South Park censored yet again -- while skewering censorship
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* Warning spoilers about South Park's shows "Cartoon Wars" follow in the text below *
Over the last two weeks the South Park folks have had fun at the expense of their own network, even as they been fighting censorship of their own show on the same network (Comedy Central).
South Park, which previously included an image of the prophet Muhammad in an episode entitled Super Best Friends, used the last two weeks to put on a two part episode that confused many fans (myself included) and left us wondering whether we were seeing a real fight between South Park and Family Guy, and yet also very clearly was aimed at tweaking the suits at Comedy Central that apparently bowed to pressure and opted to 'pull' an episode of South Park that skewered Tom Cruise and Scientologists in general.
The two most recent (as of this writing) episodes were part 1 and part 2 of "Cartoon Wars." Cartoon wars involved the show Family Guy as one of the main targets of their humor and as a tool to poke at the recent furor over the 'Muslim world' getting upset at cartoons of the prophet Muhammad found in Danish newspapers. The cartoon wars episodes went on to basically point out that people that ignore censorship have their heads buried in the sand, and even so the censorship won't work as people that threaten or commit terrorism over images such as cartoons will still commit terrorism, regardless of whether images are shown or not.
By the end of the second part of the episode, the terrorists that were incited by the showing of the prophet in the 'show within the show' opted to get revenge by producing their own show -- one with excrement (crap, manure, fecal matter, etc.) hurled at George W. Bush, Jesus and other symbols that would be recognized by the Western public.
The trigger for the terrorist response came during the second part of the episode when an episode of Family Guy that contained an image of the prophet Muhammad was supposed to be aired. At that point a very simplistic slide image came up to indicate that Comedy Central had opted to censor the episode and that the image of Muhammad wouldn't really be shown.
This censorship marks yet another in a string of times that South Park has found itself censored, or had an episode pulled. Fans of the show were left unsure whether there really had been censorship in the episodes that just aired, but news in the last few days has confirmed that the joke wasn't really a joke, even as the show went on to point out just how stupid censorship can be, and just what a slippery slope bowing to demands to censor shows can be.
More news on the issue can be found here: "South Park" Censored.
Over the last two weeks the South Park folks have had fun at the expense of their own network, even as they been fighting censorship of their own show on the same network (Comedy Central).
South Park, which previously included an image of the prophet Muhammad in an episode entitled Super Best Friends, used the last two weeks to put on a two part episode that confused many fans (myself included) and left us wondering whether we were seeing a real fight between South Park and Family Guy, and yet also very clearly was aimed at tweaking the suits at Comedy Central that apparently bowed to pressure and opted to 'pull' an episode of South Park that skewered Tom Cruise and Scientologists in general.
The two most recent (as of this writing) episodes were part 1 and part 2 of "Cartoon Wars." Cartoon wars involved the show Family Guy as one of the main targets of their humor and as a tool to poke at the recent furor over the 'Muslim world' getting upset at cartoons of the prophet Muhammad found in Danish newspapers. The cartoon wars episodes went on to basically point out that people that ignore censorship have their heads buried in the sand, and even so the censorship won't work as people that threaten or commit terrorism over images such as cartoons will still commit terrorism, regardless of whether images are shown or not.
By the end of the second part of the episode, the terrorists that were incited by the showing of the prophet in the 'show within the show' opted to get revenge by producing their own show -- one with excrement (crap, manure, fecal matter, etc.) hurled at George W. Bush, Jesus and other symbols that would be recognized by the Western public.
The trigger for the terrorist response came during the second part of the episode when an episode of Family Guy that contained an image of the prophet Muhammad was supposed to be aired. At that point a very simplistic slide image came up to indicate that Comedy Central had opted to censor the episode and that the image of Muhammad wouldn't really be shown.
This censorship marks yet another in a string of times that South Park has found itself censored, or had an episode pulled. Fans of the show were left unsure whether there really had been censorship in the episodes that just aired, but news in the last few days has confirmed that the joke wasn't really a joke, even as the show went on to point out just how stupid censorship can be, and just what a slippery slope bowing to demands to censor shows can be.
More news on the issue can be found here: "South Park" Censored.
, first I think South Park is a waste of time and material, sort of like colorforms no? Having said that, I find it extremely funny that the so-called "cutting edge" nature of the show falls flat on its' face as they buckle to the worries and concerns of scientologists and islamists. Yes, I know it is comedy central that is at fault but lets' face it, if south park creators really wanted to sppof this subject they would find a way.