History Main / JesusWasWayCool

[[folder:Film]]

** In another Ennis-written example, the demon Hoss tells Comicbook/GhostRider a story that strongly implies that Jesus's message of forgiveness and love was distorted by demonic interference so that it became one of "pain an' sacrifice an' guilt...just another damn religion." The same comic features a ruthless, mass-murdering, child-killing archangel as Heaven's agent on Earth and two SmugSnake lesser angels in the CelestialBureaucracy only out to save their own bacon, suggesting that Jesus was a major exception to the usual way of doing business Up There.

* In Creator/PattonOswalt's stand-up special, ''Finest Hour,'' Oswalt, an atheist, remarks that the only thing that would prevent Jesus from getting into a superhero team like the Franchise/XMen would be his own wisdom and humility. He then runs through a hypothetical scenario in which Jesus auditions for the X-Men and, instead of telling them about his more impressive miracles that could be useful to a superhero team like raising the dead, he would instead bring up the time he fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish.

** Another Jewish perspective has a harsher view: claiming to be a prophet with the message that laws should be changed is heresy worthy of the death penalty, to say nothing of claiming to be the son of God. Just because they don't always say it loudly doesn't mean some Jews don't have issues with Jesus.

* Inverted in Music/{{Beck}}'s song [[https://youtu.be/xPqnJ9VdNSY Satan was Way Cool]].

* Averted in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': both versions of the trolls' CrystalDragonJesus are irreverent douchebags when you meet them in person, and only one of them has any redeeming qualities.

* Jesus is the only main character in ''Film/GoodSatan'' who is shown to be completely selfless and virtuous to the point where even Satan can't bother to hate him. Even when he's kicked out of Heaven for being outed as gay, Jesus leaves Heaven willingly and enters Hell, leading to Satan taking him back out of guitlt for essentially ruining his life.

* ''VideoGame/DragaliaLost'': [[spoiler: It turns out that [[TheHero Euden]] is actually a part of [[GodIsEvil Xenos’s]] heart, more specifically, the part that gives to others. This means that he is essentially this universe’s version of Jesus, and as a Jesus-esque figure, Euden is pretty cool. He’s always willing to help others whenever they need to, he isn’t afraid to stand up to evil, and he’s a [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Royal Who Actually Does Something]]]].

* In John Wick's ''Thirty'', he recounts a story from one of his home campaigns where the characters met three different versions of Jesus. There was the self-described Gnostic Jesus, who was a mundane a philosophical genius, the Classic Jesus, who's off in the corner working miracles, and Paul's Jesus, who was a [[spoiler: psychotic firebreathing monster the size of a building screaming about faggots]].

It's an interesting phenomenon: UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} is generally presented as an admirable figure, or at least benign, even in non-Christian or ''anti''-Christian media. [[UsefulNotes/{{Atheism}} Atheists]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Jews]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} Buddhists]], cynics -- anyone who might author stories unflattering in their portrayal of [[GodIsEvil the Almighty]], Literature/TheBible or [[ReligionIsWrong religion in general]] -- are nonetheless complimentary to the ''original'' NiceJewishBoy. This can be used as a TakeThat to Christianity ("Jesus was cool even if his followers all suck"), but also as a PetTheDog moment from a character who is otherwise portrayed as villainous and/or hostile to the status quo ("[[RealMenLoveJesus Even Bad Men Love Their Jesus]]"). This makes sense, in a way. Jesus was supposed to be God in mortal form, and as such, having a sense of humor is possible, if not probable.

This is not always received well. Portraying Jesus as a cool dude can somewhat dent his gravitas as a religious figurehead, and as a result some Christians can get offended by (what they consider to be) the trivialization of their Lord and Savior. There's also the fact that Jesus is a figure in UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} as well, and general Islamic sentiment is that prophets are sacred and should not be portrayed. Others may note that Jesus is Way Cool because he happens to agree with the writer on all sorts of subjects, even those where all the evidence is the other way round. On the other hand, when employed in works that try to play up Christianity as being "cool" by association, it generally gets a free pass. Always remember that tropes are neither inherently good nor inherently bad, just [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools tools]].

Nevertheless, the trope actually does have some genuine theological support insofar as Jesus tended to associate with the outcast and marginalised members of society, like prostitutes, people found guilty of adultery, tax collectors, and various other types who were considered unsavoury by the religious authorities of the day. He also had a pronounced anti-authoritarian streak, regularly calling out religious leaders for hypocrisy and acting HolierThanThou. Several portions of the Bible also portray him as a master of the VerbalJudo and an expert in ShamingTheMob, which undeniably gives him an air of being an accomplished BadassPacifist. And last, but certainly not least, there are also the facts that Jesus' whole ethos is bound up on the idea that he is the ultimate AllLovingHero who will offer {{Forgiveness}} to all who willingly seek it, no matter how great their crime or transgression, and that is his whole mission is being TheParagon who will lead humanity unto a better path. These are all traits that are highly likely to find ValuesResonance across time periods and cultural differences. Study of the New Testament (and the non-canon Gospels) will tend to show Christ as much less severe than he is sometimes depicted by certain church authorities, who have been known to (ironically) [[QuoteMine misuse his words]] with an eye on political and social control.

