What about that flying lizard thing?
By the way, I love your username! 
The only purpose behind yelling “fire” in a crowded theater is to take some perverse joy in seeing people panicked and trampled to death. Matt and Trey, on the other hand, were not seeking violent Muslim backlash but merely a confirmation that Comedy Central won’t let the possibility of a violent Muslim backlash prevent them from exercising their constitutional right of free speech. Comedy Central was likely afraid of any boycotts or death threats, thus proving that intimidation works.
But you don’t get to choose who fights that fight. The people you’d want to do it are probably the type who wouldn’t want to. The question is, “do you stand behind those people anyway?” Not everybody who stands up for an issue is Rosa Parks, and most people would agree that there comes a point where you cannot quietly tolerate someone else’s demands on you.
It’s irrelevant.
If nobody knows it’s supposed to be a depiction, then I would expect it doesn’t matter. This seems kind of irrelevant.
Muhammad isn’t a god, although I guess the same statement applies to most prophet-types.
Thanks! I like yours too, and I actually get it. shows off Spanish skillz
Then you just make him look Nordic on all the pictures.
I don’t think they were looking for confirmation of anything, just doing satire. News organizations wouldn’t run the Muhammad cartoons, so I’m sure they knew South Park didn’t stand much chance.
There is no Godzilla but Godzilla and Rodan is his prophet.
Wait! Comedy Central was prohibiting Parker and Stone from showing Muhammad in self-published media?
I thought they were asserting control over a show and network that they owned, which is, in part, their right to free speech, but if they’ve started sending goon squads door to door, then it’s another thing entirely.
Fuck, did I miss Gladstone saying that? Parker and Stone’s Constitutional rights have nothing to do with this situation unless the government prohibited them from showing Muhammad in that episode. The First Amendment really isn’t part of this issue at all, the way I see it.
Fuck, did I miss Gladstone saying that? Parker and Stone’s Constitutional rights have nothing to do with this situation unless the government prohibited them from showing Muhammad in that episode. The First Amendment really isn’t part of this issue at all, the way I see it.
Nope. Nothing but pure cowardice to see here folks.
I personally loved the episodes, and events conspired to make the censorship of the Prophet’s image funnier than if they’d actually shown it.
You’re absolutely right that Comedy Central owns the network and the show and it is ultimately their perogative as to what gets shown and what doesn’t.
The First Amendment isn’t directly impinged. But certainly the colloquial name for one of the rights it does include - free speech - isn’t worth that much if private actors which help enable and amplify such speech are intimidated by threats of violence. South Park lampooned both Comedy Central for their unwillingness to show Mohammed, as well as the U.S. government (albeit indirectly with the head-in-the-sand gag) for its condemnation of the Danish cartoons in an attempt to appease angry Muslims.
It’s not a television network’s place to champion free speech or any other principle or value Westerners hold dear. To declare certain things off-limits, however, not because they offend the sensibilities of their intended audience, but because a radical fringe threatens violence is a dangerous precedent. Not to get on the ol’ slippery slope, but this is exactly the point that Cartman was (jokingly) making. Will other groups be able to intimidate Comedy Central or other networks into further narrowing what they will and will not show? CC already pulled the “Virgin Mary statue having a period” episode and the Scientology episode has also been reportedly pulled from re-broadcast. While the latter two were not pulled because of violent threats, they at least appeared to be decisions based on financial considerations rather than fear of physical harm.
Did Comedy Central have a right to wuss out? Sure.
Did they have a right to decide “Showing Jesus shitting on the President is okay, but we can’t risk showing Muhammad doing anything at all”? Sure- it’s their station ,and they can decide what they want to show.
I just don’t EVER want to see Jon Stewart or ANYONE else at Comedy Central acting like he’s a hip, cutting edge, irreverent, daring guy. It’s pretty clear that self-styled provocateurs are only willing to take on “sacred cows” they know can’t or won’t fight back.
It’s incredibly safe to mock Christians. It can be risky to mock Muslims. Not surprisingly, the wimps at Comedy Central choose to stick to the former.
True, and we’ve done that thread a couple of times around here. 
So you don’t watch the Daily Show, I guess. They’ve been mocking the Muslim rioters since this crap started - in fact, they’ve done at least a couple of “here, let me show you these drawings I made of the prophet Muhammad” jokes. So has the Colbert Report. They just haven’t tried to do the really inflammatory thing and show him.
To hell with William Donahue. He wants generally to censor things, and tries t get things taken off the air (includign South Park - he had fits over the Bloody Mary episode). Now he says, the South Park guys should quit to protest censorship? Talking out of both sides of his mouth. He needs to shut the fuck up.
As to the big black “censorship” box over Mohammed - I thought that was part of the joke. I thought it had been put there by the writers, and not by Comedy Central. I don’t want some religious group - Catholic League, Muslim extremists, Puritans, Protestants Protecting Us From Practically Everything, or anyone else dictating what I can see, listen to (or read or say or think). I don’t care if it upsets or offends them at this point. They can all get over it.
Is that why I keep seeing them rerun the episode about the Virgin Mary bleeding out her vagina? Oh, wait, Comedy Central bent over for the Christians too.
You don’t know what Opus Dei is capable of. How do you think that big, ugly penguin keeps getting work?