South Park duo criticise Comedy Central

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 10:42

[DIV class=headline]South Park duo criticise network [/DIV]The duo behind South Park have used the cartoon's latest episode to attack their network for banning them from using an image of the Prophet Muhammad. Comedy Central prevented Matt Stone and Trey Parker from using the image after the furore caused by a Danish newspaper publishing caricatures of Muhammad. Instead, Wednesday's episode showed an image of Jesus Christ defecating on President George Bush and the US flag. Comedy Central said in a statement that it stood by its decision. [DIV class=bo] "In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision," it said. Scientology protest The episode was built around the incident, and features the character Kyle trying to persuade an executive at rival network Fox to air an episode of cartoon Family Guy which features an image of Muhammad. "Either it's all okay, or none of it is," Kyle tells the executive. "Do the right thing." The executive decides to show the image, but a caption is displayed reading: "Comedy Central have refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network." It is followed by the images of Christ, President Bush and the flag. Comedy Central recently cancelled a repeat airing of an episode which mocked Scientology. Singer Isaac Hayes - a Scientologist - quit his role as the Chef character in protest over the episode. But last month South Park depicted Chef being killed and mourned as somebody whose brains were scrambled by the "Super Adventure Club", which turns its members into paedophiles. Last week, South Park won US broadcasting's prestigious Peabody prize. Awards director Horace Newcomb said that by setting out to be offensive, the show "reminds us of the need for being tolerant".

[DIV class=footer]Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/4909820.stm

Published: 2006/04/14 12:42:15 GMT

© BBC MMVI
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tenkani · Apr 17 06 11:03

LOL

I guess the Comedy Central execs are more afraid of having their headquarters bombed than they are of Matt and Trey :P

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 11:06

Can some on say Censorship?

Can't wait for the anti-Comedy Central episode.

tenkani · Apr 17 06 11:10

This is one of the rare instances where I think they might have made the right call.

And I don't know if censorship, in the traditional sense, is the appropriate way to think of this. Comedy Central produces the show. I think it can be argued that they have every right to control the content, especially if they feel that it's likely to provoke violence. If it was the government supressing an episode, it would be different.

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 11:15

True. Not a big fan of South Park but Matt and Trey do have a side. For example where was Comedy Central when they air there christmas specials, the anti canadian episode and vice a versa. I'm against hate speech which I do not believe is covered in the first admendment. This is South Park's line of morality you could say. They are always trying to push that line by making there stuff have a point to it. Maybe this one finally crossed that line. Who knows would probly need to see the episode to see if it did.

tenkani · Apr 17 06 11:18

It would be like putting a giant neon "bomb us" sign on Comedy Central.

I think it would be brave to air it, but also understandable not to.

The Scientology stuff is completely different though. It's an evil cult, and the only thing Comedy Central has to fear from them is a possible court battle (and maybe a few dead pets).

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 11:35

True but then anybody could make the case for the Jesus stuff. Right wing fundies will go if you pull Mohammed why don't you pull Jesus.

tenkani · Apr 17 06 11:41

Because chances are right wing fundies aren't going to blow up a building to protest someone else's speach. It could happen, but I believe it would be a first in the U.S.

Let's be honest, as much as I dislike Christian fundies, their M.O. is big talk and political/legal action, not violence, which is a rarity in their ranks.

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 11:45

Have you ever been to christiangallery.com. The crazy guy who runs it is a militant for the anti abortion campaign. Supports the killing of abortion doctors and supports the blowing up of clinics which have happend. So the extreme right wing movement does have a militia. Tim McViegh was part of it as was the Atlanta Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph who also blew up abortion clincs in the name of God.

tenkani · Apr 17 06 11:50

I said it was a rarity, not that it doesn't happen.

When Christians get pissed off, you don't have 10,000 of them marching down the street firing AKs into the air and burning government buildings. You have a handful of militant nutbags who are generally condemned by their own religious leaders.

Why this is the case can be argued one way or another, but there's no denying that some religions are more violent than others. As bad as Christian fundies are, they aren't trying to execute people for choosing a different religion or for being raped. They aren't locking school girls in a burning building because they aren't properly dressed etc etc.

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 12:00

First of all this is the u.s not Saudi Arabia or the West Bank. Second, if Comedy Central was worried about this creating religious strife they should have asked key muslim clerics in this country to watch this and get their opinion on it. Instead Comedy Central made bigger news by not airing it. Because if they aired it I doubt BBC News would be covering this and the whole cartoon thing was a differnt story in my opinion and when a Canadian newspaper in Calgary published the cartoons they only stir it caused was in Canada where they held a march in I believe Vancouver or Montreal.

tenkani · Apr 17 06 12:12

Yes. This is the U.S., where the twin towers were bombed. Do you still feel safe?

Extremists of any faith are frightening. There just happen to be many more violent Muslim extremists than violent Christian extremists.

Even if nothing happened in the U.S. but some peaceful protests, I think it's safe to assume that in other parts of the world there would be rioting and bloodshed. If I was a Comedy Central exec, I would be thinking about the very real difference between dissing Jesus in a cartoon and dissing He Who Shall Not Be Shown.

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 12:26

Yes I feel safe. More safe then in a car. Estimated 50,000 people die each year in this country due to car accidents. Why don't we have a war on cars? The war on terror is stupid and senile to began with. Its endless war that cannot be won because the more fighting you do the more enemies you create instead of losing them. And for every person I here say "I rather be fighting them in Iraq then here" needs to have there brain checked.

This is not about 9/11 this is about the cartoon conversey which involved Mohammed as being a terrorist. This article and the story only implies that they ended up using a portrait picture of Mohammed not a picture of him with his turban disguised as a bomb. I do not see the parallels.

tenkani · Apr 17 06 12:34

Um, the Muslims weren't rioting because he was portrayed in a negative light. They were rioting because he was portrayed at all. It is a major sin to create an image of the prophet, which is of course why Matt and Trey wanted to do it.

This is about Muslim extremism, and I don't think it's out of order to bring up 9/11 as an example of the tactics of those who follow radical Islam. Your implication seemed to be that here in the West we don't need to worry about pissed off Muslims.

As far as the pointlessness of the war on terror, you're 100% right. Muslim extremists are completely out of their minds, but "war" in any recognizable sense, is not going to improve the situation.

Sportsdude · Apr 17 06 12:37

But if we bow down to one relgion just because its outlawed and a sin in there culture. Do we then bow down to others?