Comedy Central's 'South Park' Censors Do Their Part For Homeland Security
Peabody Award-winning animated series (we're still trying to wrap our minds around that one) South Park faces an interesting artistic dilemma: Namely, for a show whose main raison d'etre is to poke massive, battering ram-sized holes into society's last remaining taboos, where do you go after a tour-de-force, pedophilia-themed season premiere? Well, if your network refuses to allow you to incite an anti-US jihad by broadcasting cartoon images of Mohammed, you simply do the next best thing: Turn the disagreement into an episode, and throw in Jesus shitting on Bush and the flag for good measure.
In Wednesday's episode, the character Kyle is shown trying to persuade a Fox network executive to air an uncensored "Family Guy" even though it had an image of Muhammad.
"Either it's all OK, or none of it is," Kyle said. "Do the right thing."
The executive decides to strike a blow for free speech and agrees to show it. But at the point where Muhammad is to be seen, the screen is filled with the message: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network."
It is followed shortly by the images of [Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag].
It would be underestimating Matt Stone and Trey Parker's considerable social mores-mincing abilities to assume that this was the end of the line for their parade of wrongness. We look forward to a future South Park in which the First Family tries to sell a jaded vaudeville booker on their novelty act, an endless series of scatalogical and sexual combinations between the President, Laura, the twins, and deceased family dog Spot, which they proudly call "The Autocrats."
