South Park hit a major milestone these last two weeks with their 200th and 201st episodes. And true to form both episodes featured a lot of controversial stuff and, of course, people took notice. But this time, perhaps the wrong people took notice.
Personally I enjoyed the episodes quite a bit. The story centered around a joint lawsuit by celebrities who have been burned by the show in the past and want to sue the town of South Park. They agree to drop the lawsuit if the townspeople can produce the prophet Muhammad. Without giving any of the plot details or surprises away, I'll just say that both episodes featured references to past episode plot lines and attempted to re-address past events, which I think worked really well as a tribute to how far the show has come.
But, like I said, it turns out the wrong people took notice. And unlike a lot of people who are put off by the show, these people said something about it. The people in question are Revolution Muslim, a New York-based radical Muslim organization, and their beef was with the Muhammad subplot. Here's what they wrote on their website after "200" aired in the United States, about four days before it aired here in Canada.
"We have to warn Matt and Trey (Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of the show) that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."
For those of you like me who are not too up to speed with world events, Theo Van Gogh was a filmmaker who was murdered in 2004 by an Islamic extremist for making a short film about violence against women in Islamic societies. So yeah...this is not a threat towards Matt and Trey but a 'warning'. And the fact that the website also posted a link to an article which gives details about Stone and Parker's mansion in Colorado and made references to other people who have been threatened or killed by Islamic extremists apparently also doesn't mean this should be construed as a threat. No, not at all.
It should be pointed out that Muhammad was never shown on screen during the episode but was instead censored. But, that apparently wasn't enough.
News media picked up on the quote and, of course, interpreted it as a threat. But my favorite reaction to this came from Jon Stewart, who spoke out in support of his Comedy Central brethren Matt and Trey on The Daily Show with him and a gospel choir singing "Go F**K Yourself" to Revolution Muslim.
Comedy Central, while they declined to comment on the website quote, were apparently very rattled by it. The following week they aired "201" the conclusion to "200" but it was heavily censored. Even the word "Muhammad" was bleeped, as was the entirety of Kyle's final speech. Some subsidiaries of Comedy Central refused to air the episode at all. I can only hope the DVD release will be complete and uncensored.
A couple of problems I have with this whole thing. The first of course being any radical group issuing death threats against anyone. Secondly, the irony of the fact that Radical Muslim is based in New York, and are therefore able to enjoy the freedom of speech they apparently don't feel that South Park has any right to. Thirdly the fact that Comedy Central, though I'm sure with the best of intentions for protecting their staff, pretty much gave into this hysteria and over-bleeped their follow up episode, where they even aired it at all. Many critics blasted the network for giving the Muslim extremists this public victory and that it would result in more threats from radical groups, and I agree. My final issue is that this whole controversy of showing Muhammad on screen has now been addressed twice in South Park with "200", "201" and the two-parter "The Cartoon Wars" back in 2006. But the fact of the matter is that South Park has already shown Muhammad on screen in the July 2001 episode "Super Best Friends" with nary a ripple of backlash. Granted, that was just before the September 11th terrorist attacks, and no one will argue that, among other things, the cultural landscape changed forever that day. But it still boggles my mind that there would be so much fuss over something that has already happened before.
So a pretty shocking way to ring in 200 episodes, a landmark that would be a happy and proud moment for most series. I hope that everyone at South Park can still take this in with pride, and continue to push the boundaries in a funny, heart-felt way. I don't pretend to fully understand all of the idiosyncrasies of Muslim radicalism and the impact it has, but I hope that no radical group of any belief would ever stomp out that most sacred of rights: freedom of speech. Because, as was so eloquently pointed out in "The Cartoon Wars", "...if we aren't willing to risk what we have, then we just believe in free speech, but we don't defend it."
Any reactions to all this? Post away.
No comments:
Post a Comment