'South Park' Controversy Continues

A Political Look at Hollywood
By James Hirsen

By now most people are aware that “South Park,” the animated TV show on Comedy Central, isn’t for children.

The evidence was there from the start in the first episode, which was a Christmas show that featured a violent battle between an animated Santa Claus and the Christian Savior, Jesus.

The show uses words that most parents would prefer their children not have in their vocabulary banks.

Catholics, Mormons, Jews, and even atheists have been mocked over the course of the show’s run. God has been depicted as a monkey and Jesus as a kind of superhero hypocrite who uses his miraculous powers to smite opponents.

The program has also viciously attacked loads of celebrities, which has contributed to its high ratings and long roster of offended folks.

In the 200th anniversary episode, everyone that the show has ever offended makes a repeat appearance. In it, Tom Cruise teams up with Bono, Tiger Woods, Paris Hilton, and other “South Park” parodied celebrities of the past to plot their revenge.

Unfortunately, this time around cartoon producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone have offended a group that has responded with a warning that they could face violent consequences for satirizing the Prophet Muhammad.

A U.S.-based organization, Revolution Muslim, posted on its website that the "South Park" creators would "probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh." Beneath a picture showing the murder of Van Gogh, the post reads: "We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid, and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

Van Gogh was the Dutch filmmaker who was shot and stabbed to death in 2004 over his short film titled "Submission," which focused on the issue of mistreatment of women in the radical Muslim culture.

The posting provided details about a home that Parker and Stone reportedly co-own and also listed the addresses of their California production office and the New York office of Comedy Central.

Comedy Central responded by editing out from the show any references to Muhammad.

According to Parker and Stone's website, the network prohibited them from streaming the original episode on their site. The two wrote, “After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show.”

Now Parker and Stone have issued a statement concerning their network's decision to perform the redactions.

“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.”