The Pillowman

I find jokes funny that are meant to be offensive because I know that they are meant to be that way to get a laugh. I can appreciate that in most cases, however I felt certain parts of "The Pillowman" took the offensiveness a little far. The play was advertised as a dark comedy, and it certainly was. I could appreciate many of the jokes that were meant to be outside political correctness, or of social norms i.e., when a child or even a priest cusses, which was used several times in the play. I found the play dark, but pretty entertaining for the most part. However, the scene that really seemed unnecessary for me was the "Little Jesus" story. It was obviously meant to be sacreligious, and I try to maintain as objective of a viewpoint of possible for the sake of humor value when in plays like this, but I did not see the point of the "Little Jesus" skit. I discussed it briefly with Dr. Rosenberg, and he said that it is important to question the reason the writer put it in the play. As I mentioned earlier, I can appreciate humor meant to unexpected and offensive, however I don't see the necessity for such an intense mockery of such an important event. Even if I try to look at this scene objectively, a little girl (who claimed to be Jesus) was beaten, whipped, mockingly crucified, and then buried alive. I don't really see the point, or find this particular scene funny. This scene mocks the importance and sacredness of religion (Christianity in particular) which was a statement by the writers, or they would have found other ways of creating humor. I feel the only other reason for the writers to add this in was to reach a climax of offensive humor, which to me, does not seem worth it.