Crossing the Line Between Crime and Comedy: Italian Accused of Telling Joke About the Pope

Italian comedienne Sabina Guzzanti is facing a criminal charge for a bad joke. In Italy, it is a crime to insult the Pope or “offending the honour of the sacred and inviolable person” . Guzzanti is accused of crossing the line between comedy and crime in saying that Pope Benedict XVI would go to Hell and be tormented by homosexual demons. The joke could cost her is a prison term of up to five years.

in a Rome rally, she finished a joke with the statement: “But then, within 20 years the Pope will be where he ought to be — in Hell, tormented by great big poofter devils, and very active ones, not passive ones.”

While Europeans routinely criticize the religious based laws of countries like Iran and Iraq, the Guzzanti case shows that the West continue to impose their own sectarian forms of justice.

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