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Are we alone out here in space?
What are we doing in this place?
Is there a god, and if there is, what difference does it make?
How should we live?
What should we do?
And why should I be nice to you?
Is there a way to know what's right and what's a big mistake?
Theme song

After the success of VeggieTales, it was questionable among fans and families whether another Religious Edutainment could possibly be created to rival it in terms of both humor and religious substance for children. In 2011, a possible contender, What's in the Bible? (full title Buck Denver Asks...What's in the Bible?) — which happened to also be created by Phil Vischer — arrived.

Instead of anthropomorphic vegetables, this show is hosted by a cast of puppets all voiced by Phil (who also serves as a live-action co-host, the other being Buck Denver, Man of News!) while animation depicts various Bible stories, personalities, and concepts. It has a fast pace, usually going quickly over the Bible stories that Christian children would probably already know, but thoroughly — digging into the moral, spiritual, and ethical substance of them, something most children's programs don't even touch. Despite this bold move, the show is still very child-friendly and easy to understand, yet educational to even older members of the audience.

What's in the Bible? was definitely groundbreaking, both as a Spiritual Successor to VeggieTales and as its own series. Like the former, it teaches children about the Bible in a fun and humorous way, but unlike its precursor manages to do what no other kids' show has ever done: Teach kids about the entire Protestant Christian Bible and "God's rescue plan", from Genesis to Revelation, help them understand concepts that other educational shows never touched, and answer questions that kids would probably be asking themselves when learning about the Bible (e.g., "Why are some laws of Leviticus still followed today but not others?"). The show was an instant hit, scoring high with parents and Christian children programs, and quickly developed something of a Periphery Demographic.

The show was released over 13 DVDs, each containing two 25-minute episodes for a total of 26. Two Clip Show videos and a Christmas Episode were also produced.

     Episode List 
  • Volume One: In the Beginning
    • Episode One: What Is the Bible?
    • Episode Two: Who Wrote the Bible? (Book of Genesis prehistory chapters)
  • Volume Two: Let My People Go!
    • Episode Three: Who Chose the Books of the Bible? (Book of Genesis patriarchal chapters)
    • Episode Four: What Is Salvation? (Book of Exodus)
  • Volume Three: Wanderin' in the Desert (Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy)
    • Episode Five: Don't Trim Your Beard?
    • Episode Six: What Is a Pentateuch?
  • Volume Four: Battle for the Promised Land
    • Episode Seven: Finally, the Promised Land (Book of Joshua)
    • Episode Eight: Cycle of Misery (Books of Judges and Ruth)
  • Volume Five: Israel Gets a King (Books of Samuel)
    • Episode Nine: The People Want a King
    • Episode Ten: Kings Make Mistakes, Too
  • Volume Six: A Nation Divided (Books of Kings and Chronicles)
    • Episode Eleven: The Big Split
    • Episode Twelve: The End of Israel
  • Volume Seven: Exile and Return!
  • Volume Eight: Words to Make Us Wise!
  • Volume Nine: God Speaks! (Books of Isaiah through Malachi)
    • Episode Seventeen: Prophets, Prophets Everywhere!
    • Episode Eighteen: Messages of the Prophets
  • Volume Ten: Jesus Is the Good News!
    • Episode Nineteen: God's Perfect Timing (Interim between Old and New Testments)
    • Episode Twenty: The Messiah Has Come! (The Four Gospels)
  • Volume Eleven: Spreading the Good News! (Acts of the Apostles)
    • Episode Twenty-One: A Helper Arrives!
    • Episode Twenty-Two: God Picks Paul
  • Volume Twelve: Letters from Paul! (The Letter to the Romans through the Letter to Philemon)
    • Episode Twenty-Three: Letters from Paul!
    • Episode Twenty-Four: Good News in Action!
  • Volume Thirteen: God's Kingdom Comes!


