Tonight, Comedy Central will premier a new show, “Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil.” The show will feature the cantankerous Lewis as a “judge” who must grapple with two other comics, each trying to argue a side of a supposedly humorous question. The first episode, “Oprah vs. the Catholic Church” will ask whether the talk show host or the Bride of Christ is more “evil.”
According to preview videos and printed reviews, Black charges that the Church hinders “social progress” and that the pope gives lectures bashing other religions. The program features abundant jokes about molester priests. One would hope that a network devoted entirely to comedy would be able to come up with a few new gags rather than rely on the old bigoted chestnut about the priest and the altar boy. But Comedy Central has a long history of attacking the Church, and this is just more of the same.
We’ve read several reviews of the premier show. Some indicate that there will be minor jabs at the Catholic Church, and others that the attack is quite vicious. We’ll report back tomorrow to weigh in.
