Saturday Night Live rarely gets all that controversial these days, but the series did manage to make waves during last Saturday’s episode, which just so happened to be the season's Christmas episode. In a sketch poking fun at Tim Tebow, Jason Sudeikis made an appearance as Jesus Christ, which didn’t go over well with televangelist Pat Robertson.
The sketch that caused a fuss aired toward the end of the episode and featured Taran Killam playing Denver Broncos quarterback (and known Christian) Tim Tebow. As Jesus, Sudeikis acted casual, though fairly put off by Tebow’s overzealousness, telling him to “take it down a notch.” It was one of the more amusing sketches during the episode, more for Tebow and Sudeikis' performances than anything. Those who are especially sensitive to having their faith ridiculed may not have found it so funny.
According to Entertainment Weekly Pat Robertson spoke out about the sketch, calling it “part of a tide of anti-Christian bigotry that is just disgusting.” A lack of appreciation for the humor in Jesus asking an enthusiastic Christian to dial it back a notch is understandable, but Robertson took it a step further (or backward) by saying, “If this had been a Muslim country and they had done that, and had Muhammad doing that stuff, you would have found bombs being thrown off!” The jab at Muslims doesn’t exactly help his argument.
Here’s the sketch that’s ruffling feathers...
