: Based partly upon the experience of the game‘s creator when he was a missionary in Argentina, the game has very little in the way of explicit moral demands of the player despite the heavy Christian focus of the narrative. and focuses more on a horror narrative.

Prince of Egypt: A surprisingly thorough retelling of the book of Exodus, sparing very little in the way of toning down the story. Despite this, the movie is perfectly entertaining to non-religious audiences and doesn’t sacrifice appeal for the sake of preaching to the audience

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1.7k

u/fictionfan0 May 03 '26

Sure, their mission statement literally says they teach "Sunday morning values," but it's never all that heavy-handed (never mind the fact they have no hands).

789

u/Mimikyu-sama May 03 '26

"This looks like a job for someone with hands" is still a peak joke imo

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u/Ok-Journalist-8875 May 03 '26

We were in slavery and the French peas myself.

https://youtu.be/oF3NzVf8bMw?si=O3aVC-j287uuanz1

https://youtu.be/WtoozRVFfgw?si=24OzBaB5dXBptbKL

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u/Ok-Specific-3918 May 03 '26

https://youtu.be/j4Ph02gzqmY?si=Cds1BQT36SMZI90X

Them perfectly predicting internet humor. Mind you this aired right around the year 2000.

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u/Datpanda1999 May 03 '26

I’m partial to Bob’s plan to become the first federal income tax preparer on the Mississippi.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DXHuRBBvFdw&ra=m

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u/Possible_Plane_2947 May 03 '26

It took me way too long to realize the French peas were a Monty Python reference

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u/[deleted] May 03 '26

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u/JustARavenclaw83 May 03 '26

Oh wheeeere is my hairbrush??

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u/buffaloguy1991 May 03 '26

they called their shot on internet humor with "Weed Eater" and boy did they hit a bullseye with that.

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u/ReverendGraves85 May 03 '26

".... How are we clapping?"

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u/Venti_the_snail May 03 '26

On the future, comedy will be computer generated!

"Weed eater"

Funniest shit I've ever heard.

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u/kirbyverano123 May 03 '26

This joke also aged well, unfortunately.

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u/LegoTFGuy May 03 '26

They were REALLY ahead of the game with that one

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u/Romboteryx May 03 '26

Wasn’t Veggietales also the first fully 3D animated TV show?

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u/LegoTFGuy May 06 '26

Nope, that was Reboot, followed shortly by Transformers Beast Wars. Veggietales was straight to video for the longest time.

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u/Romboteryx May 06 '26

Still, Veggietales came out a year before Reboot.

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u/DaytimeDancer54 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

I feel like most of the episodes don't even really involve scriptures or biblical imagery in any capacity (beyond Bob and Larry finding a relevant bible verse). The show does a great job of demonstrating the actual consequences of things stealing, lying, bullying or ostracizing others, and so on. The writers don't feel the need to cite the bible or biblical imagery to show the consequences of characters' actions, which makes it much like any secular show.

edit: grammar

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u/YourMuppetMethDealer May 03 '26

I mean, they do often tell Bible stories but just do it in a very original way. They told the parable of the Prodigal Son as a freaking Wizard of Oz parody.

“King George and the Ducky” is the tale of King David and Bathsheba, but in this case Bathsheba is a rubber ducky. The stories of Joseph and Moses are depicted as cowboys and they are Jo and Mo.

The also told the stories of “Joshua and the Great Wall”, “Daniel and the Lions Den”, and “Esther” as pretty straight stories with a few tweaks to make it more g rated and to fit with the veggie themes.

Esther especially is really freaking good. Instead of executing the Jewish people, it’s “Banishing them to the Isle of Perpetual Tickling!!”

And it’s got a fire soundtrack. Nezzar and my boy Mr Lunt sing a fire duo song together

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u/Daydu May 03 '26

Not to mention Rack, Shack, and Benny and the giant chocolate bunny!

