“Saving Silverman,” which opens today, has been described by reviewers in the following terms: “there are a number of laugh-out-loud moments wedged in between the gay jokes, masturbation humour and poop pranks” (Edmonton Sun); “we see Darren undergoing surgery for butt-cheek implants and reacting to shocks from electric nipple clamps. Wayne applies a cattle prod to Judith, who’s holding J.D.’s fishnet-stocking-clad head underwater in a toilet bowl. And then there’s Ermey defecating on a lawn” (New York Post); “It has much scatological humor” (New York Times); “PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, language, thematic material” (USA Today). The reviews were horrible.
Of particular interest to the Catholic League is the film’s take on nuns. Catholic League president William Donohue put it this way:
“Jason Biggs is the star of ‘Saving Silverman.’ He is mostly known for masturbating. To wit: a Lexis-Nexis search linking Biggs with masturbation turns up 76 hits; this is not surprising given that he first became famous after masturbating into a hot apple pie in ‘American Pie.’ Now he’s back at it again in ‘Saving Silverman,’ only this time he finds himself in an unusually sticky situation: his girl, Judith, warns him she’ll ‘take away (his) masturbation privileges’ if he doesn’t do what he’s told.
“Now none of this would matter much to us if the movie didn’t find it necessary to depict a ‘long-lost school cheerleader crush…who, by the way, is training to be a nun.’ True to form, the would-be nun is ‘subjected to all manner of sexual embarrassment and displayed in various states of PG-13 acceptable undress.’ Vulgar nun jokes are thrown in for good luck.
“What got us was the way reviewers reacted to the movie’s coarseness. Lou Lumenick, for example, told readers in the New York Post that the film was ‘both misogynous and homophobic.’ What he couldn’t bring himself to do was register a complaint about the Catholic bashing. Neither could anyone else.”
