The Westboro Baptist Church is known for hate mongering on a scale that borders on the comedic. So perhaps its no surprise that some of the most effective -- not to mention hilarious -- confrontations with the ultra-homophobic and anti-Semitic picketing group have been devised by comedians.
Case in point, this video produced by Australian satirical news team The Chaser, which a few years ago surprised a male member of the church with a little harmless flirtations. Harmless, that is, unless you're a member of the WBC, which believes that God is punishing America for its acceptance of homosexuality.
In the roughly four-minute clip, which is now going viral again due to the WBC being in the news this week after threatening to protest the funerals of those involved in the Newtown shooting, The Chaser's Chris Firth shares a little gay lovin' with a protester identified in the video as Fred Phelps Junior.
Firth chats up Phelps, complimenting his accent before asking, "Did you just give me a look? Because you've got a really nice look."
Slightly abashed, Phelps looks for help from Shirley Phelps-Roper (a sometimes spokesperson for the group who recently had her Twitter hacked in retaliation for the group's threat to picket Sandy Hook memorial service).
"Why is this guy touching me on the butt and patting me?" Phelps asks, before adding, "We've got a pervert on our hands."
It then degenerates a bit.
Another young woman associated with Westboro then starts shouting slurs in a blithely undeterred Firth's face.
"Get your hands off him, you pervert" the unidentified woman said. "You're a fag pervert. You're a fag ass pervert. Step off!"
But, as MSN points out, the verbal abuse -- while expected -- was really rather tame all things considered.
What surprises us most about this video of Firth chatting up a male member of church is the timidness of the other guy's response. He doesn't beat Firth up, he doesn't reach for any concealed sidearm, he just giggles. His wife, however, is less open to the idea. Maybe she knows something we don't?
The group has come under fire recently for high-profile threats to protest memorial services for Aurora shooting victims, as well as the funerals of children killed at Sandy Hook elementary last week. So far, however, the group has failed to show up.
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