When Jesus surpasses "way cool" and delves into "Freakin' Badass", that's KungFuJesus. Compare and contrast JesusWasCrazy, HippieJesus. When cool people express admiration for him, it's a case of RealMenLoveJesus. When people philosophize about imitating him, it often overlaps with WhatWouldXDo. A supertrope to NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus (Jesus is always special, even if there are individuals InUniverse who are capable of matching or exceeding his own supernatural feats) and NoSuchThingAsSpaceJesus (one part this to one part HumansAreSpecial). Also overlaps with EveryoneIsChristianAtChristmas, when even people of other faiths or none think it's cool to observe that holiday about His birth.

Compare GodIsGood, which is similar to this trope but more focused on The Father or the whole Trinity instead of just The Son; the third leg would fit under HumansAreGood. Compare EverybodyLovesZeus, where they focus on various other divine beings of light and the heavens. Sub-trope of PeripheryDemographic, since it involves non-Christians who nonetheless admire Jesus and his teachings despite being non-Christians.

It's an interesting phenomenon: UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} is generally presented as an admirable figure, or at least benign, even in non-Christian or ''anti''-Christian media. [[UsefulNotes/{{Atheism}} Atheists]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}} Jews]], [[UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} Buddhists]], cynics -- anyone who might author stories unflattering in their portrayal of [[GodIsEvil the Almighty]], Literature/TheBible or [[ReligionIsWrong religion in general]] -- are nonetheless complimentary to that NiceJewishBoy. This can be used as a TakeThat to Christianity ("Jesus was cool even if his followers all suck"), but also as a PetTheDog moment from a character who is otherwise portrayed as villainous and/or hostile to the status quo ("[[RealMenLoveJesus Even Bad Men Love Their Jesus]]"). This makes sense, in a way. Jesus was supposed to be God in mortal form, and as such, having a sense of humor is possible, if not probable.

--> ''What are we to say, when the wise are dragged by force by the hands of tyrants, and their wisdom is deprived of its freedom by slander, and they are plundered for their superior intelligence, without the opportunity of making a defence? They are not wholly to be pitied. For what benefit did the Athenians obtain by putting Socrates to death, seeing that they received as retribution for it famine and pestilence? Or the people of Samos by the burning of Pythagoras, seeing that in one hour the. whole of their country was covered with sand? '''Or the Jews by the murder of their Wise King, seeing that from that very time their kingdom was driven away from them?''' For with justice did God grant a recompense to the wisdom of all three of them. For the Athenians died by famine; and the people of Samos were covered by the sea without remedy; '''and the Jews, brought to desolation and expelled from their kingdom, are driven away into Every land'''. Nay, Socrates did "not" die, because of Plato; nor yet Pythagoras, because of the statue of Hera; '''nor yet the Wise King, because of the new laws which he enacted.'''''

* The reason for all the awful stuff that Jesus went through on Easter was, canonically, to use the sins of all mankind to weigh himself down so He could descend into Gehenna, translated into English as ''"[[FireAndBrimstoneHell Hell]]"'' (basically, the trash-dump-come-prison of the universe) and fight the devil for three whole days, not unlike [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doomguy]]. His prize was the key to Sheol, often translated into English as "The Grave," a place where the dead sleep separated from the light of God, so He could facilitate the Resurrection at the end of the Apocalypse.

* The "[[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Jesús_está_chido.jpg Jesús está chido]]" ("Jesus Is Way Coo]") billboards from Guadalajara, Mexico.

* In season 2 of ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'', Sypha explains that Speakers consider God to be [[JerkassGods petty and cruel]], retelling the Tower of Babel story as God striking down the people's greatest achievement in jealousy. In season 3, however, she explains to Saint-Germain that while the Speakers may dislike God, they have nothing but admiration for Yeshua, the christ, who's sacrifice was a lesson to humanity in unconditional love.

* John [=MacDonald=], another atheist philosopher, [[https://infidels.org/library/modern/a-critique-of-the-penal-substitution-interpretation-of-the-cross-of-christ/ has argued]] that the original Christian view of the crucifixion of Jesus was not that Jesus’ death was substitutionary atonement for man’s sin (and all the logical and ethical problems that creates), but instead to emphasize that all human institutions were corrupt, since they could so easily execute an innocent man, and that the Cross was meant [[HeelRealization for everyone to recognize their own vileness]], so that they could turn away from their sins and no longer tolerate a society where many live in total poverty and anyone who opposes the rich and powerful get tortured or killed. He even postulates that the Gospels were partially a TakeThat against Neoplatonism, pointing out that Jesus suffered the same fate as Socrates for the same reasons, despite living in a time where Socrates’s philosophy is the accepted wisdom, essentially claiming that Greek philosophy didn’t go anywhere near far enough, thus [[RomanticismVersusEnlightenment anticipating the Enlightenment]]. Keep in mind that [=MacDonald=] also believes that Jesus’ followers [[https://infidels.org/library/modern/john-macdonald-justified-lie/ knowingly set out to deceive the world and start a religion]] and he ''still'' has nothing but good things to say regarding their teacher.