Comedy Central refuses to show Muhammad on South Park?

Originally posted by paperclip
Oh btw, I am Muslim and I approve of Southpark

Christian here and I love it too

My anger isnt at South Park....or Muslims.......but at Comedy Central for being to cowardly to depict a person that as you said, they have already shown before.

To be honest during this thread I have become MORE angry over their bowing down to scientiolgy. In that case they cant even whimper that its about saving lives......its just about being affraid to piss off some of the hollywood stars.

My respect for south park was based on the fact that they would take on ANYONE. And in this, Trey and Matt havent let me down

But Comedy Central have shown themselves for the cowards and hypocrits they are

Did anyone really watch the episode. Trey and Matt blacked out Muhammed on Purpose, to Prove a point and to make fun at that people over at FOX. Comedy Central had nothing to do with the blacking out. It was in the original attempt. So don't let something like this trun into a conspiracy over SouthPark. There is no conspiracy here folks, so just move along.
Wow, people now and days can't take a joke, to save their lives.

Originally posted by Harvestfreak
Did anyone really watch the episode. Trey and Matt blacked out Muhammed on Purpose, to Prove a point and to make fun at that people over at FOX. Comedy Central had nothing to do with the blacking out.

Did you bother to read any of the links? try this one.......

www.washingtonpost.com...

By DAVID BAUDER
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 13, 2006; 6:14 PM

NEW YORK -- Banned by Comedy Central from showing an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the creators of "South Park" skewered their own network for hypocrisy in the cartoon's most recent episode.

Its in the FIRST sentence. Comedy central BANNED them from showing his image.

[edit on 14-4-2006 by Amuk]

Originally posted by Harvestfreak

Wow, people now and days can't take a joke, to save their lives.

Funny, because this is what we are trying to convey here in this post. Yes Comedy Central DID have something to do with it, if you would have read the stories you'd know that. We've been trying to say this whole thread that the world obviously can't take a joke.

Ok so I guess it was realy censored. But yet they turned it into a joke, sort of.

Can't say the whole episode was a crazy riot, the major highlight was the response from that one terrorist guy (the cartoon). Though it was crude it was funny, gave me a hard laugh. "I am going to # on you"


"A frequent "South Park" critic, William Donohue of the anti-defamation group Catholic League, called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle for being censored.

"The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central _ that's their decision not to show the image of Muhammad or not _ it's Parker and Stone," he said. "Like little whores, they'll sit there and grab the bucks. They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus. That's their stock in trade.""

So I wonder what William wanted them to do, cut the whole episode? It was comedy centerals decision to not show it so what do you expect parker and stone to do.

The guy is a frequent critic, so what do expect resounding support? He would prefer to sell out to whatever the tv executives 'masters' will.

Usualy they depict the j-man in a positive light, when he makes apperences in episodes "the bringer of order and reason" also a superfirend, and friend of santa.

Like I said before when Trey and Matt wrote the episode, they blacked out the character on PURPOSE. They made fun of the network over it. Thats how it was originally aired, with the blacked out character. Even in the article by the washington post says they made because they refused to air a picture of the Prophet, so in return they rewrote the episode around that. Hence my Original statement that it was made originally like it was aired.

There is an uncensored version of the Muhammed clip on the Internet.
Not sure if it's legit or not.

South Park Muhammed

It is the southpark muhamed.

Just watched the ep (finally), and all I have to say is HA^10e99.

Originally posted by Harvestfreak
Like I said before when Trey and Matt wrote the episode, they blacked out the character on PURPOSE. They made fun of the network over it. Thats how it was originally aired, with the blacked out character. Even in the article by the washington post says they made because they refused to air a picture of the Prophet, so in return they rewrote the episode around that. Hence my Original statement that it was made originally like it was aired.

The point of the thread still stands. Comedy Central STILL asked them not to show Muhammed, so it WAS censored. They might have changed it into a joke, and made it funny, but that doesn't change that Comedy Central STILL censored them.

According to the show's producer they were faced with a choice to either censor the episode themselves before delivering it to Comedy Central or deliver it as is and let Comedy Central do the censoring for them but Comedy Central did not give them the option to air it uncensored.

The writers did not put the censored wording as a gag.
They did it in their own words to show how strongly they were against the censorship.

volokh

On Wednesday night, the cable network Comedy Central showed a censored episode of the animated cartoon, South Park, refusing to allow a brief depiction of the prophet Mohammed. The battles between the network and the producers and creators of South Park over the inclusion of Mohammed raged until late Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before the show aired Wednesday at 10pm ET.

Interview With Producer Reveals Reason for Censorship was "Fear"

In an interview Thursday evening, South Park Executive Producer Anne Garefino revealed to me that the show was faced with two options: deliver the episode as written and animated with Mohammed shown and then allow Comedy Central to censor it, or edit out the disputed scene and write their own language explaining why Mohammed was not being shown and whose decision it was. “We wanted everyone to understand how strongly we felt about this,” said Garefino. Although the decision to omit Mohammed was not theirs, they wanted the language of the censorship disclosure to be their own.

BTW, according to a Wiki article the uncensored animation I posted earlier was a fake.

en.wikipedia.org...

OK for everyone out there that say Comedy Central didnt cenor the show...........

How about an E-mail to me where they ADMIT censoring it. I finally got a response from the show to my email

Dear Viewer,

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the "South Park" episodes
entitled "Cartoon Wars." We appreciate your concerns about censorship
and the destructive influence of outside groups on the media,
entertainment industry and particularly Comedy Central.

