Saturday, April 15, 2006
South Park gets in deep sh*t
I see the issue of depicting images of Mohammed has again been reignited - by South Park.In an episode shown in the States this past week, the Comedy Central network barred the series from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Mohammad in last night's episode but allowed a scene in which an image of Jesus Christ defecates on President Bush and the American flag.
In last night's episode, South Park character Kyle tries to convince a Fox network executive to air, uncensored, an episode of Family Guy that includes an image of Mohammad.
"Either it's all OK, or none of it is," Kyle says. "Do the right thing."
The issue has caused a bit of a religious storm in America with some wondering why it's OK to make fun of Jesus but not Mohammed. Some have accused Comedy Central of hypocrisy. Others meanwhile, like William Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, have lashed out at the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker:
"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."
"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."
My take on this is that the network should have allowed the image of Mohammed. After all, Mohammed was depicted in an episode of South Park before in 2001. With that being said, it is a sensitive time to be doing this kind of thing and I wonder if Parker and Stone went a step too far with this one.
Here's the final scene from the episode shown in the States. Make your own mind up:
# posted by United Irelander @ 4:27 PM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