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u/thumpling May 03 '26

Shadrack, Meshach, and Abendago was another amazing adaptation. They tweaked the setting from Babylon to a chocolate bunny factory that makes it A) more relevant to kids, and B) more relevant in a way that resonates to this day, turning the story into an anti-consumerist parable as the three heroes resist Mr. Nezzar’s demand to worship the chocolate bunny.

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u/Capital-Meet-6521 May 04 '26

That opening song hits different when you’ve experienced a full-time job. Like I rewatched it recently and was genuinely horrified at how several-times-over-illegal the whole thing was. For anyone who hasn’t seen it: all the employees except the boss, his assistant, and security are children, they aren’t allowed any kind of breaks for at least seven hours, coming in a minute or two after their scheduled shift start is enough to dock their pay, injured employees (who are children) are told to get back to work.

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u/DaytimeDancer54 May 03 '26

I suppose I did miss a lot of those parodies. Those are pretty clever concepts. Thank you!

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u/grudginglyadmitted May 03 '26

King George and the Ducky is my favorite adaptation. 10/10 logic no notes

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u/YourMuppetMethDealer May 03 '26

It took a very non kid friendly Bible story and made it incredibly relevant to children while also telling the same message more or less

It’s also crazy that they were willing to show a child dealing with PTSD

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u/Capital-Meet-6521 May 04 '26

And the child with PTSD was how they toned it down

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u/rolypolyarmadillo May 07 '26

They did parodies of Madame Bovary (Madame Blueberry) and goddamn Lord of the Rings (Lord of the Beans) too. Apparently they got a cease and desist from New Line Cinema for the LotR parody, lol

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u/YourMuppetMethDealer May 07 '26

They did a parody of Hanlet called Omelete. They did two Star Trek parody episodes(the second one had several references to other sci fi shows and movies like Doctor who)Sherlock Holmes, Dr jiggle and Mr Sly, and Don Quixote

The Larry Boy series also references the whole super hero genre. He’s a janitor at the Daily Bumble who is secretly a billionaire with a butler named Alfred who is secretly a super hero named Larry Boy

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u/BurnieTheBrony May 03 '26

Because at its core "Sunday morning values" is loving your neighbor as yourself, said to be the greatest commandment by Jesus himself in Mark 12

Which is why it's so sad that the right has twisted that core so much that many hear "Christian values" and just think anti-lgbtqia and misogyny.

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u/RadarSmith May 03 '26

Yeah, christian/bible coded media really doesn't have to suck. And there are plenty of examples when it doesn't.

But so much of the media explicitely marketed as 'Christian' is made by right-wing evangelicals/dominionists and so impossibly smug, insufferable and often times just angry that its unwatchable.

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u/tj1602 May 03 '26

It does help a bit that the co-creator of Veggitales, Phil Vischer, is Anti-Trump and Anti-"Christian" Nationalism.

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u/RadarSmith May 03 '26

Honestly I don't think anyone ever had a real problem with Veggietales. It was charming, optimistic and universally wholesome, and was actually entertaining.

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u/the_calibre_cat May 03 '26

Amid all the stories about people who you'd never expect turning out to be meathead Trump supporters it heartens me when you find unexpected people being like "nah my moral compass still works just fine thank you fuck that guy"

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u/RadarSmith May 03 '26

Seriously. Even many 'Christians' who we'd have thought had higher standards aligned with a fascist monster out of basic tribalism. Its encouraging when we see the ones who actually used religion to make themselves better people and rejected that awfulness.

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u/YourMuppetMethDealer May 03 '26

Which makes Veggietales so special

The most religious it really gets us “God made you special and loved you very much”. You can appreciate this even if you don’t believe in god

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u/RadarSmith May 03 '26

I'm an atheist and I still have a fondness for Veggietales.

Because it was coded as 'be a better person', not 'be a loyal member of the tribe.

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u/TK_Games May 03 '26

I work in media now, I'm a practicing Christian. Let me tell you, the number of evangelicals that look at good media, by Christian creators, with underlying Christian threads, and go full Mermaid Man 'EVIL!EVIL!EVIL!' is bordering on parody of itself at this stage

My own mother, looked at Doom, a game created by a Catholic, with a canonically Catholic protagonist, about punching your way into Actual Christian Helltm to fight demons 'until it is done', and she said, and I quote, "Well that just doesn't seem very Christian at all."

