5 Comedians Who’ve Played God
After Jay and Silent Bob as foretold prophets — Smith didn’t hire a comedian for his Almighty, choosing Alanis Morissette instead “because I always thought God would be Canadian.” But other films and TV shows have tapped comic actors for their Gods, correctly imagining that He has an epic sense of humor.
Here are five comedians who’ve taken their turn at playing God…
Groucho Marx
What happens when a bunch of comedians in their 50s and 60s try to make a movie about 1960s counterculture? You get a mess like Skidoo, featuring Groucho as a mob boss (and maybe more?) named God. Groucho says his performance as God was “God-awful,” but he did prepare for the movie’s groovier scenes by experimenting with LSD alongside writer Paul Krassner. While under the influence, he chuckled, “I’m really getting quite a kick out of this notion of playing God like a dirty old man.”
George Burns
Decades after the height of his stardom with Gracie Allen, Mel Brooks.
Whoopi Goldberg
There must be something omnipotent about Goldberg since she’s been tabbed to play God twice: in 2002’s It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and 2011’s A Little Bit of Heaven. Then again, you probably haven’t heard of either one, so how omnipotent can she be?
Rodney Dangerfield
Like Groucho Marx, Dangerfield played God in his final film, Angels with Angles, according to Entertainment Weekly. Weirdly, Frank Gorshin played George Burns as God in the film as well, connecting the dots on our comic deity list. Rotten Tomatoes has the film at zero percent on the Tomatometer, with L.A. Weekly saying the comedy was closer to hell than heaven.
God gets no respect, I’m telling ya, no respect.
Bob Odenkirk
On an episode of Mr. Show, Odenkirk played God recording his life story. It was a spot-on impression of movie producer Robert Evans narrating his autobiography, The Kid Stays in the Picture.
“Here we go, book-on-tape recording, My Life in the Fast Lane, God’s autobiography as read by me, God,” Odenkirk begins. “All-seeing? Yeah. All-knowing? Yeah. But I’m not Mr. Know-It-All. Perfect in every way? Not by a long shot. Have I done some things that I'm proud of? Well, one thing: My son, Jesus. You’re tops, and you teach me new things every day. This is for you, kid.”
