South Park Delivers Message

 
By Sherri April 16, 2006




South Park's creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker deserve a lot of credit for being willing to point out blatant hypocrisy wherever they see it - even if it comes from the folks who sign their checks.

Calling it exactly like they saw it, Parker and Stone lashed out at Comedy Central during the second installment of their Cartoon Wars episode. (The first part is available on iTunes and it will be interesting to see if the second makes it there, too.)

Initially, the two had wanted to include a scene with the Muslim prophet Mohammed, but were censored by the network. Following orders, they cut the scene from the episode, but instead ran a title card that said "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

The episode went on to depict images of Jesus defecating on the American flag and President Bush. These images were allowed by the network.

Part of the episode originally was meant to poke fun at the hysteria that followed a Danish newspaper's publishing of political cartoons depicting Mohammed. Instead, it showed that hypocrisy (or fear) exists even in the network that's known for pushing the envelope.

The sad fact of the matter is the episode also showed that if members of a group riot, protest and threaten, they will get results.

Evidently Comedy Central thinks it's OK to offend Christians during the Holy Week. It's perfectly fine to "bleep" on America. Bashing Bush is in vogue. But, heaven forbid, Muslims get offended. It seems that that in the land of the free and the home of the brave the First Amendment, freedom of speech, and the right to equal opportunity lampooning have limits.

Did Parker and Stone cross a line? You bet. In fact, they probably overshot it by a mile or two. Did they get their point across? I sure hope so.

Although the offending episode hasn't hit iTunes yet, Comedy Central is replaying it this week. We'll keep you posted for its arrival on iTunes.

Source: TV Squad

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