History Theatre / TheBookOfMormon

** InUniverse, Elders Price and Cunningham conclude from their experiences that it's more important to have a religion that helps people improve their lives than to follow the dogma of an established church. This comes up with Nabulungi, who takes the AssPull-filled teachings of Cunningham literally, and ends up disappointed when she finds out he made it up. [[spoiler:The other Africans tell her that Cunningham was clearly making it up; the point, they gathered, was not to take what Cunningham said literally, but to apply it to their own lives.]][[invoked]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: InUniverse, we have "Joseph Smith: American Moses," the Ugandans' version of the Joseph Smith story, based on Elder Cunningham's inaccurate teachings. It's so wildly off of the actual teachings that the Mission President decomissions the whole area in disgust.

'''[[EvilLawyerJoke Johnnie Cochran]]:''' I got O.J. freed.

* EskimosArentReal: Towards the end of the play, one of Nabulungi's fellow converts tells her that Salt Lake City doesn't actually exist ("It's a ''metaphor''!"), while another tells her that believing a man ''literally'' fucked a frog is "fucking stupid."

-->'''Hilter:''' I started a war and killed millions of Jews!\\

* FlamingDevil: Elder [=McKinley=] appears as one in "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream." See Ambiguously Gay section above.

* MaybeEverAfter: Cunningham and Nabulungi have romantic subtext throughout the show, but they never get a clear RelationshipUpgrade, so it's left possible that they might get together in the future. It's even arguable that Price and [=McKinley=] might fall under this trope given the tension in the interactions between them (see Ambiguously Gay section above); there's also the point that, in most productions, when Price delivers his "even if we break the rules" line at the end, he usually grins and looks right at [=McKinley=] with his pink suitcase—who grins right back.

* {{Reconstruction}}: The musical ultimately becomes this about religion as a whole. Elder Price, in particular, gives a WorldOfCardboardSpeech at the end to the effect of "maybe religious material is just allegory and not literally true, but it can still be used to help people."

** "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" is a bombastic production number that depicts infernal torment no more than semi-seriously, including [[OminousLatinChanting fake-Latin chanting]], [[RockMeAsmodeus a Satanic guitar solo]], gay subtext between Price and [=McKinley=] (see Ambiguously Gay section above), [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment coffee torture]], and a LastChorusSlowDown.

* AffectionateParody: Of musical theatre. And possibly religion as a whole.

** In the play, the Mormon elders find out where they're going on their missions when they get to the Missionary Training Center. In real life, missionaries find out where they're going via mail long before they show up at the Center. They also don't spend their entire two years with the same companion; they're usually at least one of a hundred or so missionaries operating within a mission district's boundaries. In addition, while mission districts vary in size, a district would almost ''certainly'' be larger than just one village in Africa.

* {{Beat}}: In the reprise of "Hello!", [[spoiler:the General introduces himself,"Hello, my name is Elder Butt-Fucking Naked"...]] There's a two-beat pause in the music before continuing.

* TheComicallySerious: "I Believe" is made even funnier by the bafflement of General Butt-Fucking Naked and his henchmen. Elder Price just ''walks in'' to their headquarters, singing totally sincerely about his Mormon faith. The humor comes from the general and his soldiers being hopelessly confused by what Elder Price is doing, since they can't believe that someone would be so audacious to just walk into their base.

** Played with twice. Most noticeably in "Hasa Diga Eebowai," where the true meaning of the phrase subverts the normal optimism of the trope, which is not surprising considering that the English translation of the phrase is "[[spoiler:[[ClusterFBomb Fuck you, God]]]]." The TropeNamer is even referenced with "Does it mean no worries for the rest of our days?" The trope is then deconstructed with "Turn It Off" where the missionaries sing about forgetting their problems, but instead of this being a sign of how care-free they are, it hints at StepfordSmiler tendencies as the Elders suppress their emotions through tap-dance, including a sister succumbing to cancer, an abusive father, and one with gay thoughts.

* ItsAllAboutMe: Elder Price has a problem with this, best seen in "You and Me (But Mostly Me)."

* {{Applicability}}:

* {{Applicability}}: WordOfGod is that they don't want to insist that one particular lesson should be learned from the show, and prefer to leave it open for people to interpret any way they'd like. Even Matt Stone's own philosophy of "religion is a tool, not a rulebook" is presented rather ambiguously. InUniverse, however, Elders Price and Cunningham conclude from their experiences that it's more important to have a religion that helps people improve their lives than to follow the dogma of an established church.

* AssPull: Elder Cunningham does this repeatedly InUniverse, though not without good reason. When he can't find specific passages condemning things like genital mutilation and baby rape, Elder Cunningham just pulls from pop culture references to convince people not to do those things instead. [[spoiler:When the Africans perform a stage play of the events of the Book of Mormon as described by Elder Cunningham to the Mission President -- a version that features Joseph Smith [[BestialityIsDepraved having sex with frogs]], battling dysentery, and encountering Ewoks -- he decommissions District 9.]][[invoked]]

->''"Hello! My name is Elder Price \\

* TheComicallySerious: "I Believe" is made even funnier by the ''utter bafflement'' of General Butt-Fucking Naked and his henchmen. Elder Price just ''walks in'' to their headquarters, singing totally sincerely about his Mormon faith. The humor comes from the general and his soldiers being hopelessly confused by what Elder Price is doing.

