Eretz Nehederet, the premier satire show in Israel, or as some describe it as Israel's version of Saturday Night Live, ran a skit last night about the elections in which they joked about Shas's campaign ads "there's a father in heaven" with a big picture of Rav Ovadia Yosef.

In the skit they brought Rav Ovadia down to talk to him about the elections. I saw a poor quality clip of the skit (I have nmot yet found an official video clip of this online so I havent found one good quality yet) and personally I did not find it all that funny.

Shas is making a big deal about this. They are very upset, there are some things you don't joke about, it hurts the sensitivities of so many people to whom Rav Ovadia was and is very dear, etc.

They need to get a bit of a sense of humor and just laugh it off or ignore it. Satire shows laugh at everything and everybody.

The real issue is, I think, that they need a demon to wake up and bring back their electorate. Shas leaders seem to be discovering that their target audience either does not care enough about the elections to get excited or have moved on to other parties - either UTJ or Likud or The New Right or even Zehut, and maybe others... this is also why they are making up stories about Gantz and Lapid planning a gay parade by the Kotel and flooding the malls with pork. They are trying to find the trigger that will shock their electorate and bring them home and motivate them to go out and vote Shas.