So ... why South Park and not Maher? Both of those shows push the envelope on a regular basis. Or do Maher's political views tilt the scale?

 

And, for the record, I'm not a South park fan. I watched one episode at the behest of some friends, and it was enough to turn me off the entire series.

Yet you watch Maher? Makes sense.......NOT!

Yet you watch Maher? Makes sense.......NOT!

 

Why not? Everybody's entitled to watch the satire they choose. Maybe Westsider was scared by a cartoon once and prefers his satirists live? :thumb:

Maybe Ann Coulter should start identifying herself as a comedian as well.

I thought she was.

Why not? Everybody's entitled to watch the satire they choose. Maybe Westsider was scared by a cartoon once and prefers his satirists live? :thumb:

Funny.

 

Actually, I'm not a fan of animated shows. Plus, on the one episode I watched of South Park, the subject of the show was pretty offensive to me.

 

I have seen some brief clips of South Park in other venues and found them funny. But it's a first impression thing ... mine simply wasn't very good.

I thought she was.

 

Nah, she's a clown.

So ... why South Park and not Maher? Both of those shows push the envelope on a regular basis. Or do Maher's political views tilt the scale?

 

And, for the record, I'm not a South park fan. I watched one episode at the behest of some friends, and it was enough to turn me off the entire series.

 

Because South Park doesn't try to come off as some kind of authority who's opinion matters, Maher does and you can't turn that off by just going into the "humor segment". If anything IMVHO Maher's political views tilt the scale in such a way that he is able to say things like this and not have a huge backlash in the mainstream media, particularly when his comments are directed towards an institution that seems to be fair game for anyone to be derisive to.

Because South Park doesn't try to come off as some kind of authority who's opinion matters, Maher does and you can't turn that off by just going into the "humor segment".

Duh ... could it be because the shows are not even comparable?

 

"South Park" is a freakin' cartoon, strictly a comedy show. Maher's shows have featured serious discussions on political and cultural issues.

If anything IMVHO Maher's political views tilt the scale

Figured as much ...

Duh ... could it be because the shows are not even comparable?

 

"South Park" is a freakin' cartoon, strictly a comedy show. Maher's shows have featured serious discussions on political and cultural issues.

 

Figured as much ...

 

 

That's exactly the difference I was talking about. Maher tries to be serious and then he says something offensive and hides behind the "it was satire" schtick. Either it's a comedy show and nothing he says should be taken seriously or it is a serious issues show and everything he says is to be taken seriously.

 

Do you honestly believe that if Limbaugh or Hannity or O'Reiley had said something as repugnant about Muslims that the "main stream" media wouldn't have covered it ad nauseum?

That's exactly the difference I was talking about. Maher tries to be serious and then he says something offensive and hides behind the "it was satire" schtick. Either it's a comedy show and nothing he says should be taken seriously or it is a serious issues show and everything he says is to be taken seriously.

 

Do you honestly believe that if Limbaugh or Hannity or O'Reiley had said something as repugnant about Muslims that the "main stream" media wouldn't have covered it ad nauseum?

All you have to do is look at the war going on between CAIR and Michael Savage to answer that question.

what I can't believe is that this discussion has stretched to 3 pages and 130 posts.

 

In the meantime, there's Iraq...the economy ...American Idol.

That's exactly the difference I was talking about. Maher tries to be serious and then he says something offensive and hides behind the "it was satire" schtick. Either it's a comedy show and nothing he says should be taken seriously or it is a serious issues show and everything he says is to be taken seriously.

"Real Time" features both serious discussion and comedy ... what, a show can't do both?

OK...I haven't chimed in on this thread in a while, but I've been thinking about the issue. First, to be honest, I had not idea that the pope actually was a Nazi...but, hear me out before you blast me. From what I've heard, he was drafted into the Nazi machine against his will, and got out when the opportunity came along. So, I guess technically Maher's statement was correct, but misleading, IMO. He was forced to do something against his will, and Maher's statement implies he was a supporter.

 

I would like to apologize if I've offended anyone...I try not to speak before I think things through, or in this case, I typed. But since then, I've tried to check up on this stuff and here's what I've concluded. First, I think the Catholic Church did mishandle the cases of child abuse in the past...however, they have made significant progress more recently. Some statistics I come across...the cases of child abuse accounted for something like 4 or 5 percent of the priesthood over the time period the cases covered. More recently, out of roughly 42,000 priest, there were 4 or 5 allegations of child abuse this past year. I think what's happened is all this stuff broke into the news at once, so we were getting stories that covered a large period of time, but the coverage of it made it seem more like these things had all happened in the past year or two. It has caused the church, and more specifically, the priesthood to be viewed as a group of child abusers, when in reality, it was a very small percentage. I do think the church's prior mishandling caused some of the more recent backlash, but the reality is, IMO, that they have done a good job addressing this issue in the present time.

