Comedy Central which messed its own shorts when some Muslim kid in his mom’s basement sent a threatening email about South Park is now announcing a new sitcom about Jesus Christ. How brave.
Weasel Zippers reports:
As part of the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers, the network is set to announce “JC,” a half-hour show about Christ wanting to escape the shadow of his “powerful but apathetic father” and live a regular life in New York City.
In the show, God is preoccupied with playing video games while Christ, “the ultimate fish out of water,” tries to adjust to life in the big city.
“In general, comedy in purist form always makes some people uncomfortable,” said Comedy Central’s head of original programming Kent Alterman.
What a bunch of self righteous hypocrites. Whoa look how edgy they are to make fun of Jesus when pretty much everyone they know is doing the same exact thing? Wow! So brave.
I’m sure the show will be irreverent and stupid and I really don’t care about it one way or another. I just can’t take these imbeciles talking about the role of comedy being to make people uncomfortable because the first time they were confronted over Islam and made uncomfortable they folded like a cheap tent.
So the role of comedy is to make people uncomfortable but the role of comedians is to be very very comfortable?
May 6, 2010 at 8:26 pm
It's almost (almost–there's some inconsistency in what I'm saying here that I can't lay hold of) the inverse of giving something up so that other people might have it.
May 6, 2010 at 8:40 pm
Ugh… This makes me sick. I'd like to think it's nice to be sick from something other than pregnancy, but I was wrong.
May 6, 2010 at 8:59 pm
South Park? Smutty, raucous, but for me never funny. Stopped watching years ago.
May 6, 2010 at 9:01 pm
It shows which religion is truly one of peace.
And while Christians won't commit murder, they can always boycott the show and it's sponsors.
Turning the other cheek does not mean abdicating our responsibility of correcting our sick, demented, conwardly, bottom feeding, character challenged, immoral and indecent brethren.
May 6, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Pffffft, that channel went to Hades in a go kart the moment they cancelled MST3K.
May 6, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Other than that, Rick, how do you really feel:-)? And yes, it is disgusting.
May 6, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Normally, this would be yet another career breaker for some poor, desperate schmuck who they found on youtube to play the lead character. But since it's a cartoon, there's the cloak of anonymity for whoever does the voices. I like it how the head of "Original Programming" Mr ALTERMAN said "its too early in the show's development to be concerned about such matters". Yes, Mr ALTERMAN doesn't seem to be too worried about offending Christians. Maybe someone should pitch Mr ALTERMAN a show about the Holocaust and see if he's equally receptive.
I give it 4 episodes before it is canceled (if it airs at all).
May 7, 2010 at 2:39 am
Honestly? The concept intrigues me somewhat. If it were done correctly, I'd love to see a modern take on Jesus' life; I think it would help a lot more people connect with just how relevant Christ is to their lives. He suffered just like us, but 2000 years ago – most of us youngsters nowadays have trouble imagining 40 years ago.
Now, I don't expect Comedy Central to do anything close to that. I expect it to make fun of Christianity for no reason other than they can get away with it. (The difference between Christian outrage and Muslim outrage tends to involve explosives.)
May 7, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Even – good point. Every 10 years or so there's usually an "update" of the Jesus story set in "modern" times. I don't know if you ever saw "Godspell" but I think that was the first (which is now a laughible anachronism, as it was set in the very flambouyant year of 1971). Personally, I think there is a fine line: Our Lord came at a specific time in history for reasons only God knows (although I can hazzard a guess) but his message is eternal. As such, there is no reason He could not walk among us right now, with all our modern problems and situations and be equally as relevant and effective.
May 8, 2010 at 4:03 am
An Open Letter to Comedy Central:
http://dmedm.blogspot.com/2010/05/open-letter-to-comedy-central.html