A show of faith

Danny Mcbride doesn’t care that his new religious comedy The Righteous Gemstones will offend, writes Michele Manelis

DANNY Mcbride knows his new comedy The Righteous Gemstones is going to put a few noses out of joint, but quite frankly – to hell with the haters.

The biting satire follows the big business of televangelism through the lens of the world-famous Gemstone family.

These one-percenters live in rarefied opulence replete with mansions, luxury cars, and private jets, at the expense of their congregation.

The Righteous Gemstones will no doubt polarise the Christian community, but the irreverent comedian says he’s not on a mission to enrapture the faithful.

“Well, we’ve never really made anything that’s been universally liked,” Mcbride says of his and his partner Jody Hill’s, work, which includes Eastbound and Down (2009-2013), and Vice Principals (2016-2017).

“We have a very strong voice and a sense of humour that’s very specific. I’m comfortable with creating something that might raise the hair on the back of some people’s neck.”

Though the premise is ripe for comedic exploitation, and although it invokes a healthy dose of scepticism, The Righteous Gemstones doesn’t view religion in a derogatory manner.

“I feel a lot of times Hollywood takes on religion with such disdain for people of faith, and that takes the fun out of it. I didn’t want to create comedy from what people believe in. That would be a cheap way to get laughs – to insult people’s faith, because everyone walks a different path.”

Emmy-winning TV and movie veteran John Goodman is perfectly cast as Eli Gemstone, the brash patriarch who conducts arenasized church services. He preaches the goodword with his two sons in tow, Jesse Gemstone (Mcbride), the troubled elder son next in line to take over the family empire, and Kelvin (Adam Devine), whose desperation for his father’s approval often clouds his judgment.

Mcbride, who has endeared himself to Australian audiences opposite Chris Hemsworth as Brian “Son Of Mick” Dundee in a Tourism Australia campaign last year, says the idea for the show came straight from his childhood.

“I grew up in the south and my parents were really involved in the Southern Baptist Church, and we attended services every week. Actually, my whole family is pretty religious, my aunt is a minister. So when I was back in Charleston, South Carolina, otherwise known as ‘the holy city’ – where there are no buildings taller than the church steeple, and there’s a church every mile – it got me thinking about it,” he says.

“I’ve lived in Lafor 20 years and I forgot that people even went to church. And so coming back to the south, I discovered this megachurch phenomenon and this idea of how big (popular) they’ve gotten.

“It seemed an interesting world in which to set a story.”

The Righteous Gemstones – Fox Showcase – Tuesday at 8.30pm