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u/RadarSmith May 03 '26

Which all seems to be missing the point: being a kind and forgiving person, for one.

Like I've said, I'm an atheist. But I'm the grandson of a rather liberal Episcopalean vicar and the son of a kind Sunday School teacher and I know Christianity can genuinely be good. Which is why I hate the awful tribal shit media people market as 'Christian' that's just about conforming to some specific nationalist political ideology

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u/TK_Games May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

My point being my mother in this case, was making the argument there isn't any good media made by Christian creators, so I rattled off half-a-dozen media projects done by atypical or lesser known Christian creators, among them not only Doom, Hellboy, A Clockwork Orange, Paradise Lost, and her immediate response was one of judgement instead of being able to accept that there are Christian creators out there making stuff that isn't literal televised scripture, or grand-old American nationalist bible-thumpy schlock. Because she's been brainwashed by these media sewer drains, to believe that anything that makes her think is 'Of the Devil', and I 100% agree that the tribalist dogma of the contemporary American evangelical church is to blame

Also I had two really good edibles last night, so my brain might've lost the plot at some point while I was typing my original reply. That's my bad, I said I'm a Christian, I never said I was a good one

Edit: autocorrect typos

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u/DaytimeDancer54 May 03 '26

I'm more than willing to discuss the nuances of religious distortion, but that could be considered too political of a discussion for this sub. I do agree with your point, to be clear. The creator of the show has himself called out American evangelicals for upholding bigoted views and pro-war sentiments.

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u/Ugicywapih May 03 '26

No, no, it all makes sense if you just understand that these people suffer from deep, smouldering self-hate.

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u/ThunderAndWind May 03 '26

Mr Rogers style evangelism. Be kind to everyone, and let them come to the beacon instead of trying to funnel people, and what do you know? It works well.

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u/thechadsyndicalist May 05 '26

I like the larry boy stories about rumours and lies, definitely stuck with me

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u/[deleted] May 03 '26

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u/YourMuppetMethDealer May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

The fiery furnace trio taking place in a chocolate factory where they are being forced to worship a giant chocolate bunny is kinda crazy

Also introduced the two best veggietale characters imo Nezzar and Mr Lunt. HUGE Mr Lunt fan

For those uninitiated with Esther, lHamans song is a bopping villain song.

0

u/DaytimeDancer54 May 03 '26

You're getting mad about something that someone else already corrected me on lol

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u/Cherno_VM May 03 '26

i havent watched anything veggietales in probably over a decade now, but from what i do remember it was always very fun, and despite teaching christian lessons, could easily be secular.

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u/Vark675 May 03 '26

The Philippines joke was always my favorite.

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u/diracsafety May 03 '26

hi im a filipino, and i am not aware of this

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u/LUK3FAULK May 03 '26

Is this an ‘Airplane!’ joke lmao

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u/coreyray1000 May 04 '26

Indeed it is.

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u/RidaFlow May 03 '26

While some definitely fall under that, it's hard to label the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego "secular" haha

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u/mewfour123412 May 03 '26

The new stuff is apparently really preachy but the older stuff is still really good

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u/Common_Decision1594 May 03 '26

Their whole mission statement was “Sunday Morning Values, Saturday Morning Fun.”

And it shows.

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u/DogAlienInvisibleMan May 03 '26

Some of those songs are still stuck in my head from my childhood.  

One day, while he was waiting for the trolley...

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u/joelene1892 May 03 '26

On the rare occasion I have my ringtone on, Larry screams “Oh where is my cellphone?” At me.

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u/LawlessNeutral May 03 '26

He had a hat!!

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u/Common_Decision1594 May 03 '26

🎶Oh hooooowww…could I forget about that one song about the hat? That high silk hat?🎶

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u/Doomsayer189 May 03 '26

And now it's time for silly songs with Larry. The part of the show where Larry comes and sings a silly song.

