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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Have You Had a Jerry Springer Operatic Moment?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

07:12 / 09.01.05

Jerry Springer - The Opera website.
BBC 2 'Springer Night' website.

Did anyone watch it? What did you think? And were the protests outside justified, or just a non-representative group of Christians wanting their own Jerry Springer moment?

Brigade du jour

13:08 / 09.01.05

I'm going to watch it tonight, be back with highly tickled commentary later!

14:09 / 09.01.05

Saw it last year in the Cambridge Theatre, with Michael Brandon playing Jer-reee. Laughed myself sick: there's only the one joke, really, but it's a good one; somehow, the phenomenon of opera singers singing swear words never got tired. "He's a cunt, he's a cunt, he's a cunting cunting cunt" still makes me smile.

The controversy? Well, we live in a secular country, with whatevertinypercent actually making it along to to Church of a Sunday. I don't see why that whatevertinypercent should dictate what I do and don't have access to on my television set. It does have an off-switch, after all.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

15:30 / 09.01.05

Ah, but it's not them they are worried about, it's that because the Government forces them to send their children to the ghastly local comp then tomorrow morning they will be surrounded in the playground by the awful children of common people who, because they are all boozed up and injecting marjurania into themselves would have let their offspring watch JS:TO and so they will be dancing around singing "He's a cunting cunting cunt".

Its a two-pronged attack as far as I can see, The Sun and News International going for the BBC because it's the BBC, The Daily Mail and Mediawatch going for the BBC because they hate what they see as a working/lower class show.

Good to see that 'Attention Scum!' got mentioned last night. I've had no luck looking for torrents of that.

03:19 / 10.01.05

Like 'nesh I saw it a couple of years ago on the stage and am kind of suprized that it's broadcast caused any controversy at all... slow news day I guess now that compassion fatigue has set in on all Tsunami news coverage...

ONLY NICE THINGS

07:44 / 10.01.05

What *is* interesting is that it only caused serious uproar when televised - presumably the London stage is a pretty safe place to be blasphemous, because the anorak-wearing herberts who are likely to complain just aren't going to know about it.

The broadcast itself I enjoyed - as Ganesh says, it's one joke, but it works. Having said which - the inner valkyrie was wasted, and Richard Thomas' score was soupily undistinguished - Stewart Lee was doing all the work, as near as I could tell.

On the other hand... "Jerry Springer - the Opera" is designed primarily to make people feel satisfied about not being offended because they are sophisiticated urbanites. As such, the anorak brigades were *always* going to cause a fuss, because they are not the audience...

10:12 / 10.01.05

What *is* interesting is that it only caused serious uproar when televised - presumably the London stage is a pretty safe place to be blasphemous, because the anorak-wearing herberts who are likely to complain just aren't going to know about it.

I can't shake the feeling that the timing of the outrage was more a reaction to this than anything else. Sort of "Hey, we're an abused minority too! Watch us flex *our* muscles."

10:52 / 10.01.05

there's the point that the sandalwearers pay their license fees too - they could perhaps be spared the sourness of their own cash being used to take the piss out of themselves. it's mainly rollocks, because - get this - they have a fiction that they love SO MUCH that they think it should be especially exempt from criticism by anyone else! - but it's still a point. i believe the widdecombe-default in this circumstance is that in the west end your moneyed londons can go and choose to have their long-fixed ideas about jerry and his trailer dwellers sung back at them if they like, but the public service broadcasting angle is less easy to defend.

brilliant little spat all-round. christians issuing death threats to bbc bosses: 'we're not mad though!'

i started to watch it, but, well, why are they singing? i can take opera if it's in a non-english language (with dot-matrix subtitles) but whenever people ssSSIIIIIIIING!!! what could otherwise be spoken english i feel like i'm being patronised, that the people on-stage are somehow even less cool than my primary-school music teacher. back to the spaced boxset it was.

Tryphena Absent

13:53 / 10.01.05

The idea that some people think this is controversial just makes me want to condescend.

I noticed a letter in a magazine, you know the usual- how far are we prepared to let things go in the name of art- but I thought it was a genuinely good opera, nicely structured, good music, humorous, contemporary with a nice commentary on society. I felt truly sorry for the letter writer that they'd be so caught up in the language and the blasphemy that they couldn't see how good the show was. And I pretty much feel the same about all those Christians waving their banners- I mean, you'd hope that god would have a better sense of humour than your average Springer contestant but if his earthly minions are anything to go by he really sucks in that department.

Brigade du jour

13:59 / 10.01.05

I thought the joke wore thin really quickly, actually. In fact, I'm sitting here watching the second half (oop, God's just come onstage, didn't realise he was such a porker, not that I can talk) and finding the whole thing much easier to watch as background noise, but hey that's just me. I suppose if you like The Jerry Springer Show then you'll like this. Personally I stopped finding people fighting each other and being pithily and ironically remarked upon funny after about two shows.

Did anyone else see the footage of the whingeing protestor types burning their TV licences? Too funny! Cos like now they have to pay them all over again next time they want to watch Songs Of Praise. Ha ha.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:55 / 10.01.05

Well, it was a meaningless protest because as far as the man in the detector van's computer knows, they are covered by their license, albeit they can't display it. A meaningful protest would have involved working out how to get their licenses cancelled, so they couldn't watch telly without breaking the law.

20:11 / 11.01.05

Haven't watched it yet, and unlike the protestors, don't wish to comment on something I haven't seen.

But one point; you know that argument in letters/ posts to the BBC website etc etc which runs, basically: "It's political correctness gone mad! They would only dare to do this to Christians, no-one else gets the same treatment if they follow the other, mainly non-white religions in Britain...etc etc gibber froth"?

