GagWatch

The censorious types that decide what adverts can and can’t be shown on the London Underground have banned (via) a poster advertising the play Fat Christ on the grounds that it was “likely to offend ethnic, religious or other major groups”.

The poster depicts a portly man, wearing pink underwear and a crown of thorns, on a cross. It was banned from Angel Tube station, where the Upper Street theatre had booked an advertising spot. A London Underground spokesman said the Fat Christ poster was “declined” because it contravened a commitment not to display adverts likely to offend ethnic, religious or other major groups.

However, the Rev Stephen Coles, of St Thomas’s Church in Finsbury Park has criticised the ban:

The itch to censor is something one should resist. I can’t quite see how this could cause offence. We’re grown-ups and Jesus can defend himself. One has to be a little wary of indulging the super-sensitive.

Mr Coles also pointed out that putting Christ in boxer shorts preserved his dignity more than usual.

Gavin Davis, the author of Fat Christ who also features as the man on the cross, insisted he had not set out to offend and that the poster accurately reflects the content and themes of the poster.

We don’t believe it to be blasphemous and can’t understand London Underground’s censorious position. I am, however, prepared to apologise for my choice of boxer shorts.

The decision follows London Underground’s earlier “nipplegate” veto of a 15th-century nude portrait of Venus by the German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder, with which the Royal Academy had hoped to advertise its latest exhibition.

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