South Park meets the Mormons in a new Broadway musical that's now in previews. Will this be a night of unholy humor at the expense of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? Or might the faithful get the last laugh?

One could imagine the creative team behind the potty-mouth cartoon characters, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, ruthlessly sending up the earnest image of the upright Mormon culture and the church rising back up with righteous indignation.

But Parker and Stone tell our theater critic Elysa Gardner, their version of The Book of Mormon is really meant to be a " pro-faith musical" story of

... a pair of teenage Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda, where they confront war, famine and AIDS, to say nothing of culture clash.

To which the Church's official response is:

The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but The Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ.

At Religion Dispatches, religion scholar Joanna Brooks, observed that...

... despite the shock value of the show's obscenity-laden musical centerpiece, The Book of Mormon musical is actually sweet on Mormons, depicting us -- for all of our unique beliefs and, well, cultural corniness -- not as caricatures but as good-natured human beings who really just want to help.

Brooks also spots the a sly dig from the LDS press office -- the use of the word "attempt." Says Brooks:

I'm liking this cool, media-savvy response. In the digital world, it's traffic that matters, and LDS PR is hoping that at least some of the Broadway hype will drive a little more traffic to the Book of Mormon itself.

The Book of Mormon is the foundational text of their Church. According to the Church web site, the world's 14 million Mormons, including six million in the USA, rely on this book, first published 1830, along with their Bibles. It centers on...

... a series of prophecies and testimonies about Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world, including, strikingly, a visit by the risen, resurrected Jesus to the people in the New World.

The Book of Mormon records that during Christ's ministry to the people of ancient America, He established His church, as in the Old World.

Meanwhile, some Mormons are ready to roll with the humor. John Dehlin, 41, of Logan, Utah,, the founder of Mormon Stories podcasts, told Fox Entertainment he had already organized a group trip to NYC for the show.

I'm super excited. I think this is our Mormon moment. The Jews had Fiddler (on the Roof) and the Catholics had Sound of Music and now we have this.

Ummm. Not exactly. Those two shows were glossy cultural celebrations sent in a re-calibrated vision of the past with clear hero's and clear villains. The Broadway Book of Mormon is a contemporary musical in a time when the Mormons are under fire for their political energies in fighting gay marriage in California and when two Mormons, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman, may have 2012 Presidential ambitions.

I'm not sure folks will come away humming along with the faithful. But could laughing along with the faithful be is as good -- or better.

THINK ABOUT IT: Can your religion take a joke? Is laughing at the foibles of the faithful insulting God or just playing with humanity for fun and profit.