One thing that has long fascinated me about the denizens of Artsville is how they put so much effort into provoking Christians, then get all upset when they actually succeed.
The latest example of this strange phenomenon involves Tim Minchin. The Aussie entertainer penned a song mocking Christianity and recorded it for Jonathon Ross's Christmas show. But the performance has been pulled, ostensibly because it didn't fit editorially. But it's pretty clear that's been done out of fear of offending God botherers.
Sure, it must be extremely annoying to be asked to create and perform something specifically for a show only to see it removed from the final broadcast. But what did he expect? And why did ITV commission it in the first place? Hell, it was for a Christmas special, fergawdsake! Surely they knew that if they got Minchin to do a song it wouldn't be your usual Chrissy goo about "chestnuts roasting on open fires" and "folks dressed up like Eskimos".
Of course, arty types all over the Western world will be arcing up over this act of censorship. But when it comes to far worse acts by members of another religion, the silence is deafening. If you provoke members of the Religion of Peace, people die. Surely that's more disturbing and sinister, isn't it?
Minchin has never mocked Mohammed in the way that he did Jesus in this song. And with good reason. If he had, he could be looking over his shoulder for years to come.
It's one thing to have some TV producer wuss out of televising your spot so you have to whop it on Youtube instead. But that's much less unpleasant than being attacked in your own home by an axe-wielding zealot, isn't it? Because that's what happened to Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had the temerity to draw a cartoon of Mohammed.
And still on the subject of thin-skinned religious types: Tom Cruise was also a guest on the show. Imagine if Minchin had done a song taking the piss out of Scientology? I doubt that would have even been considered in the first place, let alone commissioned.
Still, at least Scientologists just sue you. They don't try to kill you ...
As a Retired Catholic I have no particular fondness for the Church, but I think it says something in its favour that it doesn't get hung up about this stuff the way it used to.
ReplyDeleteConversely, at the other end of the scale, we have the welcome to country bs. I caught a part of the 'ceremony' that preceded the cricket at the WACA yesterday. All delivered with complete stone faced seriousness. It took me a few moments to catch on; I thought they'd pulled the guy out of the crowd for a Best Funny Costume award.
Yes, the welcome to country ritual is truly cringeworthy. You can tell that it makes everyone present uncomfortable, even PC lefties. They sit there with fixed smiles on their faces, just praying for it to be over.
ReplyDeleteIt's lip service of the worst kind. It begs the question that if we are being welcomed to someone else's country, then what are we doing here? Do we even have a right to be present?
It annoys pretty much everyone because they feel that it's their land as much as anyone else's (that is, it's everyone's, equally). Even lefties feel this, even though they make a show of claiming otherwise.