What is the Church Of What's Happening Now?
Highly influential comedic bit and series of comedy sketches by stand up comic Flip Wilson about religious profiteering, akin to Lenny Bruce "Religion Inc" material.
Often imitated, never duplicated.
The Church of What's Happening Now was second in popularity only to Flip Wilson's character Geraldine on the popular Flip Wilson Show which ran 4 seasons and peaked at 50 million viewers a week from 1970 to 1974
The Church Of What's Happening Now's main character Rev. Leroy also appeared on Flip's comedy records before the show ever aired, and in his stand up going all the way back to the start of his career in old Stockton, California nightclubs a full 15 years before the rest of America got to see him pop on his own show in 1970.
The Church of What's Happening Now sketches on NBC featured cameos from the likes of Richard Pryor and George Carlin, two of Flip's writers on his show. But probably the best one was with Bobby Darrin playing the devil
The popular resonance has
continued through satirical and parodic tributes such as the Church Of
What's Happening Now podcast, which offers a funny meta narrative in
which a comedian resurrects the spirit of The Church for his own
hilarious take on motivational speaking