South Park being censored? For everyone who's seen South Park, that's no surprise. But the show being censored for South Park 201 marks a fresh, new milestone that might have been created to specifically attract the attention of censors. After getting death threats from a Muslim group, Comedy Central started censoring the show. South Park is apparently watched by Muslims. They also consider any physical representation of their prophet — cartoon, drawing, sculpture, movie, etc. — to be blasphemous, and in the case of extremists, punishable by death.
Censored South Park 201
Censored Wednesday night on Comedy Central and denied network approval for streaming online, South Park 201 was expected by fans who watch South Park to reveal a likeness of Muhammad. In episode 200, the character was concealed by a bearsuit. Muhammad comes out of the bear suit in episode 201 but is blacked out by a censor bar. The characters name is bleeped out whenever it is spoken.
Is South Park 201 funnier than the original when censored?
South Park 201, censored by Comedy Central after the group RevolutionMuslim.com published the death threat, might have actually delivered a bigger laugh pay day for individuals who watch South Park. It might be said that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone used the occasion as an opportunity for self-parody, not to mention a huge surge of publicity no amount of pay day cash could buy too quickly.
Extremists offended by extreme South Park episodes
The wrath of RevolutionMuslim.com was brought out by South Park episode 200 which depicted Muhammad in a bear suit. Stone and Parker must have imagined exactly what could have happened in the subsequent South Park episodes after the group’s site published a post claiming they “outright insulted” the Prophet:
“We have to warn Matt and Trey that what doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show,” the post read. “This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.”
The post showed a graphic photo of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered Amsterdam in 2004 by a Muslim offended by Van Gogh’s film about Muslim women. The text listed the addresses of Comedy Central’s New York office and Parker and Stone’s California production office.
Other episodes for South Park
Other South Park episodes censored contain one that aired in 2006 when Parker and Stone wanted to weigh in on a controversy involving Muslim death threats motivated by caricatures of Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper. Comedy Central passed on the extra cash that would have come from depicting an image of Muhammad in that South Park episode. On the South Park website, Episode 201 is not available for streaming. Instead of seeing the video, you’ll see the message in a box:
“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.”
Sources for the article
Comedy Central
http://www.comedycentral.com/
Trey Parker and Matt Stone
http://treyparker.info/matt.htm
Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper
http://zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/jyllands-posten_cartoons/
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