I’m picking on Andrée Seu again today. She was the one whose commentary I tsk’d over in regards to how women dress. Today her gripe is with Larry David’s character urinating on Jesus in a recent Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. I admit that I can agree with her assumptions of quality television.
One good thing about not being a TV watcher is that I am impervious to the “frog in the pot syndrome.” Everything shocks me because the last I tuned in was to the 1960’s Bonanza.
Supposedly if you throw a frog into a boiling pot of water, it’ll leap out in a panic. If you start with the frog in cool water and slowly warm it, the frog gets used to the changes in heat and doesn’t realize it’s getting boiled alive until it’s much too late to do anything about it. Turns out that’s all a lie. Once the frog gets uncomfortable, it’ll make every attempt to get the hell out.
Unlike this woman, I’m not at all shocked by what passes for entertainment in the world. She must wander the world with her ears blocked and blinders on if she hasn’t already noticed all the terrible humour out there. She’d be wrong to assume that’s all there is, though, just based on one bad experience.
So when my friend told me about the Sunday, October 25 episode of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, I suffered a genuine Alvin Toffler “future shock.”
Future Shock was written by Toffler in 1970. In it he suggests that technology has been changing so fast that it becomes stressful and traumatic for people who can’t adapt as fast. As someone who is witnessing the dawn of a New Library Age (more on that Monday and the coming weeks) I can concur in theory. I doubt a new library catalogue for the province is going to change divorce rates or increase drug use but I’ll bet library crime will see a big boost once people realize fines have increased to a dollar per DVD per day. I suspect a lot more will walk out the door and never return rather than get properly borrowed.
But I digress. Back to the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.
The plotline involves Larry David, who plays a caricature himself on the show, going to the bathroom in the home of a Catholic woman where there is a painting of Jesus on the wall next to the toilet. The David character somehow manages to spray a drop of urine onto the icon, and it lands on Jesus’ cheek, below his eye.
Later the woman emerges from the loo and announces that a miracle has happened: The Jesus picture is crying. The audience has a good laugh at the stupid Christian’s expense.
I’m going to agree with how tacky it is. It’s sad that people like Larry David use their shows to malign stupid Catholics. It’s not really their fault they see miracles where none exist. It’s built into the lifestyle. Unlike the frog who isn’t dumb enough to stay in a stupid situation, so few Catholics are willing to do the same. They can’t see how stupid it is for some reason.
Why would the first assumption be a miracle rather than thinking Larry’s an ass who can’t aim his stream? Why would any Christian put Christ’s picture so close to the toilet anyway? I’m forever worried I’ll drop a comb down the bog, they’d risk knocking Jesus in every time they reach for a new roll of toilet paper? Bizarre is all I can say about that.
The German population of the 1930s didn’t wake up one morning and decide to kill Jews. The relentless poisoning of the atmosphere through media softened them up. For instance, Julius Streicher’s Der Sturner magazine ran cartoons featuring characters with large noses, engaged in immoral acts. Ridicule is the passport into the violence to come.
Catholics had nothing to do with all that, of course. Pius was the very vision of piety. God must have wanted all those Jewish folk to die horribly. Hate Hitler, but don’t question God. But he did save some Jews, apparently. By insisting they abandon their faith and become Catholics. Isn’t that helpful? Sure is, betcha by golly.
No, the Germans left it up to their leaders to make some bad decisions and let themselves be encouraged to act on their dislike and distrust of the Jewish population. Why were they disliked and not trusted prior to the 1930s? I’m not a historian so I can’t illustrate just how the rest of Europe felt about them, let alone the Germans. I do know that Hitler’s holocaust wasn’t the first ever attempt to rid the world of Jews. It’s a two thousand year old prejudice. Maybe older. Is there any valid logical reason behind antisemitism beyond religious differences? Not that I can see.
You know how fear breeds? By pairing ignorance with superstition. Rather than make attempts to understand something different, it’s mocked, ridiculed and demonized instead. Is that fair? Hardly. The only way to fight prejudice is to be willing to look beyond it for some truth.
The difference between the presumed offenses Christians experience and the real offenses Jewish people have experienced is very great. I don’t think ridicule has to lead to violence, though. Propaganda can be a step toward violence, but Larry David demonstrating a complete lack of care is just bad television. Did people laugh at the crazy Catholic? Probably. Were Catholics offended? Probably. But they can’t say he didn’t illustrate a common fault of the Catholic faith. Belief without proof. Ignorance with superstition.
That’s something everyone should work on fixing, regardless of religious leanings.
