In a 2003 episode of South Park, Parker and Stone tackled one of their favorite subjects: Mormons.
The episode “points the finger at the faults of everyone else on both sides of the PC argument,” wrote Jonathon Dornbush of Entertainment Weekly, “And, if ‘Stunning and Brave’ is any indication, the show will continue to do so while remaining hilarious.”
In the season 19 premier, South Park took on Social Justice Warriors and overly politically correct climate with their episode about Caitlyn Jenner. We make statements through our humour, but we’re not out to make statements.” Seventeen years later and that message still rings true. “I don’t give a shit about being PC or anti-PC,” Matt Stone told The Independent in 1998. “We tackle subject matter that we think is funny and unique.
However, the show remains one of the most powerful sources of social satire on television today and series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone refer to themselves as “equal opportunity offenders,” lampooning everything from stem cell research to the Virgin Mary’s butthole.
A Canadian judged once described South Park as a “vulgar, socially irreverent program that contributes nothing to society.” The advocacy group Parents Television Council condemned the show as a “curdled, malodorous black hole of Comedy Central vomit” that “shouldn’t have been made,” and Action for Children’s Television founder Peggy Charren claimed that the show’s use of language was “dangerous to the democracy.” It is unknown what will happen to the episode when it goes into reruns and online streaming, but for now, it remains censored and is not allowed to be posted online at South Park nearly two decades, South Park has earned its fair share of fans and critics. A Facebook group was created to establish Everybody Draw Muhammad Day on May 20. Jon Stewart launched a tirade on air against Comedy Central, saying that it is the network's right to take precautions to safeguard their employees but then showed numerous religious jokes made on The Daily Show. There were numerous responses to the episode. Results of Incident: The episode aired censored. Because of the posting, Comedy Central decided to censor "201." When the final cut was streamed to Comedy Central from the show's production facility, the network put a large black rectangle in front of any depiction of Muhammad that said "Censored." They also beeped out any audio reference made, ultimately resulting in beeping out a 2 minute speech that outlined the story's moral conclusion.
In response, an Islamic religious group called Revolution Islam issued a statement online saying that the creators of the show should tread carefully about showing the prophet onscreen because the murder of Theo Van Gogh in 2004 could happen to them as well. Muhammad was to be depicted within the group.ĭescription of Incident: In the first part, Muhammad was dressed up in a bear suit. While subplots ran rampant throughout the episode, one particular story involved the Super Best Friends, a group comprised of religious figures with superpowers. Confronting Bodies: Revolution Muslim and Comedy Centralĭescription of Artwork: "201" was the second part of a two part episode of South Park.