A “Saturday Night Live” skit from two weeks ago is drawing sharp criticism in some faith circles.
The skit mocks Quentin Tarantino’s “Django Unchained,” which was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Christoph Waltz) and Best Original Screenplay (Quentin Tarantino).
Walz took home an Oscar Sunday night.
The two-minute SNL skit is being criticized by faith groups as crossing the line as it depicts Jesus using a machine gun in a revenge-minded killing spree.
Here is the skit. Warning: it may be offensive.
If you don’t want to watch it, let me summarize: a resurrected Jesus is shown killing Roman soldiers with a sword and shooting Judas Iscariot with an assault weapon. A voiceover announces that Jesus is back “preaching anything but forgiveness.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations released this statement of protest:
“Such misrepresentation of what Jesus, peace be upon him, stands for is extremely offensive to Muslims and to all those who believe in his message,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said. “While we understand the use of shocking imagery and bizarre juxtapositions to provoke a humorous response, we believe such a distasteful portrayal of a religious figure revered by billions of Muslims and Christians worldwide crosses the comedic line.”
Joseph Aponick, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, told PennLive that the over-the-top skit demonstrated lack of respect for Jesus and the deeply held religious beliefs of so many.
“Humor does not need to insult to entertain nor does it need to portray the Prince of Peace as the violent fictional Django character,” Aponick said.
Personally, I don’t find it as much offensive as not really funny. This “controversy” will disappear quickly, I think, because it’s a fairly stupid and unimaginative attempt at satire.
There’s so much silliness and extremism among faith circles that I would expect something more from SNL than Jesus manning a machine gun.
Do you find this video offensive? Or just plain stupid?
Leave me your opinion in the comments.
While I appreciate CAIR wanting to condemn this offensive sketch, maybe it’s better not to feed the beast and drive people who hadn’t and wouldn’t see this mockery by, in a sense, publicizing it.
I find this video extremely offensive and we should protest against this video I am really angry.I hope God curse the guy who made the movie and give him cancer.They think every thing is funny to them.