Jerry Springer, the Opera

Statement by Head of Theology at the Evangelical Alliance, Rev Dr David Hilborn

05 January 2005

Background

On Saturday (8th January), BBC2 will be screening a special 'Jerry Springer Night'. It will start at 9pm with an hour of biographical and documentary material, but the main draw will be a full, unexpurgated film of Stewart Lee and Richard Thomas' highly controversial but hugely successful stage musical Jerry Springer - The Opera. Scheduled for broadcast between 10pm and midnight, this has already provoked considerable protests to the BBC from the Christian community, and not least from members of the Evangelical Alliance. Complaints have focused on the extraordinary amount of swearing in the production, on its graphic portrayals of sexual disorder, and on its apparently blasphemous content. While we at EA take such concerns seriously, we are acutely aware of the pitfalls of condemning material like this without having seen it. We are also aware that our own insistence on freedom of speech in evangelistic contexts might seem hypocritical if at the same time we call for censorship of programmes and productions merely on the basis of hearsay, or anticipated rather than genuine offence. Even where offence is genuine, we have recently questioned the government's plans to introduce a new law of incitement to religious hatred, specifically on the grounds that it may curtail freedom of speech, and restrict the fundamental right of one person to critique another's convictions, whether religious or not. With all this in mind, I attended a performance of Jerry Springer - The Opera at the Cambridge Theatre, London on Wednesday 23rd December, a few days after it was recorded for the forthcoming BBC broadcast.

Critique

Christians acquainted with Springer's lurid American TV show will already know it as a gross parade of dysfunctional characters served up for cheap voyeuristic titillation. Even fleeting exposure to this trashiest of daytime imports is sufficient to grasp its formula. A succession of sad, typically poor adulterers, fetishists, perverts, addicts, crackpots, morbidly obese and explosively violent folk are given their fifteen minutes of fame in exchange for ritual humiliation before a studio audience which goads them into foul-mouthed rows and barely-restrained fist fights with those they have cuckolded, betrayed or otherwise incensed. Over it all presides Springer - a former politician who orchestrates everything with a smooth detachment bordering on negligence, and who closes the show with a homily of such vapid, amoral banality that he makes Patience Strong look like a world-class moral philosopher.

One might well question why the BBC should waste license fee income celebrating such tawdry TV pap. When it comes to the screening of Jerry Springer - The Opera, however, more profound issues arise. In Springer's original show, the worst sorts of swear words are bleeped; mainline religion is rarely the focus of ridicule, and there is little pretence to intellectual depth. By contrast, Lee and Thomas' musical version is both massively more foul-mouthed and quite transparently blasphemous—but also more clever and more literate. Indeed, the very professionalism and artistry which has won it so many awards make it the more disturbing phenomenon from a Christian point of view.

Lee and Thomas' central conceit is that 'reality' TV programmes like Jerry Springer provide the viewing masses of today with a catharsis comparable to that once offered by the great epics of Shakespeare, Milton and Wagner - and more particularly, by the epic narrative of the Bible. It is unclear whether they themselves regard this as a cultural debasement to be regretted, a populist shift to be welcomed, or simply a trend to be depicted. What is plain is that they see the genres of musical theatre and opera as suitable means to make this key point. So in their hands the baying audience of the TV show becomes a swirling chorus, commenting on the action in grandiose harmonies. So Jerry Springer's pitiful guests become tragically flawed heroes - still looking like 'losers', but singing as though drafted fresh from Covent Garden or La Scala. The incongruity is startling - not least because virtually every other word set to Thomas' finely crafted music is the f-word, the c-word, or something similarly crude. At first, the effect of hearing such beautiful tunes sullied by such base language is shocking and disorienting; after a while, however, the torrent of verbal abuse simply numbs the senses.

