My only gripe against Catherine Deveny, alleged comedian and occasional panelist on Qanda is that she’s a comedian who is not funny. At least I don’t find her funny.

The ABC’s Tony Jones disagrees.

>>“Deveny's shock and awe humor does for atheism what Mark Arbib does for espionage. And she's still my favorite tweep.”
Tony Jones - host of ABC’s Q and A>>

See: http://www.catherinedeveny.com/

Here’s what Deveny has to say about Jesus:

>>"Who was Jesus? So a long time ago there was this woman called Mary and she was a virgin. Hang on I'll answer questions at the end. And an angel appeared before her and told her that she was going to have a baby. Shhhh boys, let me finish. So Mary gave birth to Jesus who was the Son of God sent to earth to die for our sins. Hey, cut it out guys this is serious. When Jesus grew up he performed miracles, walked on water, bought people back from the dead fed a crowd of thousands with a few loaves of bread and couple of fish, turned water into wine and then he was nailed to a cross and he died. But he came back to life three days later. Actually hang on guys. This sounds like a croc of (profanity deleted).’’>>

Would Deveny still be Tony Jones’ favourite tweep if she wrote:

>>"Who was Muhammad? So a long time ago there was this merchant-warrior. Hang on I'll answer questions at the end. And an angel called Gibril appeared and over a 22 years period transmitted this koran verbatim to him. And the koran told him to crucify, mutilate or exile everybody who made mischief in the land. ….Actually hang on guys. This sounds like a croc of (profanity deleted).’’>>

For the record I don’t care what Deveny says about Judaism or any other religion just so long as I don’t have to sit through one of her shows.

Steven,

What's your point? Humour like art is subjective. You don't like
Catherine Deveny - so what? If you don't like her - you don't have to listen to her. It's not mandatory.

I emailed a slightly edited version of my original post to Tony Jones with a copy to Deveny. I concluded my email as follows:

>>For the record I personally don’t care what Deveny says about Christianity, Islam, Judaism or any other religion. But, then again, I wouldn't designate her "my favourite tweep".

I do, however, want to know whether your atheism extends to endorsing comedians who disrespect religions other than Christianity.>>

I don't expect a reply. But I do wonder whether Jones' ringing endorsement of Deveny will disappear from Deveny's website.

Steven,

Whatever happened to your very strong pro "Freedom of Speech" stand?
What comedian hasn't offended someone?

'Tis easy to make dispariging remarks about Christianity but it takes real guts to insult Islam.

I await Deveny's even handed display of guts.

Lexi wrote:

>>Whatever happened to your very strong pro "Freedom of Speech" stand?>>

In what way have I contradicted my pro freedom of speech stance.

So far as I'm concerned Deveny can say what she likes about any religion and Jones is free to express his admiration for her publicly.

All I'm doing is probing the boundaries of what the duo are prepared to admit to in public.

Is Mise wrote:

>>Tis easy to make dispariging remarks about Christianity but it takes real guts to insult Islam.>>

Precisely my point. I doubt Deveny or Jones are prepared to take on Islam in the way they do Christianity. I'm also sure they have some kind of mealy-mouthed rationalisation such as a desire not to appear "racist".