So you're watching a rerun of an old TV show you used to love as a kid, when suddenly the characters start saying "That reminds me of what the Bible tells us with [insert any Bible verse here]". Then you realize... it's been redubbed to preach the gospel.
This was a brief fad amongst some distributors: If you want to keep an old kids' show that's not doing well in syndication on the air for a longer time, just redub it with religious context/content and sell it to any religious broadcaster that's interested.
There exist alternate Islamic Arabic dubs of several Western cartoons and anime. The difference? There's no music, the theme song's a nasheed
(being sung a cappella), and most of the time, characters state religious things about Islam.
Sub-Trope of Religious Edutainment. Compare The Moral Substitute, in which a religious show plays Follow the Leader to a secular show. Also compare Translation with an Agenda, when a translator inserts their personal views into a work.
See also Same Language Dub.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Comic Books
- In the 1970s-80s, artist Al Hartley produced an officially licensed series of Archie Comics in which all the characters were born-again Christians. The storylines and art were generally the same as you would find in a regular issue, except with Archie and Betty praying, generously quoting the Bible, and preaching the gospel to all their friends. (Hartley was a staff artist for Archie Comics as well as being a born-again Christian, so the production design is actually up to the same professional standards as the main series.)
Literature
- The originally secular The Berenstain Bears series has been heavily marketed towards Christian families since the Turn of the Millennium, with newer books having very Christian themes. This wasn't to goose falling sales; the creatives simply noticed how popular the franchise was with that particular market due to its wholesome, Aesop-driven nature.
Live-Action TV
- When the Dutch Christian broadcasting company Evangelische Omroep aired David Attenborough's The Life of Mammals, they omitted any references to the evolution theory, and completely left out the episode dealing with apes and humans. Naturally, Attenborough was not amused.
- The mid-'90s Barney and Friends imitator The Reppies had its songs redubbed to discuss Christianity for the religious syndication market.
- Inverted. Gerbert was a Religious Edutainment show in its original run, but was then turned into a secular Edutainment Show for its second airing.
Music
- In 2010, Cee Lo Green covered the famous song "Imagine" by John Lennon, replacing the (admittedly very pro-atheist) lyrics "and no religion too" with "all religions true", resulting in an immediate backlash from fans who believed that he had disrespected Lennon's legacy by changing the lyrics of his most iconic song. But this wasn't the only one — some interpretations also change that line for "and one religion too", to better appeal to Christian listeners.
- In 2025, the Filipino cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle was the subject of some controversy when a performance of him from 2019 where he sung parts of "Imagine" circulated online, which was brought up by a right-wing fundamentalist "news" site in an effort to discredit him. Many of Tagle's supporters saw through the news site's bullshit and reasoned that Tagle was simply drawn to Lennon's appeal to peace while omitting the more questionable parts out of the cover.
- Catholic singer Kelley Mooney was asked by her priest to sing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" for Easter Mass, but decided to rewrite the lyrics to be about the Christian story after realizing that Cohen's original words did not fit the bill.note Interestingly, Cohen gave his approval to her new version, which became an online hit in Mooney's recording.
- Similarly, Christian Rock band Cloverton wrote their own replacement lyrics to tell the Christmas story to Cohen's melody with "A Hallelujah Christmas", which has managed to a get a decent bit of airplay on Christian radio around the holidays.
Video Games
- Sunday Funday is an edited version of Menace Beach, both of them made by Wisdom Tree, with the original version of the game involving the player character saving his girlfriend from Demon Dan with each cleared level showing his girlfriend with less and less clothing, while the edited version involves the player character just trying to make it to Sunday school and the girlfriend cutscenes being replaced with an Imagine Spot of how his Sunday school teacher might scold him if he arrives late.
Western Animation
- A modified version of Danger Rangers was released on some home videos aimed at Christian audiences. While the episodes are unedited with no religious references, each episode would end with a scripture lesson from The Bible that is relevant to an episode.
- The Family Guy episode "Airport '07" has it Played for Laughs, when Peter embraces the Redneck lifestyle. He decides to watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos, which has been "edited for rednecks". The edits muffle over any scientific explanations with creationist viewpoints.
Carl Sagan: I'm Carl Sagan. Just how old is our planet? Scientists believe it's four b-HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF YEARS OLD. Scientists have determined that the universe was created by a s-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD-ig Bang. If you look at the bones of a JESUS-saurus rex, it's clear by the use of carbon dating that-MOUNTAIN DEW IS THE BEST SODA EVER MADE.
- "The Griffin Family History"'s opening flashback about the creation of Earth shows aquatic creatures evolving into land animals and then humans, but Peter's voiceover then announces that for viewers from Kansas (which has had issues with schools being pressured to teach Creationism/Intelligent Design rather than evolution) they're going to show an alternative flashback. In this version, the I Dream of Jeannie theme plays as the genie emerges from the ocean and then magics living things into existence (mostly animals, but also Jesus Christ) and they all dance around together.
- Jay Jay the Jet Plane: The infamous religious version by Tommy Nelson. The stories are unchanged, but the dialogue is altered to make mentions of Christianity and the Bible throughout. This is to the point that the episode descriptions on the back of the VHS releases actually end the plot summaries with something like "Feels like Romans 8:25" (the religious summarization of "Tracy's Shooting Star").
- Meteor and the Mighty Monster Trucks has a religious version, "Monster Truck Adventures", with the race announcer bookending the show and using a Scripture reference to help summarize the plot.
- The Simpsons:
- A variant regarding the Arabic dub, Al-Shamshoon — not only does it rename the characters (Homer Simpson becomes Omar Shamsoon) but it removes all elements incompatible with Islamic law: pork becomes beef, beer becomes soda, Moe's Tavern is removed, etc.
- The original show also parodies this in "The Monkey Suit". At Springfield Elementary, old educational films about evolution are redubbed — badly and obviously — to sell Creationism and "intelligent design".
- A variant regarding the Arabic dub, Al-Shamshoon
- Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog both had an unauthorized Islamic dub recorded in Jordan and aired on various TV channels. The scripts are heavily censored in order to conform to Islamic values, and the opening theme was replaced with a nasheed, while the rest of the BGM was edited out completely. Averted for the authorized Venus Centre dub that was aired on Spacetoon, which is mostly uncensored.
- Toad Patrol is one of the few known shows to have an Islamic dub but not a secular dub.
- VeggieTales has a rare inversion. The show was originally very much intended to teach kids about the Bible and Christianity. When it was aired on NBC's qubo block, references to Christianity were initially removed. Protests from parent groups led to part of the content being restored in its second season.