Humor about Catholicism

The Catholic Church has been a subject for humor, from the time of the Reformation to the present day.

Examples of fairly mild burlesque of the Church in the twentieth century include material by humourists such as the Irish comedian Dave Allen and the comedy show Father Ted.

Television

Monty Python

Traditional fears about the Roman Catholic Church were burlesqued by Monty Python in their Spanish Inquisition sketch (first aired September 22, 1970) in which hapless victims of the Spanish Inquisition are threatened with the 'comfy chair' and other such innocuous implements of torture.

Another sketch by Monty Python featured a song "Every Sperm Is Sacred" (1983) which is a satire of Catholic teachings on reproduction which forbid masturbation and contraception by artificial means. The sketch is about a Catholic Dad (played by Michael Palin), his wife (Mum, played by Terry Jones) and their 63 children, who are about to be sold for medical experimentation purposes because their parents can no longer afford to care for such a large family. When their children ask why they don't use contraception or sterilization, Dad explains that this is against God's wishes, and breaks into the song "Every Sperm is Sacred". The real punchline comes a bit later, where the song and dance is observed through a window and a Protestant (played by Graham Chapman), after observing the large family's song and dance, briefly describes this "typical Catholic" situation to his wife (Eric Idle). He goes on to remark how, as a Protestant, he could down to the store and unashamedly buy a condom, and that way, "because I'm a Protestant", intercourse is not bound to pregnancy, and therefore, available to them any time they wish. He also derides the Catholic family for their numerous progeny, noting they have good family planning, only siring two children. The wife remarks that that is the same number of times they have had intercourse.

Dave Allen

Irishman

William Skylstad, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, sent a letter to Freston saying the network showed "extreme insensitivity" when it aired the episode.^[3] When Comedy Central re-aired all the episodes from South Park's Fall 2005 season on December 28, 2005, "Bloody Mary" was noticeably absent from the broadcast. Comedy Central responded to e-mail inquiries about the fate of the episode with the assurance that "Bloody Mary" has not been retired and would not be pulled from the DVD release.^[4] However, screen captures from the episode are still missing on Comedy Central's press site and the South Park section of comedycentral.com.^[5]

In a 2006 interview with

Scientologists (for the episode Trapped in the Closet, another Season 9 episode regarding religion that had been temporarily pulled from re-runs for insensitivity), he said his sympathy lay with the Catholics.^{[citation needed}

]

Film

Buñuel

Luis Buñuel was a fierce critic of the perceived pretension and hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church. Many of his most famous films demonstrate this:

Un chien andalou

(1929): A man drags pianos, upon which are piled several priests, among other things.

120 days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade

is portrayed by an actor dressed in a way that he would be recognized as Jesus.

Ensayo de un crimen

(1955): A man dreams of murdering his wife while she's praying in bed dressed all in white.

Simon of the Desert (1965): The devil tempts the saint by taking the form of a naughty, bare-breasted little girl singing and showing off her legs. At the end of the film, the saint abandons his ascetic life to hang out in a jazz club.

Nazarin

(1959): The pious lead character wreaks ruin through his attempts at charity.

Viridiana (1961): A well-meaning young nun tries unsuccessfully to help the poor.

The Milky Way (1969): Two men travel the ancient pilgrimage road to Santiago de Compostela and meet embodiments of various heresies along the way. One dreams of anarchists shooting the Pope.

Robbie Coltrane

Robbie Coltrane portrays a naive priest who is made Pope in a corrupt mafia-controlled Vatican in the comedy film The Pope Must Die (1991). The plot alludes to the Roberto Calvi scandal and the Pope John Paul I conspiracy theories. Coltrane had previously donned clerical vestments in Nuns on the Run (1990). Earlier in his career Coltrane had also created a television comedy character known as 'Mason Boyne' - a spoof Scottish Presbyterian Orangeman - who was rabidly anti-Catholic to the point of painting over the leaves on plants with orange paint.

Other

Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

The

Easter Sunday

. Their use of Catholic symbolism is considered offensive by some.

Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer, a well known humorist in the 1960s (and, coincidentally, a Harvard professor of Mathematics), gently satirised the Catholic Church in his song 'The Vatican Rag' which he claimed was an appropriate response to the conclusions of the Second Vatican Council as published in 1965.

See also

• The Bible and humor
• Religion in The Simpsons
• Microsoft acquisition hoax
  , an Internet joke suggesting that the information technology company Microsoft had acquired the Catholic Church.

References

1. ^ The Essential Dave Allen (2005) edited by Graham McCann. Hodder and Stoughton: London.
2. ^ "Virgin Mary defiled on "South Park"" (Press release). Catholic League (U.S.). 2005-12-08. Archived from the original on 2007-07-18. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
3. ^ "Bishops' president blasts South Park episode". Church Resources. 2005-12-21. Archived from the original on 2005-12-24. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
4. ^ "South Park "Bloody Mary" an immaculate deletion, says Comedy Central". BoingBoing. 2006-01-09. Archived from the original on 2006-04-26. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
5. ^ Sarah Hall (2005-12-29). ""South Park" Parked by Complaints?". E!. Archived from the original on 2006-04-27. Retrieved 2006-07-06.