Simpsons Take Another Shot at Catholics

[Darryl1958]

While I do agree that the series has run its course, I think the quip was actually rather funny. The irreverence seems to be more of a ‘roast’ than a cheap shot…

As someone said this was one of the first repulsions that outsiders had with Christians, and a total misunderstanding too that the flesh-eating Christians were murderous cannibals.
The Fox writers show an understanding of the nuances which the Romans did not. It is a caricature of the faith that they are making fun of, more than the faith itself.
It is like someone esteemed being roasted. The characteristics of that person are exaggerated and then made fun of, not in an effort to tear down the person, but to highlight the reasons why the person is t esteemed in the first place.

I kind of like when someone pokes fun at me or even my faith. If they make fun of me, it is because they know me and they trust that the relationship is strong enough to act as such. Likewise a joke about Muslims will never work, because there can be no presumed closeness between Muslims and American television. Hence the show about Muslims followed a totally different formula where the Muslim family is patronized and Islamophobia is made fun of.
Truth is, it would be impossible for most of us to make fun of the Islam faith, because we take its foibles rather seriously and they are not a joke to most of us at all, and Muslims most of all.

In the end, Fox and the Simpson’s depend on the Christian viewership likely to a greater extent than Groening would have every imagined at the beginning. There willingness to make jokes about Christians recognizes the intimacy that has developed over the years.

 

[Darryl1958]

i like the Simpson’s religious jokes as its not as poor taste as the ones in Family Guy or South Park

There is absolutely no redeeming qualities in either the Family Guy or South Park, as far as I can see. The fascination with these shows is much the same as the fascination of rubber-necks at a car accident.They are all about people living with a total absence of any sense of values whatsoever, a totally decadent and nihilistic mindset, post-modern, post-Christian, post-life.
What is most fascinating though is to the extent that they are no longer just caricatures, but accurate depictions of what life in the modern west has become like.

They elicit a hollow laughter from the audience, the bravado of teenagers in the face of gore, a laughter that masks the absolute horror that we feel as we observe the guts and brains of our society being scraped up by the emergency vehicles.

 

[Digitonomy]

I saw another one a couple nights ago on reruns. After a lengthy church service, the family is grumpily driving off to lunch.

Bart whines, “Why can’t we be Catholic? At least they get booze and crackers.”

Marge retorts, “Nobody’s becoming Catholic. Three children is quite enough!”

 

[Adira]

There’s too much of it around.

Why are Catholics fair game?

 

[tpw]

Ummm…cuz we’re the biggest game in town and probably the most misunderstood…

 

[colliric]

Here is the description from the article.While that’s a bit pointed, I don’t think it’s especially harsh. There is the general belief that eating human flesh is uncivilized, and yet that is exactly what we profess. It’s reasonable for Marge to point out this seeming incongruity, but what makes it funny is not the character’s disagreement with such behavior, but her ignorance of something so many of us believe. It would not have been as funny if they had poked fun at say the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Far more offensive was an episode a few years ago where Bart’s baptism by neighbor Ned is portrayed as a moment of terror.

Really? I didn’t think that was offensive at all… I thought it poked fun at die-hard protestants like Ned? and how he audaciously chooses to Baptize Homer’s children(who by the way have actually already been baptized by Marge, according to several earlier episodes). Homer objects to Ned interfering with his kids, not the actual baptism itself.

Then Homer jumps in the way and starts acting like the swamp monster because a small drop of water fell on his head. I thought that was hilarious and totally tasteful, and in a way shows that Homer was scared of nothing and over reacting.

 

[colliric]

i like the Simpson’s religious jokes as its not as poor taste as the ones in Family Guy or South Park

like when Ned Flanders was telling himself he wants to be the nicest person that ever lived. then the shot zoomed out to reveal an image of Jesus framed on his wall, then Ned clarified his statement, “i said man, not man-God”

or that Queen Elizabeth I story. i forgot the exact quote but as England was set to go to war with the Spanish Armada, Rev. Lovejoy prayed and asked Jesus to be on their side against this people who glorifies his mother and their king made himself head of their church. something to that effect. (the internet has let me down, i can’t find anything that has the exact quote)

I love that episode where Lovejoy, Marge and Flanders are sitting in a the Krusty burger discussing what Protestant heaven and catholic Heaven are like. Or at least I like that scene. In Protestant heaven they play Golf all the time. Where as Catholic Heaven has Jesus and a joyful atmosphere(Like the end of a sporting match where the side won and the captain gets chaired off).

 

[Oldtimer_7]

The best humor has to have truth at its heart. As a Lutheran, I love to hear Garrison Keillor’s jokes about us, since they ring so true. For someone to make a good joke about Catholics, they’d have to have some understanding about Catholicism. A Catholic friend married a woman who was raised Methodist and who converted after they married. He and I were talking about some point of doctrine, and he told me I would have to ask his wife, since he was born Catholic and did not have to learn all that stuff. For us, it was a hoot. Someone who did not understand Catholic practices and culture would have at best been left scratching his head.

His priest has a really dry sense of humor. One of our mutual friends is Baptist, and the priest, when he found this out, said to the man, “So, you don’t haveany belief at all.” While we got the humor in the statement, our Baptist friend took offense, which the priest certainly never meant to give. Even my explaining about the Apostles, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds did not take the edge off and he has never liked the priest.

 

[vera_dicere]

I’m a fan of the Simpsons but in recent years I’ve noticed its sort of lowered its standards much further than is polite.

There was the episode when Bart said to his mother “Can we go Catholic so we can get communion wafters and booz?” Marge: “No one’s going Catholic, three children is enough thank you”. I think it was the “mr. Pinchy” episode. Then the episode when Bart wanted to convert to Catholicism and had the part where the priest voiced by Liam Neeson made a comment about “I must be the worst priest in the world… oh… except for… um…” or words to teh effect implying a strike at the paedophiles in the ranks.

But that Halloween episode, I thought that was rather dodgy, however, I do think it was kind of educational in that the Romans thought the same thing about our Christian ancestors.

End of the day, I’m not too offended by it, considering we’re all going to have a target on our backs, especially since we dont’ go around planting bombs outside writers’ offices.

And I stopped watching South Park after the “bloody mary” episode, and I do beleive when Muhammed showed up in SP his face was never shown - so the writers copped out.