The Guy With The Cardboard Christ

“The Guy With The Cardboard Christ”
Written by Frederick Passmore
Copyright 2005 Sheep Laughs Publications

Synopsis: While relaxing in the park on a bench, a man is approached by a broadly-smiling fellow carrying a life-sized cardboard cutout of Jesus. A strange, but immensely amusing story emerges as he attempts to share his very personal (and very silent) Savior with his skeptical listener. A funny two-person skit, about 10-15 minutes in length, that puts shallow faith and cult teachings in a new light! (Also good for Easter!)

Soundtrack key: This is the type of script where your actors deliver their lines and the soundtrack supplies the background music and sound effects as the script calls for them.

Length of play: 10-15 minutes.
Number of cast: 2
Category: Comedic, Medium-Length Skit, Easter, Modern-day Parable
Price of script PDF & MP3 Skit Trax: Instant Download ONLY: $12.99 Add to Cart
Price of script PDF & Physical CD: (Since the Skit Trax consist of only opening and close music tracks, there is no physical CD for this script. The PDF and MP3 download above are all that is available.)

YOU MAY ALSO ORDER THE SCRIPT AND SOUNDTRACK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE.

NOTE: here is a page with some videos posted online by people performing this script, that might help inspire your own drama team!

Here are some suggested sources for ordering a life-sized cardboard standee of Christ: ChristianBook.com, my favorite: AllPosters.com and Amazon.com. Another source: JohnnyStone.com.

Note: Before you use the cardboard cutout, carefully cut it in half at the fold, and use duct tape on the back to re-connect the pieces. Then, your actors won’t have to struggle to tear the prop for real when performing; it can be easily pulled apart and put back together, even during rehearsals.

Synopsis: A sincere, but misguided fellow carries about with him a life-size cardboard cutout depicting Jesus, which he represents to others as his Savior. A parable about the way that some only trust in an image they have of the Lord, but don’t know Him personally as their Savior.

Characters: Jerry, the guy with the Cardboard Christ. Alan, the person he approaches to share it with. (The character of Alan may be changed to that of a female if needed or desired. But Jerry’s character has several gender-oriented jokes in the script so it needs to be a male, unless you change the lines to reflect the difference.)

Costumes: Casual clothes. Nothing special needed.

Props: A  life-size cardboard cutout with a picture of Jesus on the front. Of course, you can make a smaller-scale cutout, of three feet high, if you wish. It’s just a matter of drawing it on white foam-core board and cutting it out. (Details on where you can buy a life-size cutout of Jesus, as well as construction tips on making one yourself, can be found on this page and the script.) Pocket New Testament. Newspaper. Wallet with small photo.

Setting: A city park bench.

NOTE: The Cardboard Christ must be just that: a cutout, to make this skit work. You can’t just pretend the guy is holding something and mime it; it has to be VISIBLE and in hand to work, or the performance will make no sense. Doing this as a cheat is a bad idea, don’t ruin it by trying that. I say this from experience, I found a video posted online where someone had tried it this way, and it was nonsensical and horrendous.

(A general description of the script; not all details or scenes are here, but it gives you an overall picture of what it is like.)

Alan come onstage with a newspaper under his arm, and sits down on the bench to read it. After a moment, another fellow, Jerry, comes up carrying a folded-up live-size standee of Jesus, and sits down, placing the image between them with his arm around it. Alan is taken aback at the strange sight, and asks him what it’s for. Jerry explains that this is his personal Jesus, and introduces himself.  Even though Alan indicates he is there for peace and quiet, Jerry keeps talking and irritating him. Finally, realizing he won’t get any peace and quiet today, he folds the paper and looks at Jerry, questioning him about his corrugated savior for some amusement.

He asks about taking “Jesus” various places, and the trouble it causes him when trying to get a date, and listens with great amusement to the funny stories that result, particularly one where Jerry was arrested for stalking a girl to share his savior with her. Another story that has him cracking up is when Jerry sneaked into a family’s backyard pool party to witness, and the attacks he and his personal Jesus had to endure as a result. Alan is trying to contain his barely-suppressed laughter but having a hard time.

