I am a theoretical physicist and currently Director of 
May 12, 2011
Joking about god not welcome on American TV?
I don't watch much TV but I have noticed that there are no YouTube clips of American broadcast TV shows having atheist comedians making fun of god or religion, the way one finds in the UK or Australia. The closest I have seen is House, where the atheist title character tosses off the occasional barb aimed at religion.
An article in The Australian suggests that as a result foreign comedians who are used to making jokes about religion and getting a good laugh in other countries are sometimes surprised at the hostile reaction they get here, as with Ricky Gervais's performance as host of the Golden Globes awards.
What caused real grief at NBC, the network that broadcasts the Globes, and among those of the organisers who leaked that Gervais had "crossed a line" was the presenter's final quip as he exited.
"Thanks for everyone in the room for being good sports, to NBC and the Hollywood foreign press, thank you for watching at home," he said. "And thank you, God, for making me an atheist."
The US has 210 television market areas, or regions. By the Monday morning NBC bosses had had their ears bent by managers from dozens, ranging from the liberal Bangor, in Maine, to the deeply conservative Corpus Christi, in Texas. The problem was Gervais's final flourish, and they questioned why NBC had not "bleeped" it out as it would swearing. The truth was, NBC did not see it coming.
…
Gervais is not the first British comic to run into this invisible wall. Last year Eddie Izzard hosted the Independent Spirit awards for non-studio filmmakers in Los Angeles. He experienced unusual moments of silence and audience disconnection. The next morning, bloggers crowed that his "attacks on organised religion" cost him the audience.
…
NBC is now seeking to put the 2011 Globes behind it, although its "standards and practices" lawyers are likely to crush any religious jokes scripted in advance next year. Not that that would stop a runaway Gervais.Early reports suggest that in 2012 the microphone may be handed to Joel McHale, a half-Italian comedian who mocks teary reality-show contestants and bumbling news announcers on a weekly cable TV show called The Soup. Picking on the hapless is rewarding fun, the smirking comic has found.
More critically, in seven years on The Soup, the host, a Catholic, has never challenged a powerful deity of any stripe.
God, apparently, cannot take a joke in America.
The demand that NBC should have bleeped out the god comment reveals how insecure religious people are. They cannot tolerate the idea that anyone should publicly declare their disbelief. People thank god all the time on TV for all manner of things from winning awards to scoring touchdowns and I suspect that most atheists are like me and find it merely ridiculous and amusing. I suspect that no atheist has been converted to religious belief by hearing such expressions of devotion. And yet believers fear that hearing people say that they are atheists is dangerous and offensive and worthy of censorship
What is interesting is that comedians like Gervais and Izzard get enthusiastic responses for their standup comedy routines before live audiences in the US. One obvious reason is of course that the people who go to a live show already have some inkling of what they are going to get, unlike the people who watch TV at home. But it is also the case that the audience for standup shows consists of younger people, and their acceptance of god-mocking humor may be another signal of the generational shift that is going on, with younger people not taking religion nearly as seriously as their elders.
The problem that religion faces is that it is such a ripe target for humor because it is so self-contradictory and makes such absurd claims, the exact diet that comedians feast on, and so they cannot resist using it as the butt of jokes. As the taboos against it slowly crumble, as they surely will, we can expect to see more and more mocking of the absurdities of religious beliefs.
The upcoming Rapture on May 21 is a case in point. Expect to see a lot of jokes about it as the day gets closer.
Comments
Our Dumb Country, as The Onion would say.
I see this in a different light. The lack of comedians on American tv shows how sensitive executives are to the likes/demands of the American tv watching population.
Why can't we use this to remove god from the airwaves?
What if after the next Oscars broadcast every atheist writes the network noting how many times "god" was mentioned. In the letter a list of every advertiser that paid for a commercial would be included with a note that said they would boycott that product. Of course all the advertisers would be cc'd on the letter.
What if this became the norm? Why aren't we writing letters to advertisers who support shows where god is evoked?
Making fun of Christianity and religions in general may still be taboo to some, but the show Family Guy doesn't pull any punches. Although I am an atheist, I believe it is very disrespectful to make fun of peoples beliefs. However, I also believe in the freedom of speech and press, so I am kind of in a dilemma when deciding on how society should handle this issue.
Thomas,
When you say it is very disrespectful to make fun of people's beliefs, do you mean ALL beliefs (political, social, economic, etc.) or just religious ones?
Strange that in the USA, where freedom of religion is in the constitution, this does not extend to those without a religion. I am from the UK but live in Australia, both countries where it seems Atheism out ranks any religion. So I am used to comedians mocking religions and long should they. I firmly believe more crimes against humanity are comittted in the name of religion than by those without any strong aliance.
And if there is a God he/she should be able to take a joke, after all he made all of us funny people.
MaxP,
Yes it is a strange phenomenon that it is only the US among the developed world where religion has the strongest hold. But it is changing as nonbelievers are growing at a very rapid rate.