I spent a bit of time combing through a lot of the commentary on the Fox News article referencing this particular episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. The discussion there seems to be dominated by the notion of Christians as a persecuted minority group. I’ll come back to that issue in a minute.
First, as you mentioned already Preston, anyone who is particularly surprised by this episode is not familiar with either this show or with Larry David’s work in general. Other things that have been used for comic fodder on “Curb” include: the KKK, fantasizing about a friend’s wife while masturbating, scrotal sprains, oral sex while driving, severing a relationship with a therapist after seeing him in a thong on the beach, apparent bestiality… I could go on for a long time, believe me. The point is that Larry David delights in making his viewers incredibly uncomfortable and that he himself is usually the butt of his jokes. Many posters at Fox are claiming that Jews and Muslims would never stand for such abuse. David is Jewish himself and really: if you think Jews ever get off easy on “Curb” then you definitely haven’t ever watched an episode all the way through.
I’m going to set Larry David aside now and focus on what I think is probably a bit more interesting: the meeting of art and religion and the people who cry heresy and blasphemy about it. This entire controversy brings to mind Andres Serrano’s Piss Christ. When Serrano displayed a photograph of a crucifix submerged in a glass of his own urine in 1989, the response was less measured than this. This episode will, ultimately, go down as another tempest-in-a-teapot scandal. Teeth will be gnashed and garments rent, but the cycle will be repeated.
Returning to the first issue I raised, we have a great example in both the Piss Christ controversy and this one of Christians presuming that we represent an unheard minority opinion. I do not think that the facts support this idea when it is impossible to even buy a soda from a vending machine without seeing the Christian name of God on the literal “coin of the realm”. Is it time for conservative Christianity to give up the “woe is us” rhetoric in the public square? Moreover, why is that line so seductive in the first place?
It is a very funny paradox of idolatry. Having “God” on the ultimate modern idol, money, is perfectly ok, but urine on an image is associated with peeing on Jesus himself, as if he lived in the image. Perhaps there’s some confusion about the meaning of idolatry in the first place? Maybe self-righteousness just feels that good?
To be fair, the all-seeing eye and the eagle are on U.S. currency too, and that doesn’t necessarily mean that eagle lovers and…. eyeball lovers? have a particularly dominant voice in America. Although I admit that orniphiles probably wouldn’t raise a huge fuss if someone tried to take the eagle off. That too, for some strange reason, would be Christian Conservatives. They’re a contentions bunch.
The eyeball is what really creeps me out. I wouldn’t mind seeing that thing gone, to be quite honest.