* DeconReconSwitch: Spends the first half completely mocking and poking fun at religion, especially Mormons. However, it re-affirms and embraces the core of religion in the second half (that it was meant to help people and bring them together).

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: Toward the climax of the story, Elder Price and Elder Cunningham are angry at each other -- Cunningham because Price abandoned him earlier and is angrily going through a CrisisOfFaith, and Price who's having a CrisisOfFaith over Cunningham's success. Because the mission president is coming soon to check their progress, Cunninham says it's in their best interest to pretend they're getting along.

* ArcWords: Elder Price wants to do "something incredible".

--> '''Elder Price:''' Jesus, I'm sorry!
--> '''Minions of Hell:''' Jesus hates you, this we know! For Jesus just told you so!

* AccidentalMisnaming: Elder Cunningham is simply incapable of remembering Nabulungi's name. He addresses her by a different name each time he greets her, some of which include Neutrogena (a brand of hair and skin products), Neosporin (an antibiotic cream), Necrophilia, and [[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 Nala]]. Some productions ad-lib other references—such as Music/NickiMinaj, Netflix-and-Chill, Nabisco, and Nesquik—and another uses Creator/JohnTravolta's "Adele Dazeem" flub.
** The West End production has become increasingly fond of using political references (‘Nigel Farage’ and ‘No-Deal Brexit’, for example).

* AmbiguouslyGay: [=McKinley=] is the only canonically gay Elder, but all of them (particularly the combinations of Price-Cunningham and Price-[=McKinley=]) have various levels of HoYay and seem to be pretty enthusiastic when singing about repressing gay thoughts in "Turn It Off." It's played for laughs when Price insists he never had any gay thoughts to turn off, which is promptly mistaken by the other Elders that the turning-off worked. [=McKinley=] shows up as one of the demons during Price's "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" number, and Price, depending on the cast, either recognizes and reaches for him (only to be thwarted because dancing whirls [=McKinley=]-demon away) or, in one memorable West End instance, starts making out with him. Earlier in the show, some versions of [=McKinley=] attempt to kiss a blood-splattered Price in the moment he grabs [=McKinley=]'s forearms (or in some productions, his ''face'') and says he needs to speak to the Mission President.

* Franchise/DisneyPrincess: WordOfGod says Nabulungi is a parody of these.

* DrunkOnMilk: Elder Price acts as if under the influence of alcohol after DrowningHisSorrows in... coffee?[[note]][[DontExplainTheJoke The joke is that Mormons treat caffeine as being as bad as alcohol.]][[/note]]

* IJustWantToHaveFriends: Cunningham's main wish throughout Act I, making him the [[TheWoobie woobie]] that he is every time he casually mentions nobody likes him, or his gratitude for Elder Price (who couldn't care less about him, and [[spoiler:[[BreakTheCutie finally tells him so]]]] at the end of Act I).

** "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" is a bombastic production number that depicts infernal torment no more than semi-seriously, including [[OminousLatinChanting fake-Latin chanting]], [[RockMeAsmodeus a Satanic guitar solo]], potential HoYay (see Ambiguously Gay section above), [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment Starbucks coffee torture]], and a LastChorusSlowDown.

** Played straight when Elder Price is about to be [[spoiler:attacked by General Butt-Fucking Naked, there is some humor in it, but the scene and music is overall suspenseful]]--then whiplash to a lighthearted, playful tune as the scene shifts to Elder Cunningham. [[spoiler:Plus the next time we see Price, in the middle of the "I am Africa" number, we discover that the General shoved his copy of the Book of Mormon up his ass. In the words of the doctor, "[[IronicEcho Something incredible!]] [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments It blows my fucking mind!]]"]]

* OneThingLedToAnother: Elder [=McKinley=] in "Turn it Off" has the line, "One thing led to another, and soon I would discover [[HoYay I was having very strange feelings for Steve]]."

** At the end of the show, [[HumiliationConga after]] [[BreakTheHaughty constant]] [[TraumaCongaLine problems]] during his mission, Elder Price drops his GoshDangItToHeck and delivers a nice big "You know what, guys? ''Fuck. Him.''" [[spoiler:In this case, "him" refers to the Mission President, who has just declared District 9 disbanded in failure and disgrace thanks to Elder Cunningham's [[AssPull modifications to the Mormon mythology]] leading to the Ugandans hosting an embarrassing cavalcade of clit-faced, frog-fucking, diarrhea-afflicted retellings of the Mormon origin story.]]

** "Tomorrow is a Latter Day" [[SuspiciouslySimilarSong resembles]] "You Can't Stop the Beat" from the Broadway version of ''Film/{{Hairspray}}''. This may or may not be intentional.

* SmugSnake: Elder Price has shades of this at first.

