Queer comedian Reuben Kaye has defended his X-rated joke about Jesus, claiming people were only offended because he is gay.
In February, Kaye spoke on The Project about the hate he receives over his sexuality and for dressing up in drag – especially from the Christian community.
‘I love Jesus, I love any man who can get nailed for three days straight and come back for more,’ he joked.
The Project issued an apology over the ‘offensive’ gag and Kaye was inundated with death threats, later being forced to postpone a show over fears for the safety of his audience.
But the joke cropped up again on Monday night when a member of the Q+A audience asked Kaye if he thought a straight person telling the same joke would receive the same backlash.
Queer comedian and Reuben Kaye (pictured, left) left The Project panel stunned in February after making an X-rated joke about Jesus on air
Host Patricia Karvelas then read out his joke for context before letting Kaye answer.
‘That joke has been told by straight people,’ Kaye said.
‘Ricky Gervais devotes almost 90 per cent of his routine to tearing down religion, Dave Chappelle does it.
‘Large, big name, straight comics do this all the time. This isn’t about the joke, this is about who was telling it.’
His comments were met with rapturous applause by the audience on the the ABC show.
Kaye went on to claim his joke was an act of defiance in the face of homophobia.
‘This is about a queer person not wanting to be the butt of a joke but making a joke and having a voice. Not being the political football but commenting on the game,’ he said.
‘And when that happens they want us to become invisible and we don’t do that because if we’re not visibly queer, then the most vulnerable in society become invisible. They disappear. And we lose you or too many of your children to crap like this.’
He then clashed with National Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie who said: ‘I am a person of faith and it wasn’t just the Christian community that got offended, the Islamic community did as well although I guess Christians have been persecuted for over 2,000 years.’
Kaye snorted loudly and cut in, saying: ‘Give it a break!’
‘You’re sat next to a Jewish homosexual and you’re going to say Christians have been persecuted?’ he exclaimed.
National Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie (pictured) told Kaye she would have been ‘equally offended if anybody had said that joke’
Ms McKenzie held her ground and said she would have been ‘equally offended if anybody had said that joke’.
She added: ‘I also think that we live in a pluralist society where we are one of the great multicultural countries in the world that has remained relatively peaceful around religious antagonisms and so I wouldn’t be going near these jokes.’
Kaye’s original joke left The Project host Waleed Aly speechless, but Sarah Harris and the rest of the cast laughed along.
Aly apologised the next day, telling viewers: ‘Our guest told a joke which we know was deeply offensive to many of you in particular people of faith’.
‘We want to acknowledge the particular offence and hurt that caused our Muslim, but especially our Christian viewers,’ he said.
Harris added that it ‘genuinely took us all by surprise’ and there was not ‘a lot of time to react in any considered way’.
The joke even sparked a 600-man protest outside Channel 10’s headquarters in Pyrmont.
‘What a disgusting joke about Jesus, and The Project team just giggled and did not say anything. So offended by your inaction,’ one person wrote on Twitter.
Another said: ‘Actually a filthy joke about Jesus. I’m all for being who you wanna be, but that’s too far.’
Kaye also revealed on Q+A that since telling the joke his phone has been confiscated and ‘combed over’ by three different state police forces, his parents have been instructed to not open anything that is addressed to him and theirs addresses have been put on the priority response lists.
Others found it funny and defended Kaye’s right to offend on free speech grounds.
