Catholics to Larry: Don't Pee On Our Saviour!

This week's episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" has drawn the ire of the Catholic League who are (excuse the pun) pissed off at Larry David for a gag in which he accidentally splashed a drop of urine on a picture of Jesus, leading to the usual wacky hijinks we've come to expect from "Curb."

In the episode, Larry has been taking some new medication that makes his "stream" emanate with hurricane-like force, and, while using a bathroom while visiting another person's home, accidentally splatters a drop on a photo of Jesus that's hanging on the bathroom wall. Unsure of what to do, he just leaves it; later, the owner of the home sees it and is convinced the picture is crying, and is a miracle.

Predictably, a show that revolves around Larry David endlessly offending everyone has actually offended someone, namely Deal Hudson, publisher of InsideCatholic.com. "I don't think it's funny," Hudson harumphed. "Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect to Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslin — there'd be a huge outcry." He's demanding an apology.

Also outraged is Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. "Was Larry David always this crude?" he asked. "Would he think it's comedic if someone urinated on a picture of his mother?"

HBO is taking the criticism in stride. "Anyone who follows Curb Your Enthusiasm knows that the show is full of parody," says an HBO-issued statement. "Larry David makes fun of everyone, most especially himself. The humour is always playful and certainly never malicious."

Plus, when it comes to mocking religions, Larry is an equal-opportunity offender. Past storylines have involved the Hasidic Jewish custom of having sex through a hole in a bedsheet, a blind date between a blind man and a Muslim woman wearing a burka, and even a storyline in which he bribes a grave-digger to bury his dead mother in a Jewish cemetery, from which she is banned because of a tattoo.