Well, as has already been pointed out, Bezhti raised a few hackles; and how about this? Didn't notice anyone suggesting that Corrie's producers should get death threats for miocking this God - who is one of our own number, too:

HINDU leaders have rejected an apology from Coronation Street after a scene showed a Hindu statue used as a weapon.
Viewers saw Maya threaten Sunita with a statue of Hindu god Lord Ganesh as part of a long running plot line.

ITV apologised for any offence caused but said it was clear "Maya's actions were that of a deranged woman".

Ramesh Kallidai, secretary of The Hindu Forum of Britain said: "The apology is not unconditional, it makes a justification for the behaviour."

He added: "This is not acceptable to us."

The scene showed Maya ordering a cowering Sunita to be submissive or her husband would come home to find Sunita had been "beaten to death by Ganesh, the God of good fortune".

20:29 / 11.01.05

Isn't it ironic - don't you think?

01:07 / 16.01.05

Great show. Headline in the Mail Christians are fair game. Well, quite. Payback for fucking up my teenage years.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

02:05 / 16.01.05

Fantastic letter in the Mail a coupl of days ago blaming the modern flood of blasphemy on Christians who've "misinterpreted the teachings of Christ" and act like pacifists.

...the fuck?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:11 / 16.01.05

Just watched it and am wondering when the Beeb will be sending Christian Voice a thank you for so obligingly making a big fuss. I didn't think it was that good, I suppose I'd hoped that Stewart Lee had evolved beyond the "No, not 'aaah'!" joke when he stopped doing the telly show. The story was weak, when Jerry finally got to hell it became obvious that Lee didn't have any real idea what to do or say next, the Devil wants an apology, it's tough being God? Well blow me fucking down. And his solution? Fuck all of you.

The first half betrayed it's workshop origins, the second half betrayed the fact they needed material long enough to justify a stage show.

18:12 / 28.01.05

Finally watched it a week ago - haven't been back here til now...

Bit late, as no one else did it, but SPOILERS;

Thoughts:

1: This clearly would have worked much better if I had seen it on stage; impressive use of the stage and set, which came across less well on TV than I think it would in the theatre.

2: It IS clearly offensive, but, so Fucking what? Also, I note that much of the offence was being manufactured by the media, as the whole bit about Mary being raped by an angel would be, perhaps, slightly more offensive to Christians than Jesus in a nappy.*

3: *Except it ain't a nappy, it's a fucking loincloth. And the whole point there, surely, is that Jerry in his fevered hell dream has remembered characters from the show in the first half of the Opera* and they becopme other more well-known characters later on. The guy in a nappy in the first half is not Jesus, and Jesus is not the guy in the nappy. Although stupid people - like some of those protestors who actually bothererd to watch the show - might think he was.

4: *Opera my arse, it's a musical with a Napoleon complex. Though I still liked it.

5: Bits of this could be construed as racist or homophobic. Didn't read many people attacking the racism or homophobia, though the blasphemy, well, that's unforgivable! BEcause, as eveeryone knows, God only loves WASPs.

11:57 / 25.07.05

%Stewart Lee backs down in the face of criticism...%

The list of cabaret acts appearing across the city's hundreds of fringe venues next month is littered with provocatively titled shows and many top comedians have declared their intention to flout new legislation which will outlaw 'incitement to religious hatred'. The law, which now looks likely to be on the statute books early next year, is seen as a threat to the right of writers and performers to attack organised religions.

Among those who will be using the festival to test the workability of the bill is Stewart Lee, co-creator of the controversial musical Jerry Springer: The Opera. 'I had wanted to call my show Stewart Lee Likes to Incite Religious Hatred, but I thought it was such a bad, woolly law, that it would not still be around by the summer,' he said.

His show, now called Nineties Comedian, will run at The Underbelly venue. 'I have tried to write the most indefensibly blasphemous show there could possibly be,' he said. 'A lot of it is a dialogue between me and Jesus about what counts as acceptable forms of expression. It ends with Jesus asking my forgiveness.'

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:03 / 21.11.07

Charmless bigots Christian Voice are seeking High Court sanction to prosecute the BBC for blasphemy. While everyone else has forgotten about JSTO and moved on, Christian Voice want to give it some more free publicity and perhaps some more DVD sales.

Michael Gledhill, QC, appearing for Mr Green, said... it was not being argued that "God cannot be criticised... This is not just about protecting the rights of a section of the Christian population. It is about protecting the constitution of the nation which is built on the Christian faith."

It seems that Stephen Green (who I'm sure is the only member of Christian Voice) is trying to claim that Jerry Springer The Opera was a terrorist act against the United Kingdom.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

08:22 / 05.07.08

In hilarious news, after losing his court case Stephen Green faces declaring bankruptcy in the face of court awarded damages against him. Of course, this sort of thing is never nice to happen to anyone, but then on the other hand Green is a deeply, deeply unpleasant individual.

He's basically arguing that because the BBC and Avalon are so rich they should let him off this money, right after they wasted money defending themselves against his ridiculous time and money-wasting prosecutions in court.

'It should be enough for Mark Thompson and Jonathan Thoday that they got away with blasphemy, insulting God and the Lord Jesus Christ, at least in this life. For these rich, powerful men to pursue me into the bankruptcy courts over money I don't have would be vindictive.'

He links to a petition asking those who have lost money due to the actions of Stephen Green to let him off paying them, there's a second petition calling on the BBC and Avalon to insist on receiving the money in full. The 'please pay' petition has about three hundred more votes so far but the bulk of them seem to be people insulting Stephen.

I wonder if Stephen Green will be picketing Pride this year? If he does, perhaps people could help him out by tossing any coppers they have his way?