Does anyone else have that friend whose opinions are unnecessarily strong? The type of person who doesn’t quite give you an opinion when you ask for it, but instead gives you a declaration of how you MUST do something? I feel like I have at least six friends like that. I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about. Let’s say you’re 20 years old, you have a fake I.D. and you want to impress your college friends by throwing a party at your parents’ house while they’re away. And let’s say you told this friend you were planning to get a keg for the party, and you were leaning towards Miller Lite—something everyone could enjoy. The friend in question doesn’t give you an opinion on a better beer you could get so much as saying, “You’re fucking retarded if you get Miller Lite. You really gotta splurge for Heineken or something like that. You’re making a big mistake with Miller Lite. Just get Heineken, trust me.”

This hard-headed “my opinion is right, yours is wrong” mentality basically has the reverse effect on me: I stop listening to these people in any situation, and I usually do the opposite of what they would want just because I’m an instigator.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that after years of dismissing a certain friend’s opinions because I refuse to obey wannabe dictators, he finally made a strong recommendation that was completely appropriate. You see, this man couldn’t just say, “You really should go see The Book of Mormon. It was a great show that everyone would love.”  Maybe he was trying to say just that, but instead it came off like this: (to a group of 10 of us) “Everyone here needs to go see The Book of Mormon. It’s not an option…you need to go see it as soon as you get back from vacation.” And of course when people in the group gave the old, “Oh ok, sounds interesting,” he responded, “No, I’m serious. Everyone HAS TO see this show. It’ll be the best show you ever see. You’re stupid if you don’t see it”

Luckily I had already purchased tickets to go see The Book of Mormon at a later date so I don’t have to give him all the credit for inspiring me.

If you’re unfamiliar with the show in question, it’s a musical that satires religion, specifically Mormonism, and was created by the guys who do South Park. More info here: The Book of Mormon

And like my friend said, it is the best show you will ever see (assuming you’re under the age of 75 and someone who can take a joke about Mormons).

I’m not here to give a full review of this show. You can find professional opinions on The Book of Mormon everywhere you look.

I’m just going to tell you that on Friday night I was both pissing myself and crying from laughter within the first three minutes of the show. It was funnier than any movie or TV show I’ve seen in years. It was worth the price of admission more so than any other live show or concert I’ve ever seen.

If you’re familiar with all the work that the South Park creators have done: South Park the TV show, South Park the movie, Team America movie…you can expect The Book of Mormon to be better than all those things combined.

So in the words of my opinion-challenged friend: You want to see this show. You need to see this show. Go see this fucking show or else you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. And if you’ve already seen it, you NEED to see it again, like I’m planning to do.