As for the drama itself, it must be stressed that this is very much a play of two halves. The first Act is essentially the TV show set to music, albeit with certain more surreal touches in keeping with the grand operatic style. A fat white man is revealed to be sleeping not only with his sweet, naïve fiancée, but also with a hard drug user and a transsexual. As all parties confront one another, a riot breaks out, only to be quelled by Jerry's strategically placed security guards. A large black man tells his long-term partner that he likes to wear nappies and gets sexual pleasure from defecating in them. A frustrated housewife confesses that she wants to be a pole dancer, and duly does a pole dance in skimpy leather while her gormless husband looks on. He then turns out to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan, and invites his fellow Klansmen to perform a big dance number. Through it all, there is very little reflection. In a nod to Wagner and the dictates of conscience, Jerry is occasionally confronted by his 'inner Valkyrie', but she is quickly dismissed. In dialogue with his smarmy warm-up man he recalls his lost political ideals, but seems content with his present cynicism. Later, the warm-up man is coldly sacked. In a glimpse of what is to follow, a commercial break reflects Jerry's dark, godless worldview with an advert which says "Give it to Jesus! Or then again, die a horrible death, [like] Jesus!"

As the Ku Klux Klan dance reaches its climax, the black nappy-wearer is so outraged that he pulls a gun and shoots Jerry in the chest. It now becomes clear that Jerry must answer for his crimes against taste and decency. Indeed, in Act 2, he is to be put on trial for his soul.

After the barrage of sexual deviance, nihilism and expletives which marked Act 1, I must admit to being rather pleasantly surprised by this turn in the narrative. From the TV studio, Jerry descends to hell, where he is to be fought over by the forces of God and Satan. Contrary to the moral vacuum of the first half, it looks as if Lee and Thomas are ready to confound expectations and offer a searing moral and theological critique of Springer and his ilk - of reality TV and the damage it has done to our culture. Whereas TV screens at the start of the play warned that those of a sensitive disposition might be offended, now they state that those without a decent grasp of Judaeo-Christian tradition might get lost! The studio audience is transformed into choruses of good and evil angels. It is made clear that Springer is to be held accountable for encouraging people to do little else but "Eat, Excrete and watch TV". Unfortunately, this promising upturn does not last. As Jerry's eternal destiny lies in the balance, he is confronted by a succession of characters from Act 1 who now occupy various biblical roles, but do so in such a way as to denigrate their significance. The warm-up man becomes Satan, while the nappy-fetishist plays Jesus. Each engages in a lengthy exchange of exquisitely-sung insults, Satan telling Jesus over the course of more than five minutes to do nothing but "f*** off". The pole dancer becomes Eve and her Klansman husband Adam, but apart from berating Jesus for spoiling their fun, they have little more to offer, unless one counts Eve's brief attempt to masturbate Jesus. Jesus' mother Mary then emerges and rails at him for abandoning her when he chose to die young on the cross.

If all this seems a lot to take from a Christian perspective, there is worse to come. The unfaithful overweight man from Act 1 returns as God the Father, but turns out to be an Oz-like buffoon, incapable of managing the world he started, bewildered by his Son, and in need of therapy. In fact, he asks Jerry to guide him, and we realise that it is Jerry who will emerge as the true Lord and Messiah in this context. After a few failed attempts to convince the assembled throng that he should be not only spared but resurrected, Jerry attains apotheosis with a speech in which he first tells everyone to "f*** off" and then expounds the Springer show creed without adornment. There are no moral absolutes, he says; there is no such thing as right or wrong. There is only human energy. We must all "live our lives" as we see fit. He does add some vague platitudes about trying not to hurt others along the way, and leaving behind a legacy of love, but since he has already denied that these can be objective principles, it is hard to see what they are supposed to mean. To cap it all, Jerry does not so much ascend to heaven as unite heaven and hell, and as he does so tells Jesus to "f***ing grow up and put some clothes on!"

As I left the theatre and sought to recover from all this, it did occur to me that Lee and Thomas might yet have been presenting Jerry's deification ironically. They might just, I thought, have been indicting a culture in which celebrities function as 'gods' and TV shows as 'liturgies'. I also had to concede that from a purely technical point of view, it is easy to see why this show has garnered so many rave reviews and accolades. The singing is opera-house standard; the choreography is excellent; the sets are very well done. David Soul as Jerry is suitably charismatic—and not just because memories of Starsky and Hutch die hard for so many in the target audience. But even if Jerry Springer - The Opera is meant as an attack on reality TV, celebrity culture and the rest, it offers nothing more positive in place of what it condemns. It uses biblical motifs for convenience, but mocks the redemption to which they point. Superficially, it is sardonic and witty. At heart, though, it is vacuous, gross and as cynical as its eponymous anti-hero. Make no mistake: its language, sexual content and blasphemy are all nauseating. But it is this vast moral emptiness which Christians should find most offensive of all.

