Between Star-ving and The Hustler, Sony’s Crackle empire sure has gotten a taste for the profane. And that proud tradition has been continued with the release of A Priest, A Rabbi, and A Minister Walk Into a Bar, a vaguely blasphemous animated special launching just in time for Passover and Easter.
While the title references the classic short joke format, the short is a surprisingly long compilation of tales that mainly has to do with each representative of the respective faiths mocking each other and telling embarrassing stories. Religion isn’t a big concern for any of these guys. Instead, the priest is consumed by betting on the ponies and the rabbi struggles more with the monster in his pants than the Torah.
Thus, there’s not much conflict in their interactions, aside from some good-natured ribbing of the Priest about his chastity, but when Priest… is funny, it’s very funny, with cutaway gags like the trio trying to fight off a vampire really playing well. But some of the comedy does push a little too hard to appeal to a dude audience — you’ll be surprised how many references to penises the writers manage to fit in, and any feminists lacking a sense of humor should probably stay away.
The prevalence of 2-D animation these days means that it’s hard to avoid looking like a Matt Groening or Seth McFarlane rip-off, but the cartoon’s clean lines manage to maintain a unique look. And the voice cast is also top-notch. It’s a shame that the minister is the most underused of the characters, because Adam Carolla’s performance is probably the most entertaining — I’m not the biggest fan of his other work, but there’s something about his voice that translates nicely to the role of the slacker minister. And Larry Miller and Lenny Clarke, as the rabbi and priest respectively, are also well-suited to the game.
Whether Priest… could sustain as a multi-episode series is a moot point, as it’s currently only set as a one-time holiday special. But honestly, its relationship to actual issues of religion is so tangential that there’s no reason it wouldn’t play just as well any other time of the year. After all, the funniest jokes work no matter what the context.