To reiterate, as satirists, we believe that it is our First Amendment
right to poke fun at any and all people, groups, organizations and
religions and we will continue to defend that right. Our goal is to
make people laugh and perhaps, if we're lucky, even make them think in
the process.

Comedy Central's belief in the First Amendment has not wavered, despite
our decision not to air an image of Muhammad. Our decision was made
not
to mute the voices of Trey and Matt or because we value one religion
over any other. This decision was based solely on concern for public
safety in light of recent world events.

With the power of freedom of speech and expression also comes the
obligation to use that power in a responsible way. Much as we wish it
weren't the case, times have changed and, as witnessed by the intense
and deadly reaction to the publication of the Danish cartoons,
decisions
cannot be made in a vacuum without considering what impact they may
have
on innocent individuals around the globe.

It was with this in mind we decided not to air the image of Muhammad, a
decision similar to that made by virtually every single media outlet
across the country earlier this year when they each determined that it
was not prudent or in the interest of safety to reproduce the
controversial Danish cartoons. Injuries occurred and lives were lost
in
the riots set off by the original publication of these cartoons. The
American media made a decision then, as we did now, not to put the
safety and well being of the public at risk, here or abroad.

As a viewer of "South Park," you know that over the course of ten
seasons and almost 150 episodes the series has addressed all types of
sensitive, hot-button issues, religious and political, and has done so
with Comedy Central's full support in every instance, including this
one. "Cartoon Wars" contained a very important message, one that Trey
and Matt felt strongly about, as did we at the network, which is why we
gave them carte blanche in every facet but one: we would not broadcast
a
portrayal of Muhammad.

In that regard, did we censor the show? Yes, we did. But if you hold
Comedy Central's 15-year track record up against any other network out
there, you'll find that we afford our talent the most creative freedom
and provide a nurturing atmosphere that challenges them to be bold and
daring and places them in a position to constantly break barriers and
push the envelope. The result has been some of the most provocative
television ever produced.

We would like nothing more than to be able to look back at this in a
few
years and think that perhaps we overreacted. Unfortunately, to have
made a different decision and to look back and see that we completely
underestimated the damage that resulted was a risk we were not willing
to take.

Our pledge to you, our loyal viewers, is that Comedy Central will
continue to produce and provide the best comedy available and we will
continue to push it right to the edge, using and defending the First
Amendment in the most responsible way we know how.

Sincerely,
Comedy Central Viewer Services

-----Original Message-----
From: ComedyCentral Servers @ ComedyCentral
Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 4:08 PM
To: Viewer Services @ Comedy Central
Subject: South Park - Cartoon wars

Message: Dear Sir

I felt like I had to ask you if it was Comedy Central that censored the
Image of Muhammed or if matt and trey did it themselves.

Also if you DID censor the image could you explain your reason for
this?

Thank you

Frank

What a bunch of wimps

[edit on 15-4-2006 by Amuk]

I even have the Big Wheel Chase from that episode as an avatar. Cool 2-parter; I enjoyed it!

CC needs a back bone. They should be happy Matt and Trey made on for them. They even fought for it for their fans(which if my memory is correct includes "the boybanders"(NSYNC, BSB, etc.). So I give them Choclate Easter Cookies, Brownies, and Kudos for it. Muhammod wasn't the point. Plus, in the real episode that airs. Comedy Centeral would've had mentioned the dialouge they censored, if only vaugely.

-All for SP Workers, Matt and Trey!

Ok....heres a question.

With everything in mind....

What are the implications of a whole load of ATSers making avatars of muhammed? I mean.....theres no law against drawing pictures right?

Just wanted clarification

I think some people have missed the point, entirely, on the double episode of South Park, "Cartoon Wars 1 & 2."

Comedy Central isn't actually responsible for "censoring" the image of the Muslim prophet Muhammed in this episode. The "censoring" is a written joke that goes hand in hand with the premise of the entire episode. The creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, made this episode basically to bash the cartoon show Family Guy, and use Family Guy's reference to Muhammed in a joke as a foundation for attacking the show. The part of the show where Muhammed is "censored by Comedy Central" starts as a reenactment of Family Guy's Muhammed joke. They write in the blacked-out screen carrying the "Comedy Central has chosen not to show the image of Muhammed" to chastize both the writers of Family Guy (essentially saying they have no ethics) and the FOX TV network (essentially for not having the guts to step in and say the Family Guy joke is unethical). The writers of South Park obviously think that some things shouldn't be joked about. Undoubtedly, this stance raises questions of "stiffling free speech." This is also addressed in the episode. The South Park crew's basic "moral of the story" in this episode is that free speech is great, but entertainers with a platform that millions of people see should be more responsible in choosing what to joke about, despite the fact that South Park has a long history of offending just about everyone that has ever watched it (Which is also addressed in the episode, when Cartman is defending the Muslims' anger over the Family Guy cartoon by asking his jewish friend, Kyle, if he would like it if there was a show that made fun of Jews all the time, which of course means Parker and Stone are calling attention to the fact that they are not trying to be the pot calling the kettle black.) They also admit to being overly-preachy, which all ties in to whole point of the episode: Trey Parker and Matt Stone wanted to roast Family Guy, so they used the Muhammed joke as a platform. The "censored" image is a joke, not an actual case of censorship from the network. Watch the episode. All these things should be made abundantly clear.

Originally posted by haybrian
I think some people have missed the point, entirely, on the double episode of South Park, "Cartoon Wars 1 & 2."

Comedy Central