By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
A popular HBO comedian is under fire for a crude attack on Christianity in a recent episode where he urinates on a painting of Jesus Christ.
According to a report by Fox News, HBO’s Larry David, who wrote and produced Seinfeld, pushed the mocking of religion to new heights in the latest episode of his show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, which aired on Sunday.
During the show, David visits a bathroom in the Catholic home of his assistant and splatters urine on a picture of Jesus. Minutes later, David’s assistant enters the bathroom, sees the fluid on the picture and thinks Jesus is crying. She summons her mother to the bathroom where they both kneel in prayer.
The cable network is actually promoting the blasphemous show on its website which shows clips of the most controversial scenes along with a “squirm-o-meter.”
But they played down the episode in a statement to Foxnews.com in which they said, “Anyone who follows Curb Your Enthusiasm knows that the show is full of parody and satire. Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humor is always playful and certainly never malicious.”
However, most people believe the episode crossed the line and are demanding an apology from the show’s producers and writers. .
“I don’t think it’s funny,” said Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com. “Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field.”
Hudson thinks somebody should be made to apologize for such an outrageous mockery of a faith cherished by the majority of Americans.
“Somebody should [apologize],” he said. “When is it going to stop? When is common sense going to dictate that people realize this willingness of artists to do to Christianity what they would never do to Judaism or Islam?”
Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, also criticized the episode, saying David should “quit while he’s ahead,” and that the show is proof that the comedian’s best years are behind him.
“Was Larry David always this crude? Would he think it’s comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?” Donohue said in a statement. “This might be fun to watch, but since HBO only likes to dump on Catholics (it was just a couple of weeks ago that Sarah Silverman insulted Catholics on ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’) and David is Jewish, we’ll never know.”
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