In which the point about Islam, made by South Park and many others, is inadvertently made by Comedy Central. Criticize or mock Christianity? You likely won’t even get an angry letter any more. Even mention the name Mohammed? Get death threats.
An episode of “South Park” that continued a story line involving the Prophet Muhammad was shown Wednesday night on Comedy Central with audio bleeps and image blocks reading “CENSORED” after a Muslim group warned the show’s creators that they could face violence for depicting that holy Islamic prophet. Revolution Muslim, a group based in New York, wrote on its Web site that the “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker “will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh” for an episode shown last week in which a character said to be the Prophet Muhammad was seen wearing a bear costume. Mr. Van Gogh was slain in Amsterdam in 2004 after making a film that discussed the abuse of Muslim women in some Islamic societies.
He wasn’t just “slain” by some random mugger. Theo Van Gogh (yes, related to Vincent van Gogh) was shot eight times, had his throat cut, was decapitated, and a knife jabbed in his chest. All thanks to Mohammed Bouyeri, who also left notes on the body threatening other critics of Islam and ranting about Jews and the west.
Revolution Muslim was threatening that the same would happen to Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park. Why the group has yet to be charged with death threats is beyond me. The actual wording of threat, which we knew about before the episode originally aired, was pretty clear.
The new episode of “South Park” on Wednesday night tried to revisit this character, but with the name and depiction of the character blocked out. It was unclear how much of the bleeping was Mr. Stone and Mr. Parker’s decision…
On Thursday morning, a spokesman for Comedy Central confirmed that the network had added more bleeps to the episode than were in the cut delivered by South Park Studios, and that it was not giving permission for the episode to run on the studio’s Web site.
Basically, Comedy Central isn’t just bleeping the name Mohammed — it won’t even allow the censored version of the episode to run on SouthParkStudios.com.
Comedy Central thinks it’s edgy by distributing shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Hardly. Criticizing or mocking American politicians, usually Republicans, doesn’t take courage. I do it here all the time, and I’m chickenshit. Edgy would be showing the unpopular, the controversial. Edgy would’ve been airing this episode with censorship.
Instead, Comedy Central is just cowardly. It’s pathetic.
Via HAH.
2. May 2010 at 7:01 pm
I think most people who watch South Park would make a comment similar to this: Courage is a commodity sorely lacking by Comedy Central. They certainly didn’t care if they offended Jews or Christians. Their lack of backbone is what’s offensive. Or, Comedy Central should be ashamed of itself for giving in to the threat, and every peaceful, moderate Muslim in this country ought to be out there right now denouncing this at the top of their lungs. OK, does that sound reasonable? I DON’T THINK SO! Immediately, these pieces of vomit belonging to the “Revolution Muslim” group should be arrested and charged with harassment, threats of violence, intimidation, and hindering free speech. Where do these hoodlums, thugs, scalywags, goons, strong-armers, fanatics, combatants, militants, radicals, extremists, fundamentalists, militant Islamics, zealots, and pretty much a bunch of hell lovers think they’re living? They are living in America, the home of the free and the land of the brave. So Comedy Central, maybe you need to grow some “apples” since all you seem to be able to do is cower in fear. YOUR A DISGRACE to our armed forces who put lives on the line every day in Iraq, Afganistan, and everywhere else. YOUR A DISGRACE TO AMERICA. Not only is this a shameful act by Comedy Central, but they were intimidated by this despicable, anti-American radical behavior. I knew Jon Stewart was a Democratic Socialist Obumer supporter but I had no idea that he would sell out when the going got tough. What a coward.Why do the liberals/progressives abandon their principles so easily when they get scared? will Comedy Central’s ratings go in the toilet? For the brave, yes. The comedy act that I can’t wait to see is how Comedy Central is going to be able to find satire in this cowardly act? Never