Ha Ha Ha

Love this video - and I say this as one who at one time was very much at home in the culture it parodies!

 

I like being an Anglican too, a very different way of expressing worship open to a whole raft of parodies too, ... though there is a long and very funny history of that, the Vicar of Dibley, for instance, or Alan Bennet's excellent Beyond the Fringe 'Take a Pew' skit...

   

 John Betjeman had lots of things to say about Church culture, often gently satirising, such as 'Diary of a Church Mouse' or this one: 

Blame the Vicar 

When things go wrong it's rather tame 

To find we are ourselves to blame, 

It gets the trouble over quicker 

To go and blame things on the Vicar. 

The Vicar, after all, is paid 

To keep us bright and undismayed. 

The Vicar is more virtuous too 

Than lay folks such as me and you.

He never swears, he never drinks, 

He never should say what he thinks. 

His collar is the wrong way round, 

And that is why he's simply bound 

To be the sort of person who 

Has nothing very much to do 

But take the blame for what goes wrong 

And sing in tune at Evensong. 

For what's a Vicar really for 

Except to cheer us up? What's more, 

He shouldn't ever, ever tell 

If there is such a place as Hell, 

For if there is it's certain he 

Will go to it as well as we. 

The Vicar should be all pretence 

And never, never give offence. 

To preach on Sunday is his task 

And lend his mower when we ask 

And organize our village fêtes 

And sing at Christmas with the waits 

And in his car to give us lifts 

And when we quarrel, heal the rifts. 

To keep his family alive 

He should industriously strive 

In that enormous house he gets, 

And he should always pay his debts, 

For he has quite six pounds a week, 

And when we're rude he should be meek 

And always turn the other cheek. 

He should be neat and nicely dressed 

With polished shoes and trousers pressed, 

For we look up to him as higher 

Than anyone, except the Squire.

John Betjeman

It seems these parodies are much more about 'Anglican Culture' (if that's not an Oxymoron!) rather than worship specifically - perhaps because the 'culture' of the Church of England has been woven in to the life of English society for so many years. I would be interested if anyone has got a humourous link to an Anglican worship parody of some kind!