What's in the Bible? includes examples of:

  • Adorably Precocious Child: Oh my word, Michael.
  • Affirmative Action Girl: Marcie, the stage manager.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Though they are explained in more detail than most kids' stories, the Philistines still follow the trend of being depicted this way.
  • Amazing Technicolor Population: While many of the puppet characters are Caucasian and Pastor Louie is African-American, characters like Agnes, Winnifred, Marcie, and the animated members of Pastor Louie's choir fit this trope.
  • Anachronism Stew: Not very often but when it does show up, it's either corrected or used to help better explain the situation, and still pointed out.
  • Animated Actors
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Ian, to his brother, Clive.
  • Arc Words: "God's rescue plan" (for humanity via Christ's sacrifice).
  • Art Shift: Often. The main characters are live-action puppetry, but the Bible stories are told in various forms of animation. This also applies to the Bentley Brothers' appearances, which are all live-action.
  • As Himself: Phil Vischer.
  • Audience Surrogate: Michael, literally. He's watching the show while on a car trip to his grandmum's house.
  • Bamboo Technology: Captain Pete managed to make a submarine out of wood. It eventually sprung a leak.
  • Berserk Button: Sunday School Lady really doesn't like The Da Vinci Code, as established in Episode Two.
  • Better than a Bare Bulb
  • Black Bead Eyes: Literally, since they're puppets.
  • Black Comedy: No, we are not kidding, they did make a death joke once.
    Phil: ...Buck?
    Ian: (Very flatly) He's dead.
    Phil: No, he's not dead. Puppets don't die.
  • Bowdlerized: Averted as much as it is possible to do while still keeping the stories kid-friendly. Lampshaded in Episode 1 with the fact that they have to keep Adam and Eve behind the bushes because they're initially unclothed.
  • Big Brother Instinct: Michael has early signs of this with his little brother, Pierre.
    (Referring to the fact that he's in a car seat). He can't move, but he's safe. And that's what matters.
  • Big "NO!": Everybody's reaction to finding out that the golden calf scenario in Exodus gets repeated in 1 Kings.
  • Christmas Episode: "Why Do We Call it Christmas?", which is separate from the rest of the series.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Real Life musical duo the Bentley Brothers, the only other live-action performers in the show, disappear with no acknowledgement after Volume Seven. The FAQ at the show's website explains that they could not appear in later volumes due to other commitments.
    • Discussed and averted by Captain Pete after his usual Church History segment was absent from Volume 3. Paranoid that he'd become one of those characters that "just disappears," he takes on a larger role as the leader of numerous songs from Volume 4 onward. (The segment itself actually disappeared mostly aside from bonus features, so this turned out for the better for him)
  • Clip Show: "1-Hour Bible for Kids!" and "Sing Through the Bible" are standalone DVD releases.
  • Cloudcuckoolander:
    • Michael too, as well as his little brother — though we only know this from what Michael tells us.
    • Initially Sunday School Lady counts as she often talks to "Magic Flannelgraph" directly, but this is dropped come Volume Three/Episode Five.
    • Buck Denver also counts.
  • Comically Missing the Point: So there you have it. The bible is wood, black oil, and cow.
    • Also, holy potatoes.
    • Almost all of Ian's contributions (unless he's asking a serious question) are this trope.
  • Deadpan Snarker: A lot of characters, but especially Sunday School Lady.
  • Demoted to Extra: By way of covering the entire Bible, some famous personalities one would expect to see covered at length in a Religious Edutainment show are mentioned only in passing, if at all. Lot and his family aren't brought up at all. The most obvious example of the trope is Samson, who is only brought up as the last of the twelve judges of Israel and gets about equal time with Deborah, the one female in that group. Cain and Abel's story is quickly breezed by as part of a larger discussion of original sin between the Adam and Eve and Noah stories in Episode Two, as is Jonah's later on, with the characters pointing out that pretty much everyone knows that story already (which could be an in-joke, given that the first VeggieTales movie retold it). Bear in mind this show gives two full episodes over to the Letters of Paul!
