‘Woody Allen Jesus’ Song Censored from ITV; Was It Because It Said Jesus Was a Zombie?
Musician and comedian Tim Minchin recently ran into a bit of censorship over a not-terribly-edgy comedy song about Jesus he composed for a Pre-Christmas special on British tv network ITV:
So I got to writing. Being Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a song about Jesus, but being TV, I knew it would have to be gentle. The idea was to compare him to Woody Allen (short, Jewish, philosophical, a bit hesitant), and expand into redefining his other alleged attributes using modern, popular-culture terminology.
…
And then someone got nervous and sent the tape to ITV’s director of television, Peter Fincham.
And Peter Fincham demanded that I be cut from the show.
He did this because he’s scared of the ranty, shit-stirring, right-wing press, and of the small minority of Brits who believe they have a right to go through life protected from anything that challenges them in any way.
Why is this relevant to the ZRC? Well one of the things he says Jesus was, at least by analogy, is a Zombie.
Go to 1:20 to listen to the following lyrics that ITV didn’t want you (ok, if you live in the UK) to hear:
Jesus died but then came back to life
So the Holy Bible said
Kinda like in ‘Dawn of the Dead’
Like a film by Simon Pegg
Try that these days and you’d be in trouble
Geeks would try to smack you with a shovel
Praise be to Jesus
Praise be to Magic-Woody Allen-Zombie-Jesus
Magic Woody Allen Zombie Jesus!
We approve! The ZRC is especially appreciative of Mr. Minchin pointing out that Anti-Zombie prejudices often, and tragically, lead to violence against the Undead.
Two thoughts come to mind regarding this controversy: first, was ITV’s censorship due, in part or in whole, to the still-contentious issue of Jesus’ potential Zombiehood? (A heated issue that’s come up on the ZRC blog before as well)
Second, technically, is that it should be ‘Spiderman’ Jesus, not Superman; the ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ line is from Spiderman.
But that’s nitpicking and unimportant compared to the larger question of Zombie Jesus and the inability of the Zombie Community to get a fair shake, either in the US or the UK.
After all, the UK’s highly contentious, and now litigious, struggle for Zombie Rights has been an extensive focus of the ZRC in the past year, especially the hard, indispensable work on behalf of UK Zombies by our Zombie of the Year Hannah Eiseman-Renyard.
Coming as this ITV censorship does in the very midst of that struggle for legal recognition, the Zombie Rights Campaign has to ask:
Does ITV have a problem with the Differently Animated? Or just no sense of humor?
Inquiring minds around the world want to know.
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