Evil Vatican priests threaten comedians' good time!

See if you can spot the biggest loonies in this story, kiddies.

USA Today: Comedians lampooning Vatican, pope are taking jokes too far, critics say
ROME — The pope and the Vatican have long been a favorite target in a country where satirists hold little sacred, but Italy's Roman Catholic bishops and others now complain that the current crop of comedians is going too far.

"You can't joke about the Vatican," was the banner headline Wednesday in the left-wing daily L'Unita, which denounced a "crusade against satire" by Catholic media and conservative politicians.

"This is Catholic fundamentalism, a faithful mirror of certain Islamic fundamentalists who don't want cartoons about Allah," the paper wrote in an editorial, drawing comparisons to the uproar in the Muslim world in response to cartoons of the prophet Mohammed published in Danish and other European newspapers this year.

If you said the editorial board of the leftist newspaper L'Unita, you're a winner!

Where exactly is the accompanying story of the Catholics lynching these comedians?

There isn't one? Oops! My mistake. That would be satire.

Fueling the flap: popular Italian comedian Fiorello. He imitates the pope's 50-year-old secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein, representing him as a hip, sporty and very vain prelate.

The comedian uses the Gaenswein character to talk about Pope Benedict XVI. "He's smoking like a Turk — three packs a day — to prepare for his upcoming trip to Turkey," he had the secretary saying recently on his radio show, using the Italian expression for a chain smoker. The pope is set to visit Turkey for the first time this month.

Comedian Maurizio Crozza's satire on TV is stronger. He has depicted a hysterical pope shooting pigeons on his ledge over St. Peter's Square because they disturb "people who have work to do" and throwing burning candies to the "dear children" in the square.

The controversy started last week when the Catholic newspaper L'Avennire criticized the shows. The Italian media picked up on the controversy, which hit the headlines on Wednesday after Gaenswein was reported to have told an Italian news agency that he had had enough of satire about his boss.

Many commentators partially backed criticism of the satire. They said Italian comedians feel free to attack the church while steering clear of references to Islam.

"It would be easy and rightful to champion free satire if only it were exercised impartially, in all directions," the left-leaning daily La Repubblica wrote in an editorial. "You can't satirize Christ and spare, out of fear, Mohammed."

"Between an Islamic religion that doesn't accept even a cartoon and a Catholic one forced to feed the tired fantasies of humor there should be a middle way," the moderate daily Corriere della Sera said.

Wow. A moderate Italian newspaper. Imagine that.

The Vatican had no official comment, but Italian newspapers carried comments by Gaenswein. He called the satire "unacceptable" and said the pope never watched or listened to the programs.