Preview a PDF page of the script that contains the scene above by clicking here: guy_with_the_cardboard_christ_sample_01

After listening to Jerry’s stories of persecution for this faith in the cardboard Christ, Alan tries to point out the wrongness of his beliefs, but Jerry, who thinks Alan has been sympathetic all this time, doesn’t grasp what he’s trying to imply. He asks Alan to accept his manufactured savior, but Alan refuses. Finally, after some analogies and efforts to make him see his error fail to get through, Alan tells him outright that he is misguided. Jerry gets insulted and informs Alan that his Jesus will send him to hell for not believing. Trying to get Jerry to give up his dependence on the fake Jesus, Alan grabs it and tries pulling it away from him. As Jerry and Alan pull in opposite directions, Jerry accusing him of trying to steal his savior, the cardboard Jesus sudden rips in half!

Jerry is horrified and aghast, as Alan regretfully holds his half. Sliding to the ground and sobbing as he cradles the upper half of his destroyed Jesus, Jerry mourns the loss as Alan tries to comfort him. Jerry is inconsolable and blames Alan for debunking his faith and taking away his happiness. Alan explains that it was for his own good, that his faith was in a fake Jesus, not the real one. Jerry is surprised to find out that Alan does believe Jesus is real; just not the Jesus he was carrying around, which was mere cardboard.

Preview a PDF page of the script that contains the scene above by clicking here: guy_with_the_cardboard_christ_sample_02

Alan compared Jerry’s love for his Jesus image to be like that of a movie fan for a Hollywood star, who they have never met, and who may be in reality very different from their public image or the characters they play on the screen. Resistant at first, and emotionally devastated as his faith was destroyed, Jerry slowly starts to listen to what Alan is saying, and admits that it makes sense. The similarity between the artificial Christ he admired and the various false Christs as promoted among the more well-known cults such as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses is highlighted (although the names are not given in the script, only inferred through the description of their beliefs).

As Jerry begins to express an interest in knowing the real Jesus, Alan suggests that they walk around the lake as they talk, and as they leave the stage, he begins the discussion that same way Jerry had, with an invitation to accept Jesus as his personal savior.

Read some of the testimonials about the script from just a few of the many users:

Fred,
The Baptist Bible Church in Parksley, VA will be doing your skit “The Guy With the Cardboard Christ” on 2/12.
We love the skit. It is so true how people do think of Jesus as an image. We want folks to have a personal relationship with the REAL Jesus. Thank you for allowing us to use this skit at our Valentines Day banquet. I hope the folks enjoy it and understand who the Real Jesus is. There will, no doubt, be unsaved folks at this banquet and we pray they will look at the reality of Jesus, not just the image.
-Thanks, Aimee Molter

Fred,
The Light and Life Free Methodist Church in Cornwall, UK did your script “The Guy with the Cardboard Christ” on Easter Sunday.
My friend and I changed the characters to women and performed to a PACKED congregation Sunday morning. They totally LOVED it, it had them rolling in the aisles! The children watched the performance too before they went off to children’s church and were enthralled by it also, which was amazing as we took around 20 mins or so to act it out. Overall comments were a brilliant mix of a strong message and humor, a lot of people said that with most Christian sketches you know where they’re going from the word go but had no idea where this one would end up; and some people found it very touching! Someone also gave their heart to the Lord at the service, so who knows how much of a part of that the sketch played!
You are an amazing sketch writer and we would love to use some more of the scripts over the coming months.
Many, many thanks!
-Kath Gibbons

Fred,
We will be doing “The Guy With The Cardboard Christ” Sunday, April 27th at the Marple Presbyterian Church in Broomall, PA.
I was very excited about finding this as I am in charge of the Contemporary Service this coming Sunday. This service is led by lay-people. We use a great deal of multi-media in this service. This skit is perfect! Thank you so much. I hope we can do it justice.
-Cindy Sue Barbezat
Marple Presbyterian Church
Broomall, PA

Okay, if you liked the story breakdown, and were encouraged by the testimonials of those that have done it, buy the complete script and soundtrack here! 

Get the script PDF (to print out) and audio tracks (to burn to your own CD) here.
Price of script PDF & MP3 Skit Trax: Instant Download ONLY: $12.99 Add to Cart

Price of script PDF & Physical CD: (Since the Skit Trax consist of only opening and close music tracks, there is no physical CD for this script. The PDF and MP3 download above are all that is available.)

Order through the mail with a check or money order by printing out this order form and mailing it to us. Click to open or download: order_form_new

Questions before ordering? Call me at 912-347-9579!