If you caught this week’s episode of South Park, a continuation of the episode that caused the creators of the show to receive veiled death threats, you no doubt noticed that not only have brass at Comedy Central proven to have no backbone by not airing an cartoon image of Muhammad, they would not even let his name be said on air. The censorship was not limited to that, as Trey Parker and Matt Stone point out in a statement:
In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.
Comedy Central has refused to make the episode, as well as other episodes featuring Muhammad, available for viewing at SouthParkStudios.com, which streams all of the show’s episodes.
John Stewart, host of The Daily Show (also on Comedy Central), offered his two cents on the story. It’s worth a watch, even if you disagree with his political views. He also has a message for those Islamic extremists upset with South Park:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| South Park Death Threats | ||||
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