grunter

Once again, Trey and Matt get off smelling their own flatulence.

You can't get much more dilettantish and "white tower" high-and-mighty than parroting back the easiest fucking "free speech" argument in the world. "*Wah* We can't say what we want, so we're going to throw a tantrum. And on the way, look how clever we are by commenting on our own preachiness."

Sorry, but all of this hubbub over showing or not showing the image of Muhammed rings hollow for a show that routinely submits both to censorship of its own language and to a television ratings system designed to screen harmful content from the masses (or more specifically, their "little ones"). (Yes, it's true they did an episode where the word "shit" was uttered something like 127 times in 22 minutes. But that came off as much more of a ratings stunt than a hard-core stance on the ludicrousness of arbitrary broadcasting standards.)

Stan said it himself in the episode: either all topics are okay to write about or none are. I find that message compromised when its delivered in deliberately expurgated language.

Once again, except for the epic slap-fight, the episode completely failed to be funny. Contrary to Cartman's evil plan, the surest way to kill a "comedy" series isn't just to pull a single episode, it's to stop being funny.

PixyJunket

Censorship! BWAHAHAHA!

Wow, just wow, grunter. Simply amazing. *golf clap*

mllefoo

Cold Age. The Smackdown.

Giles

"Once again, except for the epic slap-fight, the episode completely failed to be funny. Contrary to Cartman's evil plan, the surest way to kill a "comedy" series isn't just to pull a single episode, it's to stop being funny."

- but's that YOUR opinion - what one may find funny, might not be to another.

"Stan said it himself in the episode: either all topics are okay to write about or none are. I find that message compromised when its delivered in deliberately expurgated language."

- but isn't that Comedy Central's standards not South Parks' ("shit" being the execption)

lotsofdvds

There was also a poster for "26".

Richard Malloy

No, they aren't that stupid. "Censorship" is a fairly broad term regarding the limiting of free speech in general. I think the point that you and others actually mean to be making is that Viacom/Comedy Central's censorship of this episode does not violate the first amendment which only protects against government limitations on speech.

Which is an interesting distinction, but as a practical matter is well beside the point if that point is freedom of expression, a supposedly cherished principle in our culture. Whether free expression is restricted by a government agency or a corporation would seem to make little difference in the so-called "marketplace of ideas". The upshot is that certain expression is verboten.

"South Park" has rather brilliantly highlighted one rather obvious fact: a campaign of terror has succeeded in causing us, as a nation along with much of the rest of the Western World, to disregard what is presumably a cherished enlightenment principle. It's become rather tiresome to hear the phrase "the terrorists have won" as applied to any ol' damn thing, but here is one instance where it cannot be denied.

PixyJunket

No, the point is that Comedy Central did not "censor" this episode. It was part of the joke. People on the "internet" are so deeply and disturbingly obsessed with their concept of "censorship" that many are failing to see the gag in this episode for what it was. In this case, people are so into their own fairy-tale version of "censorship" that they'd rather post on the internet about how evil Comedy Central is rather than understand the joke presented before them.

Jimmy James

How do we know that?

I think it could be part of the joke whether CC directed M&T not to show Mohammad or not.

PixyJunket

If you can't see the joke in putting up a black screen that says "In this scene Mohammad hands Peter a helmet." and then freely show the President and Jesus crapping all over the American flag.. well, there wouldn't be much more I could do to explain it to you.

gotrice487

"Stop Kyle, that was in the balls! Seriously, Kyle...that was in the balls!"

That slap-fight had to be my favorite part of the episode

Spiderbite

Exactly. When Matt & Trey state that they decided to not show Mohammed on their own then I will accept it. Just because Pixy thinks they meant the joke to be taken a certain does not mean that is so...unless you have spoken with Matt & Trey.

I personally believe that they were daring CC to show Mohammed after all the recent Europe crap and CC pussed out.

Jimmy James

I understand the joke. What I don't get is how you think you can determine what went on behind the scenes. Do you think you're psychic or something?

TheNightFlier

That and the slapfight were my favorite parts of the episode.

PixyJunket

You're right.. I don't know for a fact, I'm making a guess based on the context of that section of the episode. Had we seen Mohammad and then went to the retaliation cartoon, there wouldn't be that ironic comedic sting to it, if any at all. It's certainly more reasonable then the tin-foil-hat assumption that "big brother" is out to get people by "censoring" everything. I'd imagine it's probably funny to Matt and Trey to see the reaction from the.. "subset" of their audience that thinks every single thing they don't agree with is "censorship" . Worst case is that CC said they wouldn't want to show Mohammad and Matt and Trey made a joke out of it.

