Comedian cleared over Gordon Manche carpet bomb 'threat'

Comedian Daniel Xuereb has been acquitted of threatening an evangelical pastor during a live comedy skit, with the court observing that the perceived threat of “carpet bombing” was not credible and realistic. 

Xuereb was the third person to be questioned by the police, and the second comedian to face criminal charges, for making jokes about River of Love pastor Gordon Manché and the evangelical Christian organisation, which describes itself as a Charismatic Pentecostal Bible Based Church. 

The comedian was charged with threatening or insulting Manché, who filed a police report on 11 March 2023, about a TikTok video of a stand up comedy routine by Xuereb, in which he refers to Matt Bonanno, another comedian who had also been prosecuted for a tongue-in-cheek reply to a social media comment in which he suggested River of Love relocate to Buġibba, which would then be carpet bombed. 

A widely-circulated clip of the skit shows Xuereb saying that people should listen to Manché when it comes to the topic of anal sex - a reference to a prior viral video of one of Manché’s sermons on that topic - because he was ‘Malta’s biggest arsehole’. 

In court, Xuereb had explained that the point of his skit was to make people laugh, not to insult Manché and much less threaten him. 

READ ALSO: Skit about River of Love pastor had humorous, and not violent intent, comedian tells court

The case had been adjourned for sentencing today. When the sitting began, police inspector Antoine Camilleri appeared for the prosecution. Xuereb attended the sitting together with lawyers Ian Barbara and Michael Camilleri. Manché and one of his lawyers, Jeanise Dalli, were also present. 

In his judgment clearing Xuereb of all charges, Magistrate Kevan Azzopardi noted that the defendant had described the complainant, Manché, as “the biggest asshole,” amidst “several other words which certainly were not threatening towards him.”

Towards the end of the video, Xuereb is heard saying “fuck you” and making a middle-finger gesture, noted the court. “But shortly before these last two insults, he is also heard sayig, allegedly as a repetition of a joke by a certain Matt Bonanno: ‘certain Pastors who actually should be carpet bombed.’ This is, in fact, the only part that can be taken as threatening.”

“Here the threat consists of the work ‘carpet bombed.’ The Court notes that the defendant certainly does not have the means to execute this type of threat. Besides this, in the context within iwhich the threat was made means that it should not be taken as a real one, but one made to make the defendant’s audience laugh in the context of the comedy which the defendant had been performing.”

The magistrate, however, urged caution in the exercise of the right to free expression, in order not to have it chip away at other people’s expression of that same right.

READ ALSO: ‘They must stop’ - Pastor Gordon Manche says of comedians insulting him

The court ruling was welcomed by Culture Minister Owen Bonnici, who wrote on Facebook that "the society he wants to live in is one that advances artistic expression".