Richard Herring: Christ on a Bike

Christ On A Bike is a resurrection of the show that started Herring’s career as a solo comedian in 2001, and the original run passed off without major controversy. But that was in August 2001, a month before certain world events that made everyone a bit more sensitive about religion. "There’s a slight kneejerk reaction from Christians saying ‘you wouldn’t do a show like this about Mohammed’ and there is a kind of Christian fundamentalism now that wasn’t there before. It gives a slight edge to the show. But if anything, the show now is more reasonable."

The show goes into some detail about Christianity, discussing the historical Christ and picking apart the silliness in the Bible, while exploring the burning question of whether Herring himself might be Jesus. Turns out he’s not, although he admits, "Part of me is tempted to go up to the protestors and say, ‘The thing is, I actually am Jesus’. Probably wouldn’t work though."

Herring doesn’t sound worried about the protests turning ugly, despite the
recent broad-daylight destruction of controversial art piece Piss Christ (a
photograph of a crucifix in a jar of urine) in a gallery in France. "Both the art itself and the reaction were stupid", he says. "The piece of art was pointlessly offensive but getting angry about it is also pointless. We as a society should be at a point where people can, if they want, dip a crucifix in urine and everyone else can say, ‘oh, grow up’."

Christ On A Bike is not intended to be as provocative as Piss Christ. It follows the normal Herring model of dealing with a serious topic through silly jokes, in this case his feelings about being "an atheist who’s obsessed with Jesus", a common symptom of our post-Christian society. But what would Jesus think if he came back to earth to see Herring’s show? "I’d be the least of his worries. He’d be more upset with the extreme Christians who’d changed his message. But hopefully he’d have a laugh at my stupidity."