Netflix currently is receiving backlash from a lot of its viewers regarding a comedy that depicts Jesus Christ as a gay man.
It received over 2.1 million signatures for the petition to ban the show as of the writing.
The film that is titled “The First Temptation of Christ” by a Brazilian comedy show has led to a petition for the removal of such parody in the channel. The goal would be reaching 3 million signers in the petition that is in Change.org. It also asked that the creators be “be held responsible for the crime of villainous faith.”
According to the co-founder, Fablo Porchat, he doesn’t know what the fuss is about. “We play at insinuating that Jesus has a new friend, and probably this new friend is gay, but they have just been having fun and a perfect time in the desert for 40 days,”. He said too that if folks should be mad, then that should be the LGBTQ “If anybody should be angry with us, it should be the gay community because a gay character turns out to be the Devil. But the gay community loves us!” he said — through one Decider take has conversely noted that Jesus’ purported boyfriend in the film is “a bundle of swishy stereotypes.”.
The comedy is about Jesus Christ, who got a surprise birthday party thrown by Joseph and Mary, who smokes pot. According to the synopsis in Netflix, “Jesus, who’s hitting the big 3-0, brings a surprise guest to meet the family”. The film somehow depicts that Jesus is a closet queen and with a partner, but they say it ends with a twisted ending. A Christmas special so wrong, it must be from comedians Porta dos Fundos,”.
According to Porchat, “For some Catholics here in Brazil, it’s O.K. if Jesus is a bad guy, uses drugs: That’s no problem. The problem is he’s gay. No, he can’t be gay. And that’s interesting because Jesus is everything,” and then followed “God is black and white and gay and straight. God is everything. It’s more homophobic to be insulted by a gay Jesus than to make Jesus special.”
Netflix also seemed to have no plans of pulling the comedy out of the channel. Porchat continued, “[Netflix hasn’t] said anything to us like, ‘Maybe we should stop making the special available.’ They support freedom of speech”.
According to the Porta dos Fundos’ statement, “Porta dos Fundos values artistic freedom and humor through satire on the most diverse cultural themes of our society and believes that freedom of expression is an essential construction for a democratic country.”
Porta dos Fundos have been in the area of making satirical religious films in the past. It has already won an International Emmy Award last year from their satirical holiday special entitled “The Last Hangover.”
Netflix didn’t provide any details yet as to its decision, aside from its statement to the creator of the comedy.
“The First Temptation” is now available for streaming on Netflix.