Responding: Advice and Strategy

Jerry Springer - The Opera has been running in various forms in different theatres for three years. In view of this, it might well be asked why Christians are objecting so strongly to it now, particularly since the proposed BBC2 broadcast is merely a filmed version of the well-established stage production, and not a new adaptation for the screen. This raises the question of whether there are any significant differences between theatre and TV when it comes to standards of taste and decency.

While Christians themselves might wish to see the same moral criteria applied across all media, it is a fact that theatre is subject to somewhat looser restrictions than television. In abolishing the Lord Chamberlain's power to censor stage productions, the Theatre Act of 1968 ensured that plays and musicals would be circumscribed only by general laws relating to obscenity, defamation and the like. By contrast, broadcasters have been regulated by various specific codes on taste and decency. Until late 2003, independent TV outlets were subject to the Independent Television Commission (ITC) document entitled 'Family Viewing Policy, Offence to Good Taste and Decency, Portrayal of Violence and Respect for Human Dignity'. The BBC, though nominally regulated by its Board of Governors, was guided up to the same point by the Broadcasting Standards Commission's (BSC) 'Code on Standards'. These two bodies have now been merged into a single all-purpose regulator, Ofcom, but Ofcom still refers to their two documents where offence has been caused, or is likely to be caused, by a TV programme.

With respect to the forthcoming broadcast of Jerry Springer - The Opera, the relevant sections of the ITC text are as follows:

 …many people are offended, some of them deeply, by the use of bad language, including expletives with a religious (and not only Christian) association. Offence is most likely if the language is contrary to audience expectation. Bad language must be defensible in terms of context and scheduling with warnings where appropriate. (1.5)

Popular entertainment and comedy have always relied to some extent on sexual innuendo and suggestive behaviour but gratuitous offence should be avoided. (1.6)

As for the BSC Code, the following are pertinent:

Religion is a contentious topic, mainly because it is the source of deeply held convictions on the part of believers that are not easily understood by nonbelievers. Although religions should not be exempt from critical scrutiny that is an important aspect of the culture of our diverse society, particular care should be taken when referring to religion in entertainment. (43)

Programme makers should be aware that the casual use of names, words or symbols regarded as sacred by believers can cause unnecessary offence. Moreover, while many people may not themselves be offended by the casual use of holy names as expletives, the majority would not wish to cause offence to others by this usage. (44)

Particular offence is given by the linking of the holy names with the strongest swearwords. (45)

On any reasonable assessment, BBC 2's decision to broadcast Jerry Springer - The Opera is significantly challenged by these criteria. In view of this, the best strategy for those who are concerned about the programme is to write to both the BBC and Ofcom, asking each how they can justify going ahead with this broadcast in the light of their own stated criteria on gratuitous offence, and religion-specific profanity. In doing this, it is important to underline that you are not seeking to impose censorship on the BBC from without, but rather asking the BBC to exercise discretion from within, according to the agreed standards to which it is subject. This approach is very far removed from that adopted by the minority of militant Sikhs who recently forced the closure of the play Behzti in Birmingham through violent protest. Indeed, for the reasons I have stated, it is important that objections to the broadcast are clearly distinguished from any idea that the theatre production should be censored or halted; the latter would be both unrealistic, and disingenuous given Christian acquiescence over the past three years. As I made clear at the beginning of this article, the Evangelical Alliance values the fundamental right of free expression. Even so, it is important to stress that this right also includes the right to peaceful, democratic protest, not least when gratuitous offence is likely to be caused by a public service broadcaster whose income derives in part from those offended, and whose output is subject to certain public moral thresholds.

In view of all this, it is telling that the programme for the stage version of Jerry Springer - The Opera quotes on its inside front cover the First Amendment to the US Constitution, adopted as part of the Bill of Rights in 1791:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

If the BBC and/or Ofcom do not heed the petitions or redress the grievances of Christians with respect to Saturday's broadcast, the least that can be expected is a 'right of reply' in the form of a discussion programme in which objections can be raised with the BBC itself, the programme makers and, if possible, the writers of Jerry Springer - The Opera. It would certainly be worth mentioning this in any correspondence on this matter.

BBC Complaints: http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/contactus/form.shtml

Ofcom Complaints: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/progs

Rev Dr David Hilborn