 

So, I was wrong, and I apologize for my initial statement that Maher was dead on.

 

However, I still don't agree with the reaction of outrage and calling for him to be fired. Having watched Maher quite a bit and hearing numerous "offensive" comments fired at Christianity and Jesus Christ, I find it perplexing that those comments warranted no reaction while a jab at the pope resulted in a forced apology.

OK...I haven't chimed in on this thread in a while, but I've been thinking about the issue. First, to be honest, I had not idea that the pope actually was a Nazi...but, hear me out before you blast me. From what I've heard, he was drafted into the Nazi machine against his will, and got out when the opportunity came along. So, I guess technically Maher's statement was correct, but misleading, IMO. He was forced to do something against his will, and Maher's statement implies he was a supporter.

 

I would like to apologize if I've offended anyone...I try not to speak before I think things through, or in this case, I typed. But since then, I've tried to check up on this stuff and here's what I've concluded. First, I think the Catholic Church did mishandle the cases of child abuse in the past...however, they have made significant progress more recently. Some statistics I come across...the cases of child abuse accounted for something like 4 or 5 percent of the priesthood over the time period the cases covered. More recently, out of roughly 42,000 priest, there were 4 or 5 allegations of child abuse this past year. I think what's happened is all this stuff broke into the news at once, so we were getting stories that covered a large period of time, but the coverage of it made it seem more like these things had all happened in the past year or two. It has caused the church, and more specifically, the priesthood to be viewed as a group of child abusers, when in reality, it was a very small percentage. I do think the church's prior mishandling caused some of the more recent backlash, but the reality is, IMO, that they have done a good job addressing this issue in the present time.

 

So, I was wrong, and I apologize for my initial statement that Maher was dead on.

 

However, I still don't agree with the reaction of outrage and calling for him to be fired. Having watched Maher quite a bit and hearing numerous "offensive" comments fired at Christianity and Jesus Christ, I find it perplexing that those comments warranted no reaction while a jab at the pope resulted in a forced apology.

:thumb: Good post. I always find it perplexing that the jab at the Pope got more reaction than at Jesus, but for whatever reason, I can assure you that we Catholics are not pope-worshippers.

 

This is not making an excuse for the horrible things that some Priests did, but one thing to keep in mind- in the 1960's priest numbers were incredibly low, and the seminaries (unwisely) allowed homosexuals to enter the Priesthood. I believe I read an independent study (or survey or something) that came out and said a lot of the abuse was not child abuse, but instead gay priests having inappropriate homosexual relationships with 17,18, 19 year olds (which is still an atrocity to me IMO).

 

I will attempt to find a link on this, but I heard this like 3 or 4 years ago. Maybe AllTell or Getslow can comment if they ever heard anything like this.

:thumb: Good post. I always find it perplexing that the jab at the Pope got more reaction than at Jesus, but for whatever reason, I can assure you that we Catholics are not pope-worshippers.

 

This is not making an excuse for the horrible things that some Priests did, but one thing to keep in mind- in the 1960's priest numbers were incredibly low, and the seminaries (unwisely) allowed homosexuals to enter the Priesthood. I believe I read an independent study (or survey or something) that came out and said a lot of the abuse was not child abuse, but instead gay priests having inappropriate homosexual relationships with 17,18, 19 year olds (which is still an atrocity to me IMO).

 

I will attempt to find a link on this, but I heard this like 3 or 4 years ago. Maybe AllTell or Getslow can comment if they ever heard anything like this.

 

I don't think Catholics are pope-worshippers...I don't necessarily agree with everything related to the pope or some of the titles bestowed upone him, but I don't think Catholics worship him.

 

After hearing the Catholic statistics, I think it would be interesting to compare the percentages of child abuse cases with other religions and institutions...I'm guessing there wouldn't be a big difference.

 

I watched a lot of EWTN this past week as the chronicled the pope's visit to the United States...I found it to be pretty interesting and informative. I view the Catholic church like all true Christian churches...just like Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, Mennonite, Amish, etc....none of them are perfect. But, they are all Christian churches, IMO. I don't have to agree with everything about a particular church to like it or respect it, or know that it's part Christ's true church...

Bill Maher is possibly not a bigot, moreso just an attention-craving idiot. His comments have to be inflammatory, else no one would remember he exists. For that reason, his comments don't really offend me.

 

He does seem to criticize all religions equally. Perhaps he is angry with God because he is unable to score with chicks unless he's paying.