A Cute Nativity

A colleague trying to sound mischievous, yesterday 'threatened' to set the background on a lab computer to the 'flying spaghetti monster', the deity of a fictitious church, whose existence is an ironic comment on creationist politics. He immediately retracted, saying that it would be too provocative and might be offensive. I pointed out that in the bubble of opinion among academics, it would require far more audacity, and invite far sharper criticism, to paste a picture of the nativity on the computer screen. On reflection, I disagreed with myself - most who saw it would interpret it as a sarcastic comment on the dated aesthetic of christmas. Then I wondered whether perhaps an already stylized cartoon of the nativity, with cute sincerity or gentle humor might disallow such an interpretation. And that it would be an interesting experiment...