History Main / BiggerThanJesus

* An index at Wiki/{{Uncyclopedia}} is titled [[http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Things_Bigger_Than_Jesus,_But_Smaller_Than_The_Beatles "Things Bigger Than Jesus, but Smaller Than the Beatles."]]

* One ''WesternAnimation/AlvinAndTheChipmunks'' cartoon formatted as a documentary on the rise and popularity of the group shows one segment where Alvin shocks everyone at a press conference, including Simon and Theodore, by shouting, "We're bigger than MickeyMouse!" People start destroying their Chipmunks merchandise as Alvin is forced to make an apology to the press soon after.

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'': [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-3933 SCP-3933]] was a famous band called "Tyrannosaurus Flex," whose lead singer is claimed to have said "if The Beatles were bigger than Jesus, we're bigger than God." No one remembers them because, as if by divine retribution, hearing a particular song of theirs causes one to completely forget that the band and its members ever existed.

'''Bart:''' What did you do? Screw up like The Beatles and say you were [[TitleDrop bigger than Jesus]]?\\

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]", Homer's titular band with a history that very much resembles that of Music/TheBeatles is alleged to have frequently [[BlasphemousBoast boasted]] to be "bigger than Jesus" and even titled their second album as such, with a cover that shows the band [[WalkOnWater Walking On Water]] in the AbbeyRoadCrossing pose (see the quote and image above).

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]", Homer's titular band with a history that very much resembles that of Music/TheBeatles is alleged to have frequently [[BlasphemousBoast boasted]] to be "bigger than Jesus" and even titled their second album as such, with a cover that shows the band [[WalkOnWater Walking On Water]] in the AbbeyRoadCrossing pose (see the page image above).

'''Bart:''' What did you do? Screw up like The Beatles and say you were bigger than Jesus?\\

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E1HomersBarbershopQuartet Homer's Barbershop Quartet]]", Homer's titular band with a history that very much resembles that of Music/TheBeatles is alleged to have frequently [[BlasphemousBoast boasted]] to be "bigger than Jesus" and even titled their sophomore album as such with a cover that shows the band [[WalkOnWater Walking On Water]] in the AbbeyRoadCrossing pose.

* In the trope defining incident with Music/TheBeatles, Music/JohnLennon's original comment in a March 1966 ''Evening Standard'' interview with Maureen Cleave was that the band were "more popular than Jesus". This has been widely [[{{Retcon}} retconned]] by many people to have been part of a general lament that the Beatles were more popular than traditional religion, but in context, it reads a bit differently:

** The initial quote went without controversy when it was first published in British and European press. At the time, church attendance in Britain was down, and the clergy in all denominations had difficulty reaching out to younger generations. This decline in popularity of Christianity was a common conversation topic among British intellectuals, and most readers there understood that this was part of the actual context behind the quote. The interview actually reached America shortly afterwards and didn't attract much attention at all at first, despite several highly-read publications printing it. Then the pop music magazine ''Datebook'' reprinted it and sent copies of the issue to radio stations in the [[DeepSouth Bible Belt]], where Christians interpreted "more popular than" to mean "better than". This led to public protests, [[BookBurning burning rallies]], disc jockeys smashing Beatles records on air, and even the KKK getting in on the scene, until Lennon spoke at press conferences and apologized. However, the BeamMeUpScotty effect works both ways: Lennon never claimed in the original that the Beatles were better than Jesus, but neither did he argue that it was a ''pity'' that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The closest he came to saying that was at a press conference in August 1966, where he commented "But I never meant it as a lousy or anti-religious thing, or anything." It was [=McCartney=], at the same conference, who did the original piece of retconning:

Its origins lie in Music/JohnLennon's famous controversial remarks to the press that Music/TheBeatles are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus "more popular than Jesus"]] but have since come to be remembered [[BeamMeUpScotty a little differently]].

** The initial quote went without controversy when it was first published in British and European press. At the time, church attendance in Britain was down, and the clergy in all denominations had difficulty reaching out to younger generations. This decline in popularity of Christianity was a common conversation topic among British intellectuals, and most readers there understood that this was part of the actual context behind the quote. However, when the quote reached America, it sparked an uproar among Christian communities who took "more popular than" to mean "better than". This led to public protests, [[BookBurning burning rallies]], disc jockeys smashing Beatles records on air, and even the KKK getting in on the scene, until Lennon spoke at press conferences and apologized. However, the BeamMeUpScotty effect works both ways: Lennon never claimed in the original that the Beatles were better than Jesus, but neither did he argue that it was a ''pity'' that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The closest he came to saying that was at a press conference in August 1966, where he commented "But I never meant it as a lousy or anti-religious thing, or anything." It was [=McCartney=], at the same conference, who did the original piece of retconning:

Bigger Than Jesus is a staple for any story about a band that closely mirrors that of Music/TheBeatles but can be typically found in any story about characters gaining sudden celebrity status. Use of the phrase, or a variant thereof, is typically something that is conveyed to be met with shock by the public at large and lead to widespread protests and rallies to [[BookBurning destroy the characters' merchandise]] followed by whoever originally [[InvokedTrope invoked]] the phrase explaining that he meant something completely different, just like what happened with Music/TheBeatles but PlayedForLaughs.

Its origins, of course, lie in Music/JohnLennon's famous controversial remarks to the press that Music/TheBeatles are [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_popular_than_Jesus "more popular than Jesus"]] but have since come to be remembered [[BeamMeUpScotty a little differently]].