How do we know Jesus Christ was a Jew? He was still living with his mum at 33 and she thought he was God Almighty. Are you offended? I sincerely hope not and profuse apologies if you are, but that was the first religious joke I remember from my Catholic childhood, and which managed to take a swipe at two religions for the price of one.
I also remember - and on my occasional forays into church still do - hearing priests crack jokes about God and the Pope from the pulpit. Maybe it's a Catholic thing, because I have never heard a left-footer make the complaint that Ann Widdecombe - former Conservative MP and a convert to Catholicism after the Church of England allowed women into the ministry - explored. To whit, that comics have got it in for Christianity, a juicy subject for Holy Week.
An array of comics including Marcus Brigstocke and Steve Punt were brave enough to be interviewed by a woman for whom the word "formidable" was invented and who has a spirited interviewing style. Such is Widdecombe's impressive pulling power, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, no less, appeared (George Carey, pictured below), as did the priest on whom the excellent Rev. is based, TV pundit Mark Lawson and Monty Python's Terry Jones, who talked about The Life of Brian, which has what Punt called the “jaw-droppingly offensive” crucifixion scene.
The comics, as you might expect, stood their ground, saying they had a right to say whatever they wanted; jokes about Christianity are “fair game, making up for 500 years of people telling them how to think or feel.” There were some choice moments. Carey took a relaxed approach to what Widdecombe thought was sacrilegious humour - “The mature Christian response is to have a sense of humour” - while Brigstocke, like many comics an avowed atheist, appeared genuinely taken aback that she felt a personal sense of bereavement every time she thought about Christ dying on the cross.
By the end of the programme, a remarkable thing had happened: Widdecombe had the notion that maybe she was being too sensitive - and if comics are telling jokes about Christians, at least it means religion is still part of our culture. As Punt pointed out, in order to understand the jokes in The Life of Brian you have to have some knowledge of the Bible.
A really interesting question was only briefly explored; why, if comics are so fearless in their guying of Christianity, don't they mock Mohammed? The answer is screamingly obvious – because they really don't want to risk a fatwa being issued against them by Muslim zealots. Frankie Boyle and Jimmy Carr don't appear quite so cutting-edge now, do they? I suspect Bill Hicks (referenced in the programme) would have taken on that fight without a second thought.
Widdecombe intelligently explored many avenues on this topic – perhaps too many, as the number of talking heads nearly hit double figures and nobody was given enough time to elaborate a point. In this she was poorly served by director/producer Emily Davis, who was for ever cutting away to clips of stand-up comics such as Ricky Gervais or Dara Ó Bríain, or to shots of Widdecombe walking in and out of churches. She also loved using tricksy camera angles. But the programme ended on a fantastic God joke by Tim Vine, as told by Brigstocke. Widdecombe found it very funny. Job done.
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