« Nuevo Laredo Paper Attacked | Main | Climate of Fear Part 37 »
February 09, 2006
Simpsons, Crucifixin's, and Danish Cartoons
Along with the complaints about other media censorship and religious sensitivity, the makers of Will & Grace decided to get rid of a scene to air before Easter that featured Brittany Spears doing a cooking show that contained "cruifixin's". Lots of people have complained about this as a form of right wing censorship or left wing insensitivity (see here and here for examples).
My main complaint is that it ripped offed the Simpsons (not that the Simpsons does not joyously rip everyone else off). Reverend Lovejoy had Cruci-fixins as toppings for ice cream at a church social in one episode. (See here for internet geekdom in all its glory)
I thought it was a funny scene, especially when Lovejoy prepares a Unitarian bowl, which is a completely empty bowl bereft of any ice cream or toppings. (Unitarians. If that is the one true faith, Ill eat my hat.)
Christianity is constantly mocked on The Simpsons from the catholic vs. protestant heavens episode to setting up a money changing booth in the sanctuary. Ned Flanders is one of the most recognizable faces of evangelical Christianity out there for all of his faults and good deeds.
It is also interesting how The Simpsons treats other religions. Judaism and Hinduism are mocked fairly regularly from Krusty's pork products to Homer offering Apu's Ganesh statue a peanut, while Apu offers it a sacrifice of yoo-hoo. Buddhism got off pretty lightly until the past few seasons after Lisa became a Buddhist. Just the other night I saw the Christmas episode where Lisa recommends to Homer the Buddhist view of detachment to physical objects as a path to enlightenment. After following that idea by stealing everyones Christmas gifts, which causes Homer some trouble, you see a shirtless and tattooed Buddha getting arrested by cops and threatening to beat them up when he gets out saying:
Hey! I got your badge number! When I get out, I gonna whup your ass!
The one major religion that does not get mocked much is Islam. The only Islam joke I remember is when Krusty has his holiday special and says
So, have a merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a kwaazy Kwanza, a tip-top Tet, and a solemn, dignified, Ramadan. And now a word from my god, our sponsors!This is a joke about how the only religion you can not joke about is Islam.
According to The Gospel According to the Simpsons this is because they do not have any Muslim writers, while they do have Christian, Jewish, and Hindu writers. The Gospel According to the Simpsons is a decent book and the author tries to do a good job at analyzing the show's religious content as a semi-outsider, but the author occasionally makes factual errors in regards to characters and by now the book is way out of date.
I suspect the main reason it lacks Islam jokes is because many Muslims can not take a joke. Take the recent protestors who were complaining about the Muhammed cartoons from Denmark. These are grown men protesting in the streets and threatening to kill people over some stupid cartoons. Here is my advice to the protesters: if someone offends you, get over it. Be a man. Suck it up and deal with the fact that people disagree with you and think your religion is stupid. Crying about it only makes it worse. If I were a Muslim, I would be more offended that non-Muslims think I am a crybaby or a psychopath who can not handle a freaking cartoon without going into a seething rage than I would be that someone made a cartoon making fun of my religion.
When I see a bunch of grown men threatening to kill people because of a cartoon my first thought is:
What a bunch of losers. No wonder people make fun of them. Maybe we should make fun of them some more so they stop whining so much.
I doubt the Simpsons will be adding a Muslim character anytime soon, but if they do I hope Muslims can take a joke at their expense. Doing so will gain them far more respect than they will lose by having people make fun of them.
Posted by Pete at February 9, 2006 05:47 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.petetheelder.com/mt-tb.cgi/731