"A new reality TV show has revealed the underworld of the seemingly modest Amish community of Pennsylvania..."

"...  complete with prostitutes, blackmail and assault rifles."

The Discovery Channel's 'Amish Mafia' follows Lebanon Levi and his fellow thugs as they attempt to maintain order in the insular religious community of Lancaster, beneath the veil of the supposedly idyllic lifestyles.

Sounds like a fictional comedy show... and I feel like I've seen this before in a Weird Al video. (Video after the jump.)

Weird Al Yankovic - Amish Paradise (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Weird Al Yankovic

(Here's the original song that appropriates, in case you've forgotten. Those were simpler times.)

The Amish hair- and beard-cutting trial: Is it a hate crime...

... if they felt compassion and wanted to bring strayed Amish "back into the fold"?

"People before would stare at them because they’re different."

"I hope now, they’ll look at them with eyes of compassion because their hearts are broken."

A mass killing directed toward a particular religious group has the power to change how the [attacked] congregation views the outside world, says David Weaver-Zercher, a professor of American Religious History at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., and author of “Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy,” a study of the 2006 attacks against an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pa.

The Amish school shooting, which left five girls dead and five hospitalized, resulted in an international outpouring of financial and emotional support, which the Amish community did not anticipate, says Mr. Weaver-Zercher.

“It really did reshape that community’s perception of the larger world, which sometimes the Amish see as an unfriendly place,” he says. “It reshaped it in a more positive regard.”

Mullet arrested in haircut attack.

It's not funny.

The problem of Amish-on-Amish violence.

The Daily Mail reports:

Men and sometimes women from a group of families disavowed by mainstream Amish have terrorized a half-dozen or more fellow Amish.

In Holmes County, a group of 27 men allegedly burst into a home and cut the hair off men and women inside and cut the beards off the men.

Holmes County Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly told The Wheeling News Register the victims included a 13-year-old girl and a 74-year-old man....

Detectives in the area were said to be gathering evidence from buggies and horse trailers believed to have been used in connection with the assaults.

So... they're looking for hair?

Jefferson County Sheriff Fred Abdalla said there was a similar incident in Trumbull County three weeks ago.

He said hair from the victims was brought back to Jefferson County to prove to Sam Mullet, the bishop of the Bergholz group, that Mullet's orders concerning the hair cutting was being followed.

I know what you're thinking: A guy named Mullet wants hair cuts? But if you click the link and find his picture, you'll see it's business on top, party underneath.