rant · moment 15 of 18
Book of Mormon, Cancel Culture, and Diversity in Art
from #257 - Bomb Energy | The Tim Dillon Show · #257
7 min
Tim discusses his distant cousin's connection to Book of Mormon composer Robert Lopez, then debates whether the musical's satire of Mormons and depiction of Africans needs to be 'adapted,' leading into a broader rant about diversity, representation, and not letting 'the perfect become the enemy of the good' in art.
- Tim's second cousin Robert Lopez co-created Book of Mormon and wrote music for Frozen and Avenue Q.
- Book of Mormon's depiction of Africans has faced scrutiny since Black Lives Matter protests renewed discussion of Broadway racism.
- The musical is a satire of Mormons and their absurd beliefs, not of African people.
- Fear that audiences might take the satire literally and agree with the offensive characterization rather than seeing the absurdity.
- Book of Mormon was one of the most successful Broadway shows ever and nobody was upset about it at the time.
- Trey Parker and Matt Stone are among the most brilliant satirists and social commentators, yet people want to change their work.
- In the Heights faced criticism over colorism and the lack of Afro-Latino representation.
- Tim's principle: don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good when it comes to representation based on talent.
- Art can't function when every element must check every box; loss of art happens when things become too rigid.
- The goal should be including talented people because they enrich the work, not for box-checking purposes.
- Taken to its logical extreme, diversity demands mean the only truly marginalized people are the dead, making everyone else complicit in privilege.
- If the standard requires accounting for every possible marginalized identity—ableism, neurodiversity, sexual orientation—the list becomes endless and absurd.
- This endless expansion of what makes someone privileged seems a little ridiculous.
Book of MormonMatt StoneTrey Parkerrepresentation in theaterRobert LopezSaturday Night LiveJosh GadJoseph SmithLin-Manuel Miranda