South Park being censored? That’s no surprise for people who watch South Park. But South Park 201 being censored marks a fresh milestone of bleeping for the show that seems to be created specifically to attract the attention of censors. Comedy Central began censoring the show after receiving death threats from some Muslim groups. Muslims evidently watch South Park. They consider any physical representation of their prophet — cartoon, sculpture, drawing, movie, etc. — to be blasphemous, and within the case of extremists, punishable by death.
Censoring 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. The character was concealed by a bearsuit in South Park episode 200. In South Park 201, the Muhammad character comes out of the bear suit but is blacked out by a censor bar. The name of the character is bleeped out whenever spoken.
Is South Park 201 funnier than the original when censored?
It may have actually been funnier to view South Park 201, censored by Comedy Central following the group RevolutionMuslim.com published their death threat. It could possibly be said that South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker used the occasion as an opportunity for self-parody, not to mention an incredible surge of publicity no amount of pay day cash could buy.
Extreme South Park episodes offend extremists
South Park episode 200, which depicted Muhammad in a bear suit, was enough to draw the wrath of RevolutionMuslim.com. Stone and Parker must have imagined just what could have happened in the subsequent South Park episodes following 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 a Dutch filmmaker who was murdered in Amsterdam in 2004 for making a film about Muslim women that offended Muslims, named Theo Van Gogh. Then listed were the addresses of Parker and Stone's California production office and Comedy Central's New York office.
Other South Park episodes
Other South Park episodes that had to be censored contain one 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. The extra cash that would have come from depicting an image of Muhammad in that South Park episode was passed on by Comedy Central. The South Park website doesn’t make available for streaming episode 201. Within the place of the video there is a box containing the message:
“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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