The Opera and The Messiah
Two controversial TV programmes have graced the terrestrial airwaves over the last couple of days. Jerry Springer: The Opera attracted record numbers of complaints before it was even shown, but Derren Brown: Messiah seems to have slipped beneath the radar undetected.
Unlike many Christians who, fired up by the Mediawatch lobby group, picketed BBC buildings last night in protest even though most of them hadn’t even seen the play, I actually watched Jerry Springer: The Opera before judging it.
I have to say I enjoyed the first act - well acted, good songs, an excellent satire of the Jerry Springer Show. Unfortunately, the whole thing fell down in the second act. Rather than continuing the clever observation, it got stupidly silly with Jerry decending into Hell and hosting a special edition of his show for the devil. It wasn�t even funny.
I do agree, however, that it was blasphemous in places. For example, suggesting that Mary was raped by the Holy Spirit was way past the mark of acceptability.
Unfortunately, all the Christians who have read a couple of things in the paper over the last few days and have launched a full scale rant have badly let themselves down. I’m quite ashamed to be associated with them. They’ve let their anger get in the way of checking out any of the facts. Jesus didn’t appear on stage wearing a nappy - at least it looked like a loincloth rather than a nappy to me. The reference to Jesus being gay is almost a throw-away remark. As for the 8000 swear words, let’s do a quick calculation:
Running time: 120 mins = 7200 secs
Supposed # swear words: 8000
Time between swear words: 7200 / 8000 = 0.9secs
A swear word more than once a second? There wouldn’t be time for anything else!
It’s a pity these people were so quick to jump the gun. They have got a valid point - I believe the show did contain some blasphemous content (but looking at the context of the show I don’t think they were trying to make any serious allegations). Unfortunately, the protestors picked up on the wrong things, effectively nullifying anything valid they may have said.
As for the minority (I hope) of the group who sent threats of physical violence and bloodshead to BBC staff, I think God may well judge them even more harshly. Who knows?
So on to Derren Brown: Messiah, screened on Friday night on Channel 4. The programme followed Derren to America where he posed as five different characters with supposed supernatural powers, seeking to gain a seal of approval from various psychics, mediums and religious leaders.
Of course, Brown did not actually possess any such gifts. He merely used his skills of showmanship, diversion and suggestion to make out that he did. He was attempting to get the audience to question belief systems - how people can be made to believe, whether these beliefs are real and valid.
Three of the five experiments were clear cut - a demonstration of “psychic abilities”, a dream machine that could play back a person’s dreams to Derren, and an alien encounter which left him with the ability to tell someone their medical history. The “experts” all freely lauded praise on Brown, each one of them unquestioningly accepting his powers as real.
One of the other experiments had Brown posing as a man who could convert unbelievers to Christianity merely by touching them. While this doesn’t of course disprove that God really exists or show Christianity is a load of rubbish, it does raise some interesting questions about these miracle conversions that go on at mass rallies and so forth. Is it really just crowd histeria and clever tricks? To his credit, the reverend who saw Derren performing his “miracle” said that, whilst interesting, he would want to meet with Derren again before going any further.
The final and most disturbing experiment had Derren visit a Spiritualist Church, claiming he could put people in contact with their dead relatives. Once again, of course, he did not really have any such gift but was using standard techniques used by mediums, picking up on information and guessing. It was surprising not only how accurate he seemed to be, but also how willingly the participants accepted what he was saying.
So, a 4 out of 5 success rate, or failure rate depending on the way you look at it. A challenging and thought provoking programme.
Unfortunately, the Jerry Springer: The Opera controversy has pushed to the side all discussion of Derren Brown: Messiah - a programme that at other times may have led to some interesting viewpoints.