* TitleDrop: In "Hello."

* [[VoiceOfTheLegion Voice of the Devil]]: '''[[spoiler:KEVIN PRIIIIIIIIIIIICE! You broke the rules, Elder. Your soul belongs to ME now! YOU NOW DWELL IN ETERNAL FLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAME!]]'''
--> '''Kevin Price:'''Mickey?'''

Created by the same people who made ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', so you shouldn't be surprised to find a ''lot'' of BlackComedy. Nor should you be surprised that the message of the play is basically the same as in the ''South Park'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS7E12AllAboutMormons All About Mormons]]": the Book of Mormon itself might be completely bogus, but the important thing is that the Mormon teachings inspires people to better themselves.

--->'''Ugandans:''' If you don't like what we say, try living here a couple days! Watch all your friends and family die! ''Hasa diga Eebowai!''

* BadDreams: "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream." Apparently it's nothing to be concerned about, and Elder [=McKinley=] wonders if he was in it.

* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: The show's orchestra does this when we are shown just how bleak and depressing life in the African village is.

* {{Adorkable}}: Elder Cunningham is a total dork who lags behind his peers, but is always bubbling with enthusiasm.

* HeterosexualLifePartners: Price and Cunningham by the end of the show. And it is {{Adorkable}}.

''The Book of Mormon'' is a [[TheMusical Broadway musical]] by Creator/TreyParkerAndMattStone (of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'') and Music/RobertLopez (of ''Theatre/AvenueQ'' and later ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'' [[note]] Which also features ''The Book of Mormon'' co-star Creator/JoshGad [[/note]]).

* AccidentalMisnaming: Elder Cunningham is simply incapable of remembering Nabulungi's name. He addresses her by a different name each time he greets her, some of which include Neutrogena (a brand of hair and skin products), Neosporin (an antibiotic cream), Necrophilia, and [[Disney/TheLionKing Nala]]. Some productions ad-lib other references—such as Music/NickiMinaj, Netflix-and-Chill, Nabisco, and Nesquik—and another uses Creator/JohnTravolta's "Adele Dazeem" flub.

** "Hasa Diga Eebowai" parodies "[[Disney/TheLionKing Hakuna Matata]]." Elder Cunningham even asks the Ugandans, "Does it mean no worries for the rest of our days?"

** Elders Price and Cunningham are assigned to Ugandan Film/District9.

* EvolvingMusic: The song "Man Up" contains the line "We will listen to the fat white guy", referring to Elder Cunningham, who was originally played by an actor of that description. It gets changed to "We will listen to the ''weird'' white guy" in productions where the actor playing Cunningham is thinner. Also, in "I Believe", after Thomas Monson, the president of the LDS Church when the show premiered, passed away, the lyric was changed to his successor, "Russell Nelson". Good thing he has the same number of syllables as his predecessor.

* ArtisticLicenseReligion:
** In the play, the Mormon elders find out where they're going on their missions when they get to the Missionary Training Center. In real life, missionaries find out where they're going via mail long before they show up at the Center. They also don't spend their entire two years with the same companion; they're usually at least one of a hundred or so missionaries operating within a Mission District's boundaries (which, while it may vary in size, is almost ''certainly'' larger than just one village).
** In real life, the opportunity to be assigned to a different companion/District within the Mission, known as a Transfer, comes up every six weeks. In the play, Elder Price requests a transfer after less than two days. (Though admittedly, he was in the middle of a nervous breakdown about how bad things were in Uganda.)
** Some liberties are taken with Mormon history and beliefs. The musical repeatedly makes fun of the idea that nobody but Joseph Smith ever saw the Golden Plates, which told the story of how ancient Jews came to America and became Amerindians. Actual Mormon doctrine claims that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Mormon_witnesses eleven other believers]] saw them, too. Also, contrary to "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" in the musical, Mormon doctrine holds that Hell is not a FireAndBrimstoneHell, but a metaphor for a personal state of sin-induced guilt and suffering that leads to eternal separation from God (and/or, to be specific, a terrifying place called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_world_(Latter_Day_Saints)#Outer_darkness Outer Darkness]]).

* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: The band does a live version of this when we are shown just how bleak and depressing life in the African village is.

* RealityEnsues: The Missionary Leader comes to visit the camp and sees the pageant "Joseph Smith, American Moses". It's so wildly inaccurate that he promptly disbands the district and excommunicates the elders for failing to do anything right in their mission.

** The Ugandans use the F-word constantly, particularly their first song, "Hasa Diga Eebowai," primarily because it's supposed to be Ugandan for "[[spoiler:Fuck you, God!]]"

** Elder Price delivers one to Elder Cunningham towards the end of Act I. It starts the biggest bits of character development for the both of them.

* MyGreatestFailure: PlayedForLaughs in "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream" — Elder Price's is [[spoiler:stealing a maple-glazed donut from his parents and blaming it on his brother, Jack, when Elder Price was five years old.]]

** Elder Price delivers one to Elder Cunningham towards the end of Act I. It starts the biggest bits character development for the both of them.