  • Depending on the Artist: Queen Jezebel's design noticeably changes from her first animated clip to her second one.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Lampshaded in the story of Moses. According to Sunday School Lady, Moses killing the Egyptians was "kinda [an] overreaction".
    • Also, when Phil ends the episode sooner than Ian wanted, Ian threatens to fly his biplane into Phil.
  • Double Standard: Sunday School Lady is extremely sensitive to these.
  • Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Sunday School Lady is the only thing she goes by.
  • Excited Episode Title!: Volumes Two and Seven through Thirteen, while on an episode-by-episode basis these start turning up a lot with Episode 17.
  • Eyeless Face: Sunday School Lady, Agnes and Captain Pete, though they follow the VeggieTales standard and make them funny instead of creepy.
    • Just barely averted by Michael, who's eyes are peeking out from under his hat.
  • Expy:
    • Agnes and Winnifred are basically female versions of Statler and Wardolf.
    • Chester Wiggit is one to Mr. Lunt, specifically as his persona of Paco, the Storytelling Mule, a gag he did in VeggieTales on TV and Lessons from the Sock Drawer and used popsicle stick puppets to tell stories (even using the Mr. Lunt voice).
  • A Form You Are Comfortable With: After a fashion — since God's true form is unknowable to humans, in the animated segments He is always depicted as a big, fluffy, white, luminous cloud labeled "God". Beyond the precedent of God sometimes appearing as a great cloud in the Bible, Sunday School Lady points out that depicting Him as that makes as much sense (if not more) than going with an old bearded guy.
  • Frothy Mugs of Water: Captain Pete was once shown with a foamy tankard of root beer.
    • Also, in the story of Esther, when Chester says that Xerxes and his men have been drinking a lot at their party, he says that they're drinking coffee.
  • Fun with Acronyms: Or rather, acrostic poems.
    Ian: CLIVE! Cleans Little Iguanas Very Efficiently!
  • Genius Ditz: Ian is definitely not very bright, but he has a knack for coming up with very good questions, setting up the "Tricky Bits" segments among others.
  • God Is Good: The central point of the Bible as established in this series. All humans, due to Adam and Eve's choice to disobey God and allow sin into the world, have been cut off from living with God and must not only suffer the consequences of sin (famine, war, disease, etc.) but can never live the completely blameless lives needed to prove themselves worthy of Him. The good news is that He loves His creations so much He wants them to be with Him anyway. So He put a "rescue plan" into play, offering everyone salvation through Christ.
  • Grand Finale: "The Revelation of John", appropriately enough.
  • Herr Doktor: Hallo, theese is Dochktor Schiffenhousen.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: Agnes and Winnifred.
    • And, despite their differences, Clive and Ian.
  • He Who Must Not Be Seen: Michael's little brother, Pierre, simply because he's strapped too firmly in his car seat to move and the camera won't pan over far enough to make him visible.
    • Chester Wiggit. We hear his voice, but we only see the popsicle stick puppets that he controls.
  • Hypocritical Humor: Michael thinks that he should be King of the Minivan since he is a down-to-earth man with a mind firmly set on reality..."Mother, can we take a thousand-mile detour to Dinosaur Villiage? I've always wanted to ride a real T. rex!"
  • Insistent Terminology: It's What's in the Bible? With Buck Denver!
  • Let's Duet: In Episode Eight, the telling of the Book of Ruth via "Popsicle Stick Theater" culminates in this trope for Boaz and Ruth until the others argue that this story isn't The Musical and the song is cut off.
  • List Song: Quite a few, such as Sunday School Lady ranting about the false gods humanity worships in The Present Day in Episode Four and the Bentley Brothers running down the twelve judges of Israel in Episode Eight.
  • Little "No": In "Finally, the Promised Land", which covers the Book of Joshua, Ian asks why God was okay with the Israelites slaying their enemies and taking their land when such behavior conflicts with the Ten Commandments, which prohibit stealing and killing. Cue the "Tricky Bits with Buck Denver" title card and a cut to Buck, who simply says "Um...no." Cue the "Tricky Bits with Phil" title card, and he delivers an explanationnote .
  • Medium Blending: Sometimes done with animated and live-action puppet characters; Pirate Pete is a puppet but Reginald the parrot is animated, for instance.
  • Mr. Imagination: Michael and, to a lesser extent, Ian.
  • Muppet: All of the characters except for Phil and the Bentley Brothers, the latter of whom disappear after Volume Seven.
