A cartoon set in the Vatican is angering German Catholics, even if they haven't watched it yet, writes Derek Scally in Berlin
The protests against the Muhammad caricatures were enough to make an Irish Catholic nostalgic. God be with the days when the Monty Python team were dragged over the coals on live television for The Life of Brian, the biblical epic banned from Irish cinemas on its release.
And is it really 18 years since Jesus got it on with Mary Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ to the sound of bursting dog-collars around the world?
Now the good old days of Christian outrage have returned to Germany where bishops have launched an assault on Popetown, an animated series starting next week on MTV.
A satirical 10-part sitcom set in a fictional Vatican, Popetown features a childish, screeching pope, voiced by comedian Ruby Wax, with Bob Mortimer as the pope's long-suffering assistant, Fr Nicholas. Other vocal talent includes Jerry Hall as a shapely television reporter nun and Little Britain's Matt Lucas as one of three scheming cardinals.
The programme has a tortuous history: originally produced for BBC at a reported cost of €3.5 million, the series was pulled at the last minute under a barrage of protest from British bishops and Christian groups.
A DVD version of the series is now on sale, modestly billing itself as "the most hilarious, the most outrageous, the most controversial and the most addictive comedy series ever made".
MTV Germany began promoting the show during Holy Week with a colour print ad showing an empty crucifix and laughing Jesus in front of the television, watching Popetown.
"Why hang around when you can have a laugh" was the limp tagline.
Germany's Christian leaders lodged complaints en masse with MTV Germany, which has pulled the print advert. However, the station is confident the show adheres to German broadcast standards and plans to air the first episode on May 3rd.
"It's really enough at this point. As Christians, we have to accept permanent provocation, always under the cloak of artistic freedom," says Birgit Kelle, editor of the weekly Christian newspaper Verse 1. She is co-ordinating a "Stop Popetown" campaign and says hundreds of letters and thousands of signatures have already been collected.
"When Christians protest, the reaction is always that the Christians are humourless people. In this case, there is really a momentum to this protest and that in turn has spurred on people," she says. "Does it really have to be this way, particularly here where so many people are thrilled with the German Pope? This series is against the Pope."
Conservative politicians with an air for opportunism have fired off protesting press releases and Catholic groups are threatening to take MTV to court. They say the programme breaches German blasphemy laws because the Pope "hops on a pogo stick that is clearly the form of a crucifix".
On Monday, MTV lawyers will meet lawyers for the diocese of Munich and Freising.
"We are optimisic for a solution," says Dr Günter Knobel, representing the diocese. "But you can't wait until the whole series has been aired to draw conclusions."
Therein lies the irony of the entire scandal: none of the protestors has seen an episode of Popetown. If they'd watched the DVD, they would see that it is less blasphemous than banal and too stupid to be offensive. To call it childish is an insult to children everywhere.
Like the priest whose strongest expletive is "knickers", the Irish nun who is a poor relation of Father Ted's Mrs Doyle or the frequent swipes at Vatican corruption that fall flat in a witless script peppered with awful puns.
Priest: "You requested my presence?"
Cardinal: "You've brought presents?"
Popetown is so dire it seems likely that the BBC was happy to bury the show by bowing to the protestors.
Thankfully, MTV UK & Ireland says it has no plans to air the show, but German Christians are undeterred.
"Naturally it's a personal opinion and some people might see it as perfectly harmless," adds Kelle. "But the question is, do you have to see everything to forbid it?"
For German Christian leaders, the answer seems to be a definite "no".