Comedy Central Jesus Cartoon: Bill Donohue Wants it Stopped

Comedy Central's development slate contains 22 projects that cover all those funny topics like sex, drugs and idiots, rich and poor, and then there's the one getting all the attention -- the one about religion. The proposed new show "JC" will run a half hour and depicts Jesus Christ as wanting to get out of the shadow of his "powerful" father, who is a video game addict. Christ wants to live a "normal life in NYC," which probably means that there will be no apostles and Jesus will have the same chance as everyone else of hailing a taxi.

A lot of articles are showing the South Park "Jesus" character but Comedy Central's head of original programming, Kent Alterman says: We don't even know what the show is yet."

"JC" is actually one of some 13 projects just in script development. Alterman concedes that some folks may not find the program amusing at all: "In general, comedy in purist form always makes some people uncomfortable," he said.

He declined any comment on the recent uproar over redacting a South Park episode with the prophet Mohammad in it, when the show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, were warned that serious harm might befall them, possibly even death, if it aired.

If the script goes forward, "JC" will be produced by Reveille, ("The Office," "Ugly Betty" and "The Biggest Loser"), Henrik Basin, Brian Boyle ("American Dad"), Jonathan Sjoberg and Andreas Ohman.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights has already expressed his organization's displeasure: "It's not certain what is more despicable: the nonstop Christian bashing featured on the network, or Comedy Central's decision to censor all depictions of Muhammad," he said. Since the project is still too new to even defend, Comedy Central had no response to that. He is also urging both Christians and Muslims to write or show up at the office of Doug Herzog, Comedy Central's CEO, to kill the Jesus Christ cartoon idea.

If the network decides that it likes the initial script a lot, the next step would be a test episode. If they like that a lot, then they would put it on the air. Then, of course, its fate will depend upon its popularity with viewers.

"South Park" is not the only one to have depicted Jesus Christ or used the term "JC." In 2001, "The King of the Hill" (FOX) ran an episode entitled "The Father, the Son, and J.C." J.C. in the episode was actually former United States President, Jimmy Carter. The father and son refers to Hank Hill and his father Cotton, while Hank's son, Bobby, confuses Jimmy Carter with Jesus Christ.

Of course, I'm sure many will agree that showing a child's confusion about Christ doesn't even come close to being as outright disrespectful as depicting the Christian God as a video game addict.

Sources embedded and:
The Live Feed: Comedy Central's slate: 22 projects in the pipe
and Comedy Central developing Jesus Christ cartoon
Popeater: Comedy Central May Roll Out Jesus Series