According to the prophet Bill Maher, religion, as we know it, is detrimental to society. His tenants are as follows:

If you believe in religion you’re an idiot.
Believing in religion is akin to being mentally insane.
Religious people better smarten up or we’re all gonna die.

But, where’s the humour in all that?

Worry pas friend, this is just the message wrapped in between the funny honey, honey. For a film that runs 90 minutes, Maher, former ringmaster of the political late-night debate program, Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher, somehow manages to comedically castrate all the world’s major religions without actually delving too deep into anything worth mulling over once the screen fades to black. And, really, would you want to think about it anymore than that? He’s betting no, actually you do not.

Directed by Larry Charles (Seinfeld writing-alum and director of the Borat film), Religulous takes Maher into a world where he believes hypocrisy rules supreme and questioning types like himself have a right, nay, a duty, to expose evil-doers for the farces that they are; to lead them not into temptation but deliver them from blind faith, to cast them out of the kingdom of Judeo-Christian fear and to give them this day of daily dread, to be done on earth as it is in his perceived rational haven…  Can the man get an Amen!

First up, our agnostic guide takes us to the holy land; both in Israel and Orlando. Apparently Disney World ain’t the only show in town, because Christians get their thrills at The Holy Land Experience, a recreation of biblical times full of choreographed Andrew Lloyd Weber-inspired numbers and a daily re-enactment of the crucifixion of Christ. Maher even gets face time with the big guy himself, the actor playing Jesus Christ, who blows his mind by relating the Christian trifecta of the father, the spirit and the Holy Ghost to water, ice and steam. “Even though it’s shit, it rocked me for a minute,” Maher admits.

But, he doesn’t stop there. He’s off to Utah, where there is funny B-roll about Mormon protective underwear, then to New York to interview the non-Zionist Rabbi David Weiss and ex-Jew for Jesus follower Steve Berg who explains that he’s not afraid of the afterlife because he knows it’s better than his current life. “Why don’t you kill yourself then!” Maher whips back with school-yard-insult speed. Now we’re in the Netherlands, at the Amsterdam Cannabis Ministry where its founder is so engrossed with the holy toke his hair catches on fire. Next stop, London-town, where Maher takes on the famous Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park, masquerading as a Scientologist, espousing the virtues of E-Meters against those damn Alien implants.

And, around and around and around we go, his verbal volleys lasting 5 minutes or so with each subject, interspersed with quick cuts of 1960s Technicolor bible-drams like the 10 Commandments, televangelists speaking in tongues and politicians being dumb politicians. Religious talk, punch line, religious talk, punch line, one-two-three, cha-cha-cha. It’s religulous, but it’s entertaining. Ultimately for a comic, a set is a set is a set, and while the funny man is obviously dead serious about the subject, Religulous ends up honouring that old vaudevillian caveat: always leave them wanting more.