Further to Jesus jokes (and sequel), here’s a Dud n’ Pete sketch from 1971:

Dud and Pete had already attempted to air the theme in 1964 with The Dead Sea tapes, never broadcast for fears of infringing blasphemy laws. Less stimulating for a modern audience used to such irreverence, the filmed sketch perhaps needs to be regarded with historical ears and eyes. Not quite as polished as one might wish, it could do with some pruning, but the concept is stimulating—

“me and the lads were abiding in the fields…”, “getting a bit muddled up with his Ye’s”, “the worst bit of swaddling and wrapping I’ve ever seen in my life”, the perplexing gifts of the Three Wise Men, Jesus’s landlady, and (as immigration was becoming a hot topic) an early debunking of Jerusalem.

Such tropes were later immortalised in The life of Brian—a kind of, um, Bible for independent thinking, vignettes from which I’ve managed to cite in posts on Confucius, Krishnamurti, Alevi and Daoist ritual, Bach, and Cultural Revolution jokes.

Dud and Pete’s fantasy was part of the post-war satirising of conformist orthodoxy led by the Beyond the fringe team—Alan Bennett having a particular Anglican bone to chew (e.g. Sermon, Season’s greetings, and WWJD).