OVER THE YEARS, Scientology has dipped in and out of the American news cycle, depending on the behaviour of its celebrity members and the ferociousness of its powerful bands of lawyers.
But last week’s hard-hitting documentary, Going Clear, has given more outlets the courage to speak more frankly about the Church.
The Alex Gibey film made scathing allegations against the David Miscavige-led organisation, including accusations of torture, enforced hard labour and blackmailing.
A decision by US television station HBO to broadcast the documentary last week, and the subsequent reaction to it, inspired Saturday Night Live to take up the story this weekend.
Gibey’s film featured a very 1990s music video produced by the Church of Scientology (you can watch it here) which was exactly the fodder SNL’s writers needed.
The cast can be seen singing about brain machines, the immortality of its leader and signing billion-year contracts. It also features text added to the characters to explain their ‘future stories’ – some of which are plain hilarious, but in brutal SNL satire fashion, others carry the real allegations made in Going Clear.
Watch in full here:
The sketch was praised by Going Clear’s director Alex Gibey who said on Twitter:
“Let me just say what I should have said earlier, the SNL Scientology video is genius.”
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