The right wing lunatics at Christian Voice are up in arms about the proposed tour of Jerry Springer:The Opera. Disappointingly it isn't because they feel I was the talented one in Lee and Herring and that Lee has been over hyped. Instead they don't like anyone else giving their opinion about religion and are annoyed that the fuss they have kicked up has failed to stop the tour happening. When will these protesting religious types realise that causing a palaver about something will just give it more publicity and make it more likely to reach more people. We live in a country where free speech over-rides almost anything else and most people (religious or atheist)would rather something like JSTO is allowed to be performed (even if it offends them or they disagree with it) than to live in a world where being an arsehole can stop people saying what they want.
It's worth having a look round the Christian Voice website because it shows them up to be the deluded and arrogant fools that they truly are. They also oppose gay pride for example and I suspect they would support the shunning of menstruating women. I hope so. They would need to to be consistent.
My favourite bit comes on this page where they say "The Lord God brought 1,500 Christians out to protest outside BBC venues all over the United Kingdom on the evening of 8th January in an unprecedented street vigil of prayer. The 400-500 of us at White City alone prayed for God to have mercy and stop the transmission. By letting it go ahead, it was clear God's heart was for judgment instead."
This is one helluva way to explain the failure of mass prayer.
But more crucially the author is arrogant enough to feel that he or she can speak for God and work out His motives. It's a bit presumption to say that a failure to act means that God is going to seek justice. I would say that by not acting God is more likely to be saying that he doesn't really care about the work of Stewart Lee and considers Himself strong enough to cope with a bit of scatalogical satire. Or alternatively by not acting God is probably saying, "Actually I don't exist, so it doesn't make any odds to me whether a TV programme goes out or not - now can you stop with the praying, I am trying to not exist here."
Having said all this there is a part of me that thinks that it seems so obvious that such a protest can only help sell tickets for the show, that the only explanation is that Christian Voice has been started by my evil management company Avalon in order to generate column inches in newspapers and weblogs.
Still it upsets me to see the veiled threats aimed at my friend and erstwhile partner, especially when they so wilfully misunderstand the work they are discussing (though at least nail him on the missionary zeal bit - though there's a slight case of pot and kettle there don't you think?). I hope they don't hurt or kill him. Though on the bright side that might lead to a retail release of
Fist of Fun. The front cover could be me holding up a photo of Stew and looking sad.
Knowing my luck, given that no-one seems to be able to tell us apart, someone will get us confused and I'll end up the victim of the fatwa (and we all know that I have never done anything to offend Christians in my whole life - so that wouldn't be fair). If that happens could you please make Stewart feel as guilty as possible. Think of it as my legacy. On the bright side this might mean
Fist of Fun would get a release and instead the front cover would be Stew holding the picture of me, looking sad and guilty, with a bodyguard.
With a bit of luck the confused killer might end up killing Dom Joly and then everyone will be happy.
