A Brazilian 'gay Jesus' movie was released on Netflix in December. (Porta dos Fundos/ Twitter)

A Brazilian comedy group have released a Netflix special Christmas film, a parody about gay Jesus bringing his boyfriend home to meet Mary and Joseph, and religious conservatives have reacted with great anger and furious vengeance.

Almost a million people in the predominantly Catholic country have signed a petition against the parody gay Jesus Netflix film, A Primeira Tentação de Cristo, or The First Temptation of Christ, for “seriously offending Christians”.

Porta dos Fundos, which literally means “back door”, is a comedy group of five people from Rio de Janeiro who started making sketches and parodies on their YouTube channel.

While initially resistant to have their content shown on TV ask risk losing their freedom, they have since signed deals with Netflix and Fox Network Brazil. Their content has been compared to Monty Python films.

The creators of the film were called “demons” and “heretics”, and while the film was not definitely intended to be a documentary, one person’s reason for signing the petition was: “It is a serious offence against Jesus Christ and the Christians! It has no historical evidence to support the insinuations presented.”

Another wrote: “A movie that came to destroy the image of Christ who gave His life to save us. Netflix has featured series that the family can’t join to watch. God created man and woman and no one can change that.”

Despite the extreme reaction, this is not the first Christmas special produced by Porta dos Fundos.

Last December it released its first Netflix film Especial de Natal Porta dos Fundos (The Last Hangover), which won an International Emmy for best comedy this year.

A parody of The Hangover, it follows the adventures of Jesus’s disciples after they wake up hungover the “morning after the Last Supper… wondering where their Messiah is”.

Que preguiça dessa polêmica em torno do Porta dos Fundos. No especial de Natal do ano passado, Jesus foi representado como um beberrão hedonista homicida sádico que odiava rezar e ninguém encheu o saco. Agora que é inofensivo e gay o mundo caiu. É de atrofiar o cérebro, viu — Murilo Cleto (@MuriloCleto) December 12, 2019

Historian Murilo Cleto wrote on Twitter: “Last year’s Christmas special, Jesus was portrayed as a sadistic, homicidal, hedonistic drunkard who hated to pray and no one bothered.

“Now that he’s harmless and gay, the world has fallen. It’s atrophying the brain.”

Public figures have also expressed outrage at the film. Actor Carlos Vereza wrote on Facebook that Porta dos Fundos were “pretentious idiots, messengers of the new world order, who [support] the deconstruction of family and religion”, and called the film a “trash-porn movie”.

This year has need a number of attempts by self-professed homophobe and Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, including censorship of LGBT+ films and even an illustrated same-sex kiss in a comic book.