Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

[giddyman]

Hello, teachers.
What does the following sentence mean? Thank you.

Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

 

[jutfrank]

What is the context of the sentence, please? Where did you hear it?

Do you understand all the elements here? What do you think it could mean?

 

[Matthew Wai]

It might take a very long time to stone someone to death with popcorn.

 

[YAMATO2201]

Hearing nuns' confessions (boring and agonizing) is like being stoned to death with popcorn (trivia).

Why did the writer/speaker use the expression "being stoned to death with popcorn"? Is that because there's no such expression as "to popcorn someone to death"?

 

[Rover_KE]

We'd have a better chance of knowing why the writer used that expression if giddyman would provide the source and context of the quoted sentence.

 

[giddyman]

We'd have a better chance of knowing why the writer used that expression if giddyman would provide the source and context of the quoted sentence.

The sentence is from a smartphone app called "Brilliant Quotes". It doesn't provide any context.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Fulton Sheen is reputed to have said, “Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.” I can’t remember where I read it or why it stuck in my mind, but the words came back to me as I waited in line to make my first confession in more than 20 years.

It had taken several days to gear myself up for Confession, but when I arrived at the National Shrine in Walsingham a coachload of nuns had just disembarked and got to the confessionals ahead of me. I was at the back of a very long queue, and the nuns were taking their time. “What can nuns possibly have to confess?” I thought testily, before telling myself off for ignorance and impatience. I silently recalled Sheen’s words. After all that nun popcorn, the priest wouldn’t know what had hit him when I walked in with my confession.

Source: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/december-4th-2015/my-burden-lifted-forever/

 

[GoesStation]

Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.

The quote's deeper context is the frequent admonitions in the Old Testament of the Bible to stone people to death with stones. There's never a requirement to stone someone to death with marshmallows, popcorn, ping-pong balls, or really anything but stones.

People who grew up in a religious setting that involved studying the Old Testament are probably familiar with the refrain "stone to death with stones", so suggesting some other implement is amusing to them.