"Jerry Jerry, Jerry Jerry"

'Cleanliness is next to godliness'

I was in my absolute element last night. I sat naked, except for my cassock and collar in preparation for Jerry Springer: The Opera.
I normally wouldn't have been interested if it hadn't been for the furore and stink that the Christians kicked up. I, along with the extra thousands of television viewers, that the programme received last night, wouldn't have cared less about watching it. Nobody would have, just another boring Sunday night.
But I did, I put down my copy of 'I, Lucifer' by Glen Duncan and switched onto BBC2, something I would only normally do for The Simpsons or Buzzcocks. For that, I would like to thank God for.
The point at which I was interested was when I saw a 'coalition' of like minded people crying 'blasphemy' and other such words they had been taught and burning their licence fees on the street outside the BBC.
As much as I admire ones right to protest, but setting fire to their TV licences, hmmmm probably would have thought twice about that. Imagine the embarrasment the next time you get a visit from the detector van.
These people were interviewed on the street,
'Have you seen the show?' they were asked.
'No?!?' snapped their reply. 'It's blasphemous, it's not right, its heresy....'
The camera cut as the interviewer goes, 'Errrrr...'

What's your arguement exactly?
I am sorry (I am going to offend someone again with my rational thinking again, here we go) but I have NO RESPECT for someone who has formed not just an opinion of uneducated ignorance, but one of HATE and mild violence. Threats to TV executives and staff? You should be ashamed. This sort of brainwashed ignorance hasn't been so evident since since the Marilyn Manson tour in 1997. The same sort of ignorance that makes people circulate such nonsense as "If you are a real Christian, you will email Tony Blair to tell him to scrap plans for partial birth abortion", when he has no such plans.

Blasphemous? Yes, it was. I couldn't believe that they got away with it, but it was parody, satire and I laughed it off. It didn't devalue religion for me, the followers do that for me instead, countlessly, on a weekly basis it seems. Religious sacrement and the devil has been prevolent in opera since the beginning of the 19th Century such as 'The marraige of Figaro' and the Springer opera had been onstage in Britain for three years and had not attracted protests. It has been seen by over 350,000 people and has had more than 550 performances without significant complaint from Christians.
Well done for doing the shows marketing for them, thats all I can say.

They say that it was the proximity of the broadcast to Christmas and the Epiphany was bad timing. A programme that risked causing religious offence was not appropriate at such a time. I can see why there was cause for concern, I am not an idiot. Aswell as the amount of swearing in the production which I am sure you have read about; the significant highlights for me were as follows:

* The whole cast chanting 'A chick with a dick with a heart'
* Jesus depicted as an overweight, black adult baby in a nappy, who admits being 'a bit gay' and who's best line was 'poop my fucking panties'
* Tap dancing high priests of the Klu Klux Klan singing 'Dip me in chocolate and feed me to the Lesbians'
* Mary fondling Jesus underneath his nappy
* Jesus fighting Adam and Eve in Hell
* The not so teenage Mary complaining to Jesus for abandoning her and suggesting to Jesus that he was a the result of a split condom

Another complaint was that the holy characters were depicted as "self-centred sexual deviants" Well, unless being 'a bit gay', which Jesus says he is, counts a sexual deviance, then that is a confounded opinion. I do not think so. If you do, you are disrespectful and also ignorant.
They did not intend it to re-draw boundaries of taste and decency. It was a one-off satire and morality tale. In their view the focus of the opera was the denigration of a chat show host.
The complex dramatic structure of the opera made this clear.

Freedom of expression and the freedom to object peacefully are worthy of respect and of value in our society, but attitudes like this are not. The actions of those who had sought to make protests about the programme personal and to make them offensively were deeply deplored, as were those who had repeated inaccuracies about the programme.

Let's talk about the word FUCK and add a little CUNT whist we are here.
If it was a matter of language that was so upsetting, why was it that when John Lydon, for the first time, used the two words together before an audience of 10 million on I'm a Celebrity fewer than 100 complained. Where were all the Christian people then?

It went out at 10pm, after the 9pm watershed, with plenty of warnings about its content. No one has to watch it. I didn't want to watch it until you started having a whinge. I'd much rather watch Frasier or the Ali G film. Have you seen it? It's so funny when he looks under the covers and his dog is licking his..... ahem anyway.

Jesus, don't watch it. Yes it's on near Christmas and on a Sunday (Ooops, God's Holy day, this was all marketing ploy and you fell for it and in this corporate world, you cannot change that, they are evil and satanic. I agree. I understand) but aren't you all at late confessional around that time?

But some positive thoughts now. I found healthy imagery. The plain and evident image of good versus evil was clear. The way God comes down from Heaven to aid Jerry against Satan was a great moment, I thought. I saw it as a modern day 'A Christmas Carol' questioning not only the culture of reality TV and shows of such nature but the ideology of morals and redemption. It was entirely self critical in its parody and rightly so. More so than operatic, I felt the music was more gospel like, with a mix of inspirational and uplifting rock tones. But I see you are upset still, nevermind. There are always countless reruns of Sex of the City, that get very little attention and complaint that you could focus your attentions on now.

On a final note on hipocrasy and irony, I was interested to note the words of The Sun's Page 3 girl Ruth (22, from Kent) 'can't believe' the Beeb is showing Jerry Springer The Opera. She says: "I'm not surprised they've had complaints about the swearing. Why can't they plug the Saturday night telly gap with good sitcoms or quiz shows instead?"

The Page 3 girl in The Sun commenting to me about taste and decency. I tucked into my croissants and red meat the other morning and frankly, I laughed my balls off and I got a free eyeful too.
When Janet Jackson's breast flopped out on national television in the US, the American public were so outraged that not one of them sent in a complaint that night, but plenty kicked up a stink after they were told to be outraged. The fundamental point here is, How can you complain about a TV programme that hasn't been shown?
Sure, some of the complaints were probably founded on watching the live show, but I'm taking an educated guess at how many weren't and its a pity.

Just as the americans fell for it, it seems like a community who has been instructed by their 'peers' to be shocked have done nothing more but make matters worse and make themselves look even less appealing or accessible in this modern age.

Little Harry Potter doesn't seem so bad now, does he?