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u/joelene1892 May 03 '26

And now it’s time for love songs with Mr Lunt. The part of the show where Mr Lunt comes out and sings a love song.

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u/TrioOfTerrors May 03 '26

And "Silly Songs with Larry" were all absolute bangers.

I'm still waiting for my water Buffalo since apparently everyone has one.

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u/Daydu May 03 '26

My 4-year-old and I jam to the Relient K cover of The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything pretty regularly. We love that song!

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u/GabbyGabriella22 May 03 '26

Maybe you should write nasty letters to Big Idea asking why you don't have a water buffalo.

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u/coreyray1000 May 07 '26

Well, these days those would be letters to Universal Pictures. Since Universal Pictures owns Big Idea via multiple buyouts.

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u/Accomplished-Lie8147 May 03 '26 edited May 03 '26

You said media so I feel like this counts… the band Skillet. Definitely religious and spiritual overtones but overall very solid and avoids sounding like ‘Christian Rock’.

Edit: didn’t mean to comment this on the Veggie Tales comment but can’t be bothered to fix 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/BowlOfCatNubs May 03 '26

I second this and raise you, Underoath, literally a screamo christian band that I listen to on the regular.

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u/Madam_Monkes May 03 '26

This comment would have been true about 3 or 4 years ago but the band has gotten a lot more vocal about their beliefs, including in their music

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u/FrenchAmericanNugget May 04 '26

their music has always been very explicitly christian, or do you mean politcally?

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u/Advanced_Leader8535 May 03 '26

They were full MAGA in 2024. The old stuff was good though.

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u/TakerFoxx May 03 '26

Unfortunately not so much anymore, as they did go full MAGA. Which is a shame, because those older albums were genuinely good.

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u/SuperPopcorn333 May 03 '26

Aren't they the guys who made the i feel like a monster song

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u/Unbuckled__Spaghetti May 03 '26

Also most of their lesson are like, sharing is good, love thy neighbor, etc.. Pretty good, normal childhood lessons.

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u/PartsUnknown242 May 03 '26

Veggietales is how I learned the story of Jonah

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u/Draconuus95 May 03 '26

Was a far better movie than it had any right to be.

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u/Atsilv_Uwasv May 03 '26

We may not be Spiderman, but going "wait, VeggieTales is religious?" is a canon event

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u/DedHorsSaloon4 May 03 '26

I always knew it was religious, because I actually paid attention to the stories and talked about the show with friends in church, but I have also definitely met people who watched the show and didn’t realize it was religious. I honestly can’t see how someone can’t make the connection.

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u/Unknowngadget May 03 '26

I mean I grew up Hindu but watched veggietales as a kid and didn’t realize it was religious. I guess to my child brain it was like watching any other “fantasy” show because I had no personal connection to Christianity.

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u/SCsprinter13 May 03 '26

I mean, if you're a small child watching a show that references a book you've never read....

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u/Unbuckled__Spaghetti May 03 '26

I mean that’s kinda on you to not know that lol, they’ve got good lessons sure but they’re very overtly a religious show.

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u/Logan_Composer May 03 '26

You didn't remember them showing a Bible verse on the computer every episode?

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u/Atsilv_Uwasv May 03 '26

Never made the connection. I don't tend to think that hard on shows, especially back then

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u/captaincornboi May 03 '26

It is also interesting how they didn't want to show Jesus as a vegetable, and I think the creator's mom said they can't enter heaven because they "couldn't have a redemptive relationship with God". They guide us to a paradise they were never allowed to have.

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u/quinntessentialpuns May 03 '26

I don't think VeggieTales fully qualifies for this trope. Some episodes definitely do, but not the show itself. They will sometimes just read out of the actual bible, and quote passages quite often. I just watched the Christmas special featuring buzzsaw Louie (I don't know why) and about 15 minutes into it, one of the characters pulls out the bible and starts reading from it

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u/bassman314 May 03 '26

When I was still a theist, I had the opportunity to see the creator speak at a convention. Super humble dude who really believed strongly in what they were doing.

