Beam Me Up, Jesus: A Heathen's Guide to the Rapture

What passes for comedy these days (Will Ferrel vehicles, MTV Prank shows) makes an intelligent comedy lover cringe. Well, cringe no more. Jim Gerard's "Beam Me Up, Jesus" is the real thing. Gerard has an uncanny knack for finding exactly the right set-up for his seemingly neverending supply of punch lines. This book is a wonderful skewering of the evangelical right. I can't think of any single group of people who are simultaneously so self-righteous and so dangerous - and therefore deserving of such rich ridicule. Jim Gerard has obviously read and been influenced by great humor writers like James Thurber, Woody Allen, and S.J. Perelman. But he is for our times. For all times. And with this book, for the end times as well. I hope this is just the tip of the iceberg for Gerard. Something tells me there's plenty more where this came from.

I just read Beam Me Up in page proofs and I was bowled over. It's a laugh-out-loud Up-Yours! aimed straight at the black heart of the Christian Taliban and all those men and women of faith for whom the "King of Peace" is a semiauto-wielding psychopath and who get their cookies off envisioning of everyone who doesn't agree with them suffering eternal torment. BMUJ proves that humor is the best medicine, especially when the disease is pig-ignorance and a misanthropy so profound that it would gladly see the world go up in flames just for a chance to say "I told you so." I don't know who this Gerard guy is, but if he's got more where Beam Me Up came from I'd say he's got a brilliant future ahead of him.

"Beam Me Up, Jesus" reminds me of Woody Allen's writing: Clever, caustic, informed and insightful. It's been a while since I laughed out loud reading a book in public...

Truly tears-in-your-eyes funny -- hip and smart. A little bit Bill Maher, a little bit Sarah Silverman, but still original and fresh. If Bill O'Reilly sees this, he'll forget all about Rosie and have material for the next 25 "Factors".

If you're one who believes that religion, regardless of its intentions, is largely man made claptrap then this book is for you. The author serves up an absolutely hilarious dismemberment of the whole second coming, end of times, rapture mythology that is metastasizing through large parts of American culture. If you're a 'believer' on the other hand you will probably not be amused.