Censoring South Park? For any person who's seen South Park, that's no surprise. But South Park 201 being censored marks a fresh milestone of bleeping for the show that appears to be created specifically to 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 consider any physical representation of their prophet — cartoon, sculpture, drawing, movie, etc. — to be blasphemous, and within the case of extremists, punishable by death.
Censored South Park 201
A likeness of Muhammad was expected to be revealed from fans of South Park in South Park 201 which was censored Wednesday night on Comedy Central and denied network approval for streaming online. The character was concealed in a bearsuit in episode 200. In episode 201, the Muhammad character comes out but it blacked out by a censor bar. Whenever the character's name is spoken, it is bleeped out.
Is South Park 201 funnier than the original when censored?
It might have actually been funnier to look at South Park 201, censored by Comedy Central after the group RevolutionMuslim.com published their death threat. 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 an incredible surge of publicity no amount of pay day cash could buy.
Extreme South Park episodes offend extremists
Muhammad depicted in episode 200 of South Park in a bear suit brought out the wrath of RevolutionMuslim.com. Stone and Parker must have imagined 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 a Dutch filmmaker who was murder in Amsterdam in 2004, Theo Van Gogh, by a Muslim offended by Van Gogh's film about Muslim women. Then listed were the addresses of Parker and Stone's California production office and Comedy Central's New York office.
Other episodes for South Park
Other South Park episodes that had to be censored include 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. Comedy Central passed on the extra cash that would have come from depicting an image of Muhammad in that South Park episode. Episode 201 is not accessible for streaming on the South Park site. In 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
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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