Manger Danger, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #177 | @MDWorld

April 24, 2012 Arthur Tebbel 6 Comments

As most anyone reading this knows my dad died last week. There have been three great pieces written about him on this very site. I’m not going to do that. Dad was smart and funny and delightful to talk to and every word that’s been written about him this past week is true. He also would have probably would have had enough of all that by now and would probably want us all to get on with things. I don’t want you to think that this isn’t a tribute to my father though. There are few things he hated more than Bill Donohue and his Catholic League so I’ll be taking a letter from him today. This one’s for you dad.

Dear Art,
It is a perilous time for Catholics right now. We are under assault from all directions in the media. Most notably from Jon Stewart and The Daily Show who put a manger scene in front of a woman’s genitals. This is a flagrant attack on the Catholic faith and we are in the process of asking advertisers to remove their ads from his program and are contemplating a boycott. What can I do to stop these attacks on Catholicism? It isn’t like
-Bill Donohue, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

Bill,
I’m not Catholic, I’m not even a Christian, and so forgive me if a few of my specifics are off here but I don’t think Catholics have a monopoly on the manger scene. There are a lot of Jesus-worshippers out there and if every December I can remember is any indication they all seem to be pretty in to the time of his birth. You can probably stop taking this quite so personally. That is, if taking innocuous things super personally wasn’t your entire career.

You said in your statement that Stewart would never go after Jews or Muslims in the same way. This leads me to believe you have never seen an episode of The Daily Show or listened to Jon Stewart talk for more than a couple minutes at a time. Making fun of Jews and Jewish cultural touchstone is basically his wheelhouse. He spent an entire segment trashing Passover this month. Do you just never consume media unless someone has told you it would offend you? How big is the staff that handles this for you? On how many days of your life would you say you’ve ever had fun?

Let’s not pretend that there isn’t a lot of Catholic stuff that isn’t worth making fun of. Last week the church said that nuns were spending too much time helping the poor and not enough time stopping gay marriage and abortion. I know you’re a humorless dick but the idea of crusading nuns breaking up gay marriage ceremonies or dragging people out of abortion clinics is pretty hilarious. Please don’t boycott this website. On second thought, please go away and never come back.