An image from the animated sitcom Popetown.
Posted on 05/03/2006 6:35:34 AM PDT by lizol
Bishops want animated pogo-riding pope banned
May 3, 2006 - 11:01AM
German Catholic leaders launched legal steps on Tuesday to prevent youth music channel MTV from broadcasting a controversial cartoon series which depicts the Pope as a pogo-stick-riding maniac.
Outraged bishops from Pope Benedict XVI's home state of Bavaria filed a legal injunction against the broadcaster, which plans to show the first episode of the satirical series Popetown on Wednesday evening.
The injunction says Popetown -- which was dropped in Britain after a wave of protest -- is insulting to Catholics since it shows the Pope bouncing through St. Peter's in Rome on a cross-like pogo stick and satirizes religious ceremonies.
"In this way the Catholic faith and the Catholic church are exposed to ridicule, which is justified neither by the freedom of opinion, of art, of the press nor of broadcasting," the archdiocese of Munich and Freising said in a statement.
The youth music channel said it plans to show one episode and will then gauge viewers' appetite for more.
"We will initially broadcast this first episode and then will make a decision based on the feedback of the viewers," said Mats Wappmann, a spokesman for MTV in Berlin.
The bishops also attacked the television channel for an advertising campaign which showed Jesus apparently getting down from the cross to sit in an armchair and watch the program.
The advert's tagline read: Have a laugh instead of hanging around.
MTV, which airs dating show Dismissed and car makeover program Pimp My Ride, said it had been prepared for resistance to Popetown but had been taken by surprise over the extent of the backlash from the Catholic church.
MTV has invited church representatives, a youth political party and viewers to discuss the merits of the show in a debate to be broadcast after the cartoon on Wednesday.
The British broadcaster BBC dropped Popetown in 2004 after executives decided it was not funny enough to justify the potential offence it could cause to Christians. However, episodes are widely available to download on the Internet.
Written by comedian Mackenzie Crook, co-star of Ricky Gervais's successful sitcom, The Office, Popetown depicts the pontiff as a rotund 77-year-old, obsessed with his pogo-stick and surrounded by toys.
The workings of the Vatican are portrayed like an office, with the Pope as boss and his cardinals as scheming managers.
Has anyone seen those "heroes" from MTV showing any of the Muhammad cartoons?
Ping
C'mon folks, show the Mooslims that Catholics have a better sense of humor than they do.
A German's first inclination is restrict freedom of speech.
Always.
Comedy Central has already proven that you cannot get the medias "respect" unless you behead a few people. The Vatican needs to reopen its office of the Inquisition.
Sure, I'm not goign to riot, burn, or kill.
But it doesn't mean, that I'm supposed to like it.
BTW - it shows pretty good all the hypocrisy of the "progressive" media.
BTW, aren't all pogo sticks pretty much cross-shaped?
Hilarious. Nice to see 'free speech' is alive and well in the commie, socialist, fascist EU. Oh wait... it never was, except for the murderous muslims.
That's the point.
"In this way the Catholic faith and the Catholic church are exposed to ridicule, which is justified neither by the freedom of opinion, of art, of the press nor of broadcasting," the archdiocese of Munich and Freising said in a statement.
No..... sorry thats the "right" not to OFFENDED. This actually fits perfectly within the confines of the right to free speech.
German humor seems to reside at the lowest levels only. Anything resembling satire is beyond them.
I can see why they would not like the cartoons, but they only draw attention to them this way. I wish they came down on their own predatory priests the same way. (Ditto all other denominations. I am not anti-Catholic.)
Hey if Tom Cruise can jump on a couch, why can't the Pope rise a pogo stick?
You don't read a headline this everyday.
Are the riots to follow? <sarcasm
LOL!
Thats right, I was just about to tell you to shut the hell up!
Heh. Funny lookin pic. Is it the content or just the pope on a pogostick that is so offensive here. I haven't seen this before and can imagine any number of ways they could be demeaning with it. There is no right in this country not to be offended; but, I don't much see freedom of speach as a license to be offensive either. license and liberty can look a lot alike at times; but, they are indeed different. A society with no moral grounding, though, rarely regards such a thing as 'restraint'. Or in the words of the Chaos theorist from Jurassic Park, 'They spent so much time considering whether they could that they didn't bother to consider whether they should.'
We'll see.
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