A Holy Guy Keeps His Worldly, Common Touch: Slink Johnson Is ‘Black Jesus’ on Adult Swim

Black Jesus Slink Johnson (center) with, from left, Corey Holcomb, Andrew Bachelor, Kali Hawk and Andra Fuller, Thursdays on Adult Swim.

Aaron McGruder moves his satire of contemporary African-American life from comic strips and animation to live actors with “Black Jesus,” his new series for Adult Swim, beginning Thursday night. It’s a looser, baggier, less pointed show than “The Boondocks,” his sometimes-brilliant cartoon that has occasionally popped up on Adult Swim over the last nine years. And it has a comfortable, which is to say familiar, feel, recalling comedies from “Chappelle’s Show” all the way back to “Sanford and Son.”

But as you’d expect from Mr. McGruder (working with the Canadian writer and director Mike Clattenburg of “Trailer Park Boys”), it’s pretty funny if you give it some time. Slink Johnson, an imposing actor with a suitably beatific expression, plays Black Jesus, who may be the son of God or may just be a big-talking con man with an unusual game. The show’s central joke is that these two options aren’t all that different.

Wearing brown robes and a permanent crown of thorns, Black Jesus walks the streets of Los Angeles with his Compton posse, a small, mostly useless band of apostles....

Not all, but most of the present line-up on the increasingly adolescent "Adult Swim" have recurring visitations representing The Son of the Living God. It's Open Season. The False Prophet of Medina, on the other hand, is never satirized, though radical Muslim terrorists and their cells are occasionally mocked. In fact, it's difficult to watch the Cartoon Network between 10 PM and 1:30 AM ET on any night, except perhaps Thursdays and Saturdays, and not find Christ showing up, represented even as a risen and transfigured "Mountain Squid" on the admittedly hilarious "Squidbillies." Seth McFarland and his "Family Guy" - which premiers in prime time first on Fox - has Jesus integral to horrific skits, in a new twist on the humanistic and presumptuous "Historic Jesus" nonsense, though perhaps a more honest portrayal than prattling academics force-feed college students of their fantastic and decidedly non-historic "Historic Jesus."

Then again, when rarely confronted, the creators of this 'entertainment for stoners' will usually admit to the brazen cowardice at the heart of this double and redoubled hypocrisy.

""And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come."
- Matthew 12-32

Remember about four years ago, there was a (very brief) campaign on facebook and twitter entitled.’Draw Mohamamed Day”. One of the promoters was this sweet, young American girl who blogged for a living. Overnight, she lost everything she had in this life but her life it’self. The radical Muslims rained hatred and threats onto her and anyone who would employ her. This gal had to leave town and change her name. Have not heard about her since.

Yes, I sure do remember that, and Salmon Rushde, for that matter, and Theo Van Gogh, etc. etc.

Christians, for the most part, appear to believe the God of Abraham does not need them to defend His reputation. The Moon Idol of Mecca, on the other hand, has such poor self-esteem he seems to require his believers to blow themselves up and work themselves up to a lather at a mere slight.

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