Irreverent? Yes.
Obnoxious? Definitely.
Dangerous? It's a cartoon.
Worthy of Death Threats? Huh?
Despite not actually having a picture of Mohamed, a South Park episode was censored by the Comedy Central network - an amazing lack of understanding of the principles of the United States. There were no actual pictures of Mohamed in it. There was only a bear suit that they claimed had Mohamed in it. Not only that, the show was censored and bleeped often. Kyle does his end of show monologue about intimidation and fear - the irony of that is one reason I watch this show.
South Park is a show with three possible formulas (1) silly and stupid, bathroom humor, tolerable and occasionally funny; (2) really biting satire that takes down some big egos a few pegs, not to be missed; or (3) gross to point of wondering why they bothered - this type is unwatchable.
And there it stands. Censored "after a Muslim group warned the show’s creators that they could face violence for depicting that holy Islamic prophet." (NYTimes).
On Thursday afternoon, Trey Parker and Matt Stone released the following statement:
"In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it."I hate this kind of censorship. Judge a show on its merits. If its stupid or offensive, say so. If it crosses the line, explain the line. I may agree with you and then I'll apologize. I may disagree with you but that's my problem (or yours). Threatening death is a bit much, n'est-ce pas?
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