In Which the Satirical Becomes Nigh Indistiguishible From the Sincere

So a friend of mine burned me a copy of "The Book of Mormon Musical" soundtrack, and finally, out of sheer morbid curiosity, I gave it a cursory listen.

It was of course a quite satirical, ironic, and sarcastic portrayal of LDS adherents, doctrines and beliefs. I was expecting that. But, what caught me off guard was how...similar, how familiar it sounded, how close it was, in musical style and even content, to all that "LDS music" Deseret Book pushes onto undiscerning Sunday School Teachers and Seminary instructors.

Seriously, "I Believe," for example, would not sound out-of-place on, say, "Saturday's Warrior" or "My Turn on Earth." In fact, reword a couple of of the more irreverent verses (and not even that many), and suddenly it's not entirely clear that these are supposed to be laugh lines. It could have easily fit on some lame EFY CD--and a song sung by mock-missionaries in jest would've been sung by real missionaries in earnest. I bet I could whistle it around BYU and no one know I'm being sarcastic. Some girl might even ask me if it's by Michael McLane.

Also, I've read that "The Book of Mormon" is not just a send-up of Mormonism but also of Broadway in general, but here again I had the same reaction--a few slightly-less-ironic lyric changes, and suddenly the songs sound like a straight-faced Broadway show-stoppers, something on par with "The Sound of Music" or "Wicked," and not a farce.

Frankly, for however much the audience was laughing at the Mormon lines (I YouTubed "I Believe" and heard their reactions), I wonder how much the joke is on the audience itself--on the tools who pay up into the hundreds to hear songs so formulaic, so contrived, that even the foul-mouthed hacks behind "South Park" could not only easily ape its style, but sweep the Tonys with it. The audience may have gone to see the Mormons mocked, but failed to catch the prank on themselves--the Emperor wears no clothes.

It makes me wonder who the joke here is really on--for when satirical expressions of faith or art become near indistinguishable from the sincere, well then, what does it even mean to be sincere any more?