Italians are eager to see whether a TV comedian who delights in impersonating the pope will dare to continue his tricks after ten days of polemics and put-downs from the Catholic world.
Maurizio Crozza, whose show goes out on Monday evenings, gave his pope impersonation a miss last week after Italian bishops' daily Avvenire accused him of "satirical fundamentalism" and a cardinal said his sketch was offensive.
But the Genoese comedian has made it known that his Benedict sketches will continue, so his fans are waiting for more scenes of the Crozza-pope dancing, telling jokes and rapping out orders to his cardinal sidekicks.
"It was hilarious when he had the pope juggling with oranges and tap-dancing. I hope he does more of it," said one fan of Crozza's show, Crozza Italia.
Two other comedians who have been in the firing line for poking fun at well-known figures in the Vatican are also brushing off criticism. They will both have ample opportunity this week to produce comic responses.
Top Italian showman Rosario Fiorello, who does a popular take-off of Benedict's young private secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenschwein, said recently: "I don't think I'll go to Hell for doing this sort of satire. The whole controversy is preposterous".
Fiorello, who has a weekday radio show and frequent spots on TV, recently portrayed Gaenschwein complaining about service in a fictitious Vatican restaurant called The Last Supper where small amounts of fish can be made to serve multitudes.
Comedienne Luciana Littizzetto, who regularly mocks Italy's highest-ranking cardinal, Camillo Ruini, has made light of criticism. She talked this week about meeting Cardinal Ruini in a pizzeria where she would give him the capers off her pizza as a sign of friendship.
She also joked about the Benedict XVI calendar that is currently being sold on Italian newsstands, saying that if the Vatican wanted to make money it should sell a calendar featuring the good-looking Gaenschwein.
Crozza, Fiorello and Littizzetto are not just drawing criticism from the Vatican. Several politicians - mostly Catholic-oriented ones - have advised them to focus their attention elsewhere.
Even some comedians have blasted their efforts, although not for religious sensitivity.
"The comedians who imitate the pope and Father Georg don't make me laugh. I'm not saying there shouldn't be any satire, but making fun of some people is just too easy," said Carlo Verdone, one of Italy's top comedians.
Meanwhile, barbs from Catholic commentators continued to rain down this week.
"With their vulgar larking about, they think they're couragious, do they?" scoffed Italy's Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana. "They think they're taking on powerful forces? Some courage! It's not as if they're mocking an Ayatollah or anything".
Giuseppe Della Torre, rector of Rome's Catholic university LUMSA, made a similar point, arguing that making fun of the pope was not very clever because "he can't defend himself".
"Satire becomes offensive when there's no thought behind it and it just aims to ridicule someone. It's up to everyone in the media to set limits by themselves," he continued.
Comments by Monsignor Giovanni d'Ercole, a media-savvy churchman often seen representing the Catholic line on TV, contained echoes of the worldwide furore last February over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish daily.
"We're not talking about the right to do satire, just about good sense and respect for people," he said. "Symbols of religion - of any religion - should be left alone."