  • Must Have Caffeine: Buck, during Episodes 13 and 14. It eventually caused him to be required by law to not drink caffeinated beverages!
  • Never Mess with Granny: After Sunday School Lady's rant about The Da Vinci Code, the others are slightly taken aback by her fury. She warns them "Never mess with a Sunday school teacher."
  • Never Say "Die": Completely, totally, and utterly averted. Saying "He died" or "He killed that other guy" is said almost perfectly casually if it's not an important Bible character.
  • Obviously Evil: All the animated characters' physical appearances clearly reflect their morallity, but the most noteworthy case would have to be Queen Jezebel, who looks like an Expy of Cruella DeVil from 101 Dalmatians (as does her daughter Ahaliah).
  • Parental Bonus: Where do we begin?
  • Pirate Parrot: Captain Pete owns one named Reginald.
  • The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Buck is supposed to be a "man of news", but he doesn't really seem to do any actual news reporting.
  • Religious Edutainment
  • Rule of Three: At the top of Episode 15, Phil reads the opening lines of Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" to introduce the discussion of the Writings of the Bible. Clive goes on to quote Wordsworth ("I wandered lonely as a cloud...")...and Ian follows that up with the opening of Dr. Seuss's One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. Doubles as a Shout-Out three times over.
  • Self-Deprecation: In Volume 5, Captain Pete claims he we went to Bible College, but got kicked out for both being a pirate and failing Chapel. Buck Denver asks how anyone could fail Chapel. Cut to Phil Vischer looking around, who did in fact fail Chapelnote 
  • Shown Their Work: AND HOW. Seriously, this show is more informed and accurate about the Bible than most adult Bible studies. And it's not just the lessons, it's everything, be it religious, historical, ethical, technical, cultural, or even scientific.
  • Show Within a Show: What's In the Bible?, actually, since it's being watched by three other characters in-universe.
  • Simpleton Voice: Ian, the Genius Ditz of the cast.
  • The Smurfette Principle: Until Marcie came along, Sunday School Lady was the only onscreen female character in the Show Within a Show. Granted, one male performer provides everybody's voices.
  • Snakes Are Sinister: Besides the serpent of the Garden of Eden, Satan is depicted as a green snake in the animated segments. In Episode 15, which discusses the Book of Job and is the first episode Satan appears in, there is a discussion about Satan's role between the two testaments — in the Old Testament, Satan isn't mentioned until Job, and his name happens to be the Hebrew word for "accuser" (to God in this case). It isn't until the New Testament that he's God's Arch-Enemy and the true identity of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and Bible experts disagree as to whether all mentions of Satan and the serpent in the book refer to one being. Sunday School Lady then explains that they're going to depict him as a snake anyway — "we don't have any better ideas."
  • Spiritual Successor: To VeggieTales.
  • Stuffy Brit: Agnes and Winnifred.
  • Very Special Episode: Episode Twenty, "The Messiah Has Come!", plays out this way. Rather than have the puppet characters recount the story of Christ (which they're all jockeying to do by themselves), Phil handles it, and there's substantially less comedy and music than in the other episodes. Everyone is in a somber mood come the Crucifixion and Phil's explanation of Christ's sacrifice for humanity leading into a rare non-original song, the hymn "Were You There", performed by Pastor Louie's choir. The episode still has an upbeat ending via the recounting of the Resurrection. This is also one of the longest episodes of the series, clocking in at well over 30 minutes.
  • Waving Signs Around: Frequently turns up in the animated segments. Job has one that says "I [Heart] God", and both real and false prophets carry them in Volume 9.
  • Wraparound Background: Lampshaded by Michael in his minivan at the beginning of Volume 12.
    Michael: The funny thing is, no matter how far we drive, it feels like we're passing the same trees. Birch, birch, pine, pine, oak, oak, like watching Fred Flintstone run through his living room past the same things over and over again. Chair, lamp, picture, chair, lamp, picture, chair, lamp, picture, like an infinite loop of living room! On and on it spirals, deeper and deeper into the abyss!! [...] Don't stare at the trees, Pierre. They'll drive you mad.

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