Press Release

Doomsday Comedy brings Oh My Jehovah! to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe — a stand-up show featuring comedians who grew up in religious fundamentalist communities and now use humour to process those experiences. As seen in Stockholm, London and New Zealand.

The show follows comedians with personal experience of high-control religion as they tell stories about doomsday warnings, strict rules, leaving closed communities, and rebuilding a life afterwards — through dark humour and sharp observation.

We want people to laugh, and we want them to understand that there is life after leaving a high-control religious group, says Jonas Skogstroll, one of the founders of Doomsday Comedy.

Jonas Skogstroll grew up in a Jehovah's Witness family in Sweden. After publicly criticising the organisation's leadership and its handling of abuse cases, he was disfellowshipped in 2018. Since then he has worked on children's rights, religious freedom, and support for people leaving closed religious communities — and on turning those experiences into comedy.

Together with Norwegian comedian Snorre Bue, Skogstroll created Doomsday Comedy, where former members of religious groups and sects tell their own life stories on stage.

After performances in Norway, London, New Zealand, and Stockholm, the show arrives at Edinburgh Fringe under the title Oh My Jehovah!, starring Jonas Skogstroll and Scottish comedian Sylas Shaw for the full run, with Snorre Bue joining for selected dates.

In a review from New Zealand, Flat City Field Notes wrote:

“The final performer is show deviser Jonas Skogstroll, who contrasts his past life as a Jehovah's Witness with his current life as a comedian and human rights activist. … He is delightful, basically a one-man Muppet Show … Skogstroll deconstructs his upbringing with great confidence.”