John Safran, Punching On, and a giant seagull more compelling than baiting the Christians, with only a few crumbs of hope?

(Above: giant seagulls on television titillate the tabloids).

Well the first episode of John Safran's Race Relations has come, and come again, and now gone, and there's a faint post-coital sense of disappointment.

First a disclaimer - I only caught the last half, but what I saw was typical Safran, only this time the large budget in airfares didn't compensate for the lack of imagination, wit or ... most to the point, humor.

And it turns out - as expected - that he's not the anti-Christ, he's just a naughty boy. And sometimes he fires, and sometimes he misses the mark

The most obvious sign that Safran missed the mark?

David Penberthy seemed to like it, though it's hard to work out what he's saying for much of Is John Safran the funniest wanker on television?

The two strong things that the show has going for it, in my view, are the novelty and validity of its premise, and the genial nature of its star.

Safran said the reason for the program was that in our increasingly multicultural and multifaith society the chances of future Australian couples being from the same race and religion are diminishing by the day. It’s true, and it means that a comic exploration of those themes is a valid and engaging exercise.

And as Safran’s preparedness to demean not others but himself means that the show has none of the nastiness or cruelty that can mar comedy.

Truth to tell if Penberthy likes you, and celebrates your wankerdom, then as a wanker you're about as cutting edge as a kitchen sponge full of mouldy soapy water, and even Penberthy dimly seems to understand this:

If anything Safran might face more criticism from younger and edgier viewers that the show failed to live up to the hype – as one viewer, Benjamin T, wrote on Twitter, “Safran if it doesn’t make me cringe, you’re not taking it far enough.”

Bring on the crucifixion scene, and the sooner the better I say.

But then The Punch, Australia's most tedious and irrelevant conversation, had invested heavily in the show, after scoring the woolly headed wombat ABC TV head honcho Kim Dalton to write a piece warning faint-hearted viewers not to watch the show, and offering up a live blog to accompany the first screening, here at Live blog - John Safran's Race Relations.

To call the reaction under-stated and muted would be a muted under-statement.

Even the Daily Terror - the thermometer to apply to any elbow before plunging it into hot water - was more excited about a giant seagull failing to ruffle a Channel Nine newsreader, as above. (Giant seagull fails to ruffle 9 newsreader).

Upstaged by a seagull!

Scan the Terror and apart from Penberthy wanking on, it's a Safran no go zone, not so much a bang as a whimper. Even Tim Blair's 'the blog you can ignore' didn't mount a cry to arms, as managed in the scandalous days of The Chaser, while the squawking fundie Christians have retreated to a remote corner of the pond, incapable of putting on an early morning display of rage.

No doubt there'll be rumblings in due course, and following episodes might fan the flames, but really the show's not so much a belly flop as a bust.

So what else will inflame the Christians? Some have high hopes for The Book of Genesis illustrated by R. Crumb, but I can't see it myself. A few journalists have been attempting to fan the flames (R. Crumb's Bawdy "Book of Genesis" Targeted by Christian Groups), and there's been some indignation that Crumb in his work noticed there was some sex and violence in the bible (Some Christians mad at R. Crumb).

This is hardly news. After all, what better place to discover incest, apple munching, brother killing, mass slaughter, genocide, and a vengeful, hating, horrible God?

The real news is when a talented film-maker like John Huston manages to make a film like The Bible: In the Beginning, and produces the most boring three hours of screen culture ever to rot the brains of Miranda the Devine and Susan Greenfield.

Of course that was in the old days when apple munchers simply had to be honey blonde:

Besides, the glory days for Crumb are gone - at least the days of acid and hippies and freak outs and furry nerds and giant jugs, even if he seems to have had a good time with flexible women.

Now that he's settled in France and occasionally comes out in The New Yorker with a relatively staid strip, it's just like having an eccentric uncle in the attic or Wilson Tuckey in the Liberal Party.

And from what I've seen of the Genesis work (The New Yorker got in early with some samples - back in June but behind the paywall) the giant jugs are there, but the text and the illustrations - albeit true to Crumb's style - are true to label. You know, the things that you're liable to read in the bible ...


It might get the fundies going but it's not going to be up there with a giant seagull!

No, it seems the only excitement is the way the religionistas have declared a jihad, a holy war or a crusade on atheist websites - Cyber attacks smite atheist websites - but this seems to have produced something of a backlash against the anonymous god botherers who presumably did the dirty deeds.

Whatever else, it's a winner for the Herald, with 262 comments at time of writing, and counting, right up there with the glory days of Kyle Sandilands. Naturally there's a conspiracy theorist in that number of loons - claiming the denial of service was a publicity stunt - but I'm with those who are grateful, because suddenly we've discovered the atheists are holding a convention in Melbourne next year. Reminds me of the convention of anarchists designed to protest against conventions, but it's great publicity and likely to ensure a tremendous turnout. Well done religionista provocateurs.

Personally I feel upset at being excluded. Why just pick on a few atheists when they're all out there on the intertubes driving Christians and Muslims mad, baiting them and torturing them like the infidels they are, and making the intertubes the prime reason there's a nanny state!

Well it's not much, but now that Safran is so yesterday, and not back for another week, here's a few crumbs of Crumb, offering up a few tits on the wall, and a little hellfire and damnation (click on for larger sizes, and more linked to here):