Web Animation / TektonTV

TektonTV is the YouTube channel of Tekton Apologetics, a Christian apologetics ministry run by James Patrick (J.P.) Holding.

Unlike many other apologetics channels on YouTube, Tekton uses animated skits to get his point across. Holding's cartoons often contain gags and skits to accompany the information. The videos mostly respond to atheist claims about the Bible and Christianity, although sometimes veer into the territory of answering other Christians. Most of them are meant to accompany articles on the tektonics.org website.

Sometimes Holding has directly responded to people in his videos (including atheists like NonStampCollector and DarkMatter2525, but also fundamentalists like The FUEL Project).

In July 2022, with the posting of his 1,000th video, Holding brought the series to a close, believing he had accomplished all he needed with it. He continues to update the channel with podcast interviews and other similar content.

TektonTV Provides Examples Of:

• Affectionate Parody: "Miss Dusters", "Mystery Theology Theater 3000" and many others.
• Animate Inanimate Object: In "Who Authored Hebrews?" the letter is a sapient scroll with a face and limbs.
• Author Tract: In favor of Christianity, critical of atheism, Mormonism, and certain strains of fundamentalism.
• Badass Bookworm: Annabelle Martser, and Holding himself. Since the channel often depicts theological debates as physical fights, being bookworms is exactly what makes them badass.
• Bears Are Bad News: Subverted in "Elisha and the Two Bears". Holding points out not only that the original text doesn't mention anyone dying, but also that the bears native to the region were rather small.
• Cartoon Creature: What is the animal Holding uses as his Author Avatar, anyways? ^note It's an Allethene, created for Holding's web comic The Annals of Hearthstone.
• The Comically Serious: Warner Walrusson, who reacts to his guests' absurd rants with polite bemusement.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The channel's first video, "The Mithra Buster", is mostly live-action. Holding appears in the flesh, not as his cartoon avatar.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Most of the housekeeping series. Has led to exchanges such as this:
  Commenter: Why do you moderate comments?
  Holding: See my housekeeping vid, "Why are Comments Moderated at TektonTV?"
• Fire and Brimstone Hell: Discussed and Defied in "Hell No! Shame on You!". Holding finds this view of hell to be cartoonish, and argues for a Self-Inflicted Hell of shame (based on Daniel 12:2).
• The Horseshoe Effect: Not a political version but a religious one. Holding refers to antitheists as "fundie atheists", arguing that the way they read the Bible is the same as fundamentalists, just coming to opposite conclusions.
• Leitmotif: Any time "Dvořák Polka" strikes up, you can bet someone will be saying something Holding regards as moronic.
• Machine Worship: In "Refuting Remsberg's List", a tribe of fundie atheists are worshiping a supercomputer called the Historicon. Later it turns out the computer is actually 19th-century skeptic John Remsburg hiding behind a curtain.
• Palette Swap: Holding's and Mrs H's avatars are re-coloured versions of Brett and Annabelle Ketterling.
• Shout-Out:
  • In his videos on Hell, he adopts the persona of Hokey the Hare, an expy of Smokey the Bear.
  Only You Can Prevent Hellfires!
  • Paul's Angels, a reference to Charlie's Angels (all the way down to the intro sequences).
• Sophisticated as Hell: No profanity of course, but Holding mixes in some rather down-home insults with his discussions of hermeneutics.
  Raven: That's not what it says! Verse 15 says Paul talks about patience being salvation, not about the parousia being delayed.
  Tim: Yeah, read Romans 2:4, ya dipstick.
• Take That!:
  • Plenty directed towards DarkMatter2525. There's an entire playlist worth.
  • Some Christian Youtubers have received this treatment as well, such as SymphControversy.
  • Other atheist YouTubers get this treatment as well, most notably Aaron Ra and NonStampCollector.
• The Voiceless: Mrs H. never speaks aloud. She does have a line in "Dumb Question of the Month 6: Human Sacrifice in the Bible" but it's captioned.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: In a "Screwy Moments in Scriptural Interpretation" episode on the KJV Only Movement, King James himself plays the role of the Onlyist and talks like this.
  How darest thou blasphemeth the Holy King James Version? God shall smite thee, thou whitewashed wall!

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