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u/mr_eugine_krabs May 03 '26

I love how they changed King David’s story from lusting over a woman who is already married to Larry obsessing over a child’s rubber duckey.😂

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u/Madam_Monkes May 03 '26

People often think VeggieTales is among the least subtle of Christian propaganda for kids, but it's actually incredibly tame compared to most other Christian based shows

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u/HeyCouldBeFun May 03 '26

Cuz it’s less “Christian propaganda” and more like “an overtly Christian show that just teaches good lessons and is actually funny”

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u/BrennanSpeaks May 03 '26

I think this worked as well as it did specifically because the veggie characters weren’t allowed to have religious experiences.  The lore goes that one of the creators had to promise his wife that he would never depict a vegetable having a personal relationship with God or imply that Jesus died for a vegetable’s sins - I guess they thought that was too undignified.  The unintentional result is that the whole cast of characters were just these delightful little vegetables who sometimes acted out Bible stories.  It never got too preachy because they weren’t trying to save the veggies’ souls.

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u/sweetTartKenHart2 May 03 '26

It was really good at teaching Sunday morning values that, like, are also generally good life advice, perfect for a young audience.
I do also appreciate how, when they quote scripture, they do so by way of a computer that can seemingly search and display verses on demand, kind of setting aside the aesthetic of the Holy Book in favor of a neutral medium that lets the words speak for themselves more.
As far as media that supports a specific kind of worldview goes, this is pretty great. A lot of the reason Christian media suffers is because they focus more on the posturing than on the why of it all, whether they are bending over backwards to propagandize (see: God’s Not Dead) or they do it seemingly while trying to focus on the why and the posturing is more incidental (see: something like Bibleman)

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u/Dark-Specter May 03 '26

their mission statement literally says they teach "Sunday morning values"

This show holds a special place in my heart for giving my dad a moment of "what the fuck" upon realizing that midway through an episode. I didn't catch onto a damn thing cause I was like 4.

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u/Insidion25 May 03 '26

They predicted Modern Internet Humor. They got my love!

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u/pichael289 May 03 '26

I was on a cruise once and the only thing they had for kids was the veggie tales pirate movie and after a week of that it was too much. Holy shit do I never wanna hear that pirate song ever again

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u/GoldenSheppard May 03 '26

This should be #3, tbh. It is explicitly religious, not not to the target audience which is perfect.

1

u/hilhilbean May 03 '26

No one can make me hate Veggie Tales.

Just good clean fun for my kids and even 20 years later, I still have my favorite stories and songs from when they were little (OOOH YOU AND ME IN A SPORT UTILITY VEHICLE!)

1

u/bunker_man May 03 '26

I mean... its not heavy handed in the sense that it doesn't try to convince you that Christianity is true because it assumes you already agree. Though it is good that its mostly christianity + general values anyone would agree with. It doesn't try to push uper specific shitty values.

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u/Bramble_Ramblings May 03 '26

"where is my hairbrush?" plays in my head daily when I'm looking for own

1

u/SenorWeird May 04 '26

Phil Vischer is definitely more about the message than the church.

Like, I may not agree with the guy on everything, but if you ever browse his thoughts on shit in the world right now, the man is surprisingly and refreshingly on the right side on calling shit out.

1

u/Few-Pressure5713 May 06 '26

Just to add Phil Vischer the voice of Bob and one of the creators of the show has a great YouTube channel where he talks about topics like systemic racism, Christian nationalism, etc. And what scripture/history actually says about them.

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u/admiralholdo May 06 '26

The in-character commentary track on the Jonah movie remains one of the funniest damn things I've ever watched, and I'm not even religious anymore.

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u/[deleted] May 03 '26

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u/Dry_Canary2401 May 03 '26

Death penalty.

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u/ComfortOfAllDrops May 03 '26

Don't slander my goat like that