PixyJunket

Apparently some blogs websites are reporting they've "called" Comedy Central and confirmed it was their decision to "censor" the image. Some are going as far to say they downloaded the episode "uncensored" on certain theft sites. Now, I don't buy that (meaning, I would believe CC decided they didn't want to air an image of Mohammad, but not because somebody with a website claims it) but thought I'd post it here before I'm bombarded with some "I told you so!" posts.

Now, considering the content of last week's episode and the timeliness of their creation, this one would've been made from the start knowing what they'd be able to do or not, so I'm still siding with that the "joke" was done purposefully, whether or not it was based on Comedy Central's decision to show/not show Mohammad remains in the air, but I'll post something here if they make a statement on South Park's website.

slop101

Oh my God!
C'mon!

First of all, they've arleady shown Mohammad on South Park before - not that long ago, and Comedy Central has re-run it numorous times with no edits.

Second, just the way that their "Peter Griffin" opens the door for Mohammad, and the way he's standing in the doorway, just out of sight, makes it even more obvious that they never inteded to show him in this episode.

Giles

I agree, this was satire at it's best - everyone expected SP to show Mohammad, but then... BAM! CC censors it - ah the irony and ultimate punchline- I cracked up. If SP had shown him, it wouldn't have been funny (at all).

Lateralus

Good... Bad... Whatever, lots of people are talking about this and that brings in ratings.

RoyalTea

my brain hurts right now.

people actually think that the part where comedy central cut out muhummad was not what Parker and Stone wanted?

wha???

PixyJunket

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...301002_pf.html

As I stated above, they knew the whole time they weren't going to show it (if the information above is correct).

dick_grayson

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060413/..._park_muhammad

`South Park' Creators Skewer Own Network

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer 51 minutes ago

Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of "South Park" skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon's most recent episode.

The comedy — in an episode aired during Holy Week for Christians — instead featured an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

In an elaborately constructed two-part episode of their Peabody Award-winning cartoon, "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker intended to comment on the controversy created by a Danish newspaper's publishing of caricatures of Muhammad. Muslims consider any physical representation of their prophet to be blasphemous.

When the cartoons were reprinted in newspapers worldwide in January and February, it sparked a wave of protests primarily in Islamic countries.

Parker and Stone were angered when told by Comedy Central several weeks ago that they could not run an image of Muhammad, according to a person close to the show who didn't want to be identified because of the issue's sensitivity.

The network's decision was made over concerns for public safety, the person said.

Comedy Central said in a statement issued Thursday: "In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision." Its executives would not comment further.

As is often the case with Parker and Stone, they built "South Park" around the incident. In Wednesday's episode, the character Kyle is shown trying to persuade a Fox network executive to air an uncensored "Family Guy" even though it had an image of Muhammad.

"Either it's all OK, or none of it is," Kyle said. "Do the right thing."

The executive decides to strike a blow for free speech and agrees to show it. But at the point where Muhammad is to be seen, the screen is filled with the message: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network."

It is followed shortly by the images of Christ, Bush and the flag.

A frequent "South Park" critic, William Donohue of the anti-defamation group Catholic League, called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle for being censored.

"The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central — that's their decision not to show the image of Muhammad or not — it's Parker and Stone," he said. "Like little whores, they'll sit there and grab the bucks. They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus. That's their stock in trade."

Parker and Stone did not immediately respond to a request through a spokesman for comment.

It's the second run-in over religion in a few months for the satirists. Comedy Central pulled a March rerun of a "South Park" episode that mocked Scientologists. Isaac Hayes, a Scientologist who voiced the Chef character on the show, resigned in protest over the episode.

"South Park" again got the last word last month with an episode where Chef was seemingly killed and mourned as a jolly guy whose brains were scrambled by the "Super Adventure Club," which turns its members into pedophiles.

Only last week, "South Park" won broadcasting's prestigious Peabody. Awards director Horace Newcomb said at the time that by its offensiveness, the show "reminds us of the need for being tolerant."

RoyalTea

was this for a prior episdoe idea?

i can see them saying "we want to make fun of muhummad" and comedy central saying "no"

but I refuse to believe that parker and stone animated muhummad for the show last night, which was censored by comedy central at the last minute.

PixyJunket

I agree. That sounds like what happened: they asked, were denied (they are under contract after all) and they based these two episodes on that, simply using the "censorship" angle in their favor. As I firstly stated, Comedy Central didn't "censor" anything.. the episode was made knowing they weren't going to show the image.

Richard Malloy

And your point is... what?

PixyJunket

That Comedy Central didn't "censor" anything.. as all the tin-foil-hat internet kids are trying to parade.