Tipperary county council retracts support for ‘blasphemous’ videos

Tipperary county council retracts support for ‘blasphemous’ videos A scene from the offensive series

A county council has asked the creator of a religiously offensive animation to remove its name from the series’ credits, after having funded part of the show’s production.

Tipperary County Council confirmed to The Irish Catholic last month that it gave a “small grant” for the development of a project entitled ‘Bootleg Jesus’, which depicts the title character coming to terms with his role as the so-called less successful son of God.

The ten-episode show depicted dialogue between two foul-mouthed characters and contained references to scenes from the Bible including walking on water.

While a spokesperson for the council originally defended the appropriateness of paying a €400 grant towards the production of the potentially offensive material, the local authority has now retracted its support for the video series, this newspaper understands.

Tipperary County Council asked the creator of the series, Kenneth Noble known as NtoonZ, to drop its name from the credits which originally appeared at the end of the first video. The credits no longer appear on any of the videos.

The arts officer for the council had initially said the material wasn’t offensive, before the video was taken down for a brief period of time.

“I don’t really see anything in it. I think it’s a light entertainment piece. I don’t see anything that should cause offense in it,” she said.