To be fair, some people have made Star Wars into a religion, but we don’t think mom is going to be amused if you sub in one of their characters for Jesus. Actually, if she’s anything like one Utah mom, we know she won’t.

The whole story starts with a man named Ryan who decided to pull a prank on his parents a few years ago, gifting them this picture for their walls.

Excuse me, do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior, Obi Wan Kenobi?

And yes, he let them both think it was a picture of Jesus.

Our lord and savior, Obi-Wan Kenobi?

Now, hear Ryan out. There’s no denying that Obi-Wan Kenobi is a legend whose spirit lived on after death to inspire those who came after him to follow the path of light.

Alas, to this Mormon mom and dad, it just wasn’t quite the same thing.

Of course, they’re no strangers to displaying depictions of Jesus on their walls so they didn’t think to look hard or question the gift at all. It simply went up in an empty space.

But even if you think that Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of the Jedi Master in the Star Wars prequels is truly transcendent, it probably wasn’t a religious experience.

Not the first family fooled

According to Insider, Ryan was inspired by Reddit user u/kwar42 who had made a joke about McGregor as Obi-Wan looking a bit like Jesus a few years ago.

“It stuck out to me as looking like a picture we had growing up of Jesus,” he told the outlet. “I kind of chased that thought to, how funny would it be if my parents didn’t recognize who it was and actually hung it up on the wall. I have always tried to get away with things or pull some pranks on my family members and this seemed perfect.”

And Ryan’s parents weren’t the first to be fooled by a photo of McGregor as Obi-Wan! Another Redditor shared a similar joke his brother played on their parents. They kept the photo on their table for at least 3 months!

Shout out to my brother for replacing a picture of Jesus at my parent’s house with a picture of Obi-Wan Kenobi as portrayed by Ewan McGregor. Three months and counting without them noticing. from r/funny

Even the Mormon Church has featured Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan on the cover of a Sunday program. But the designer insists it was always meant to be a joke.

And Jesus sayeth “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” from r/exmormon

The prank goes viral

Once you post a prank on Reddit, it’s either quickly forgotten or it goes big. And if it does the latter, let’s just say YOU want to be the one to come clean to mom and dad. You don’t want their friends at church telling them.

Ryan shared the prank in a now-legendary Reddit post.

I’ve made a huge mistake. Mom loves her Jesus Christmas present and I’m not sure how to get out of this thing alive when she figures out. from r/PrequelMemes

To be fair, while both mom and dad seemed happy with the gift at first, there was some suspicion in their reactions, especially dad’s.

Ryan posted the video proof of his mother and father opening their Christmas gift.

And how do you NOT hang your son’s gift on the wall?

The revelation

Ryan got away with it for at least a few weeks. But when he posted again on Reddit, he explained that the gag had ended.

It turns out that after he was contacted by Insider, he decided to come clean to his dad, recalling “I called him up and he let me know that he knew something was off and that he had even inspected the artist’s signature as he swore it looked just like Obi-wan Kenobi from Star Wars. He loved it! We laughed about it quite a bit.”

Eventually, he had a hilarious plaque made for the Obi-Wan portrait.

I had some people asking what was on the plaque underneath the Obi wan/Jesus pic so here is a close up. from r/PrequelMemes

But mom has had enough of the joke. The gag gift now hangs over the fireplace in Ryan’s home.

It’s not much, but Friday nights with the boys are my favorite. from r/PrequelMemes

Be sure to scroll down below for the video of Ryan’s parents opening their prank portrait.

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Source: Bored Panda, YouTube – Ryan B, Insider, Fox 13 Now, Reddit – u/CD4L1FE