‘Cracked bishop’ taunt found to be satire

The Wizard is disappointed a complaint over his campaign to save Christ Church Cathedral, where he called Bishop Victoria Matthews ‘‘seriously cracked’’, has been dismissed. He said yesterday that he would have liked ‘‘a good court case’’.

The Advertising Standards Authority said the advertisement was simply a ‘‘dark play on words’’ and was in keeping with the Wizard’s persona and sense of humour.

The Wizard of New Zealand has been running an advertising campaign in The Press in support of retaining the earthquake-damaged cathedral.

The complaint was the third made to the authority over the same ad, which asked people to attend a rally in protest against the cathedral’s demolition.

In it, the Wizard announced his own demolition order for the Anglican bishop of Christchurch.

‘‘She is in a very dangerous state, being seriously cracked, and I can see no evidence that

Dark word play: she can be made safe. Even if it were possible, there would be no point restoring her as she is as dull and bland as her beloved cardboard cathedral,’’ it said.

It said Matthews was ‘‘in league with the Holy Joes’’, and those in favour of the cathedral’s demolition were ‘‘a motley bunch of heretics’’.

The complainant said the ad was offensive and defamatory, in particular the comments made about Matthews.

The authority chairwoman ruled that the Wizard’s comments were acceptable under advocacy advertising principles, which had provisions for freedom of expression as long as opinion was clearly distinguishable from fact.

While she acknowledged that the satire may have offended some, there were no grounds for the complaint to proceed.

The Wizard said yesterday he was buoyed by the chairwoman’s comments.

‘‘Freedom of speech is disappearing in our culture . . . dark humour is all we have left,’’ he said.

‘‘Some people need annoying because they have no idea of the importance of the cathedral to Christchurch.

‘‘Most people that saw the advert were rolling around with tears in their eyes,’’ he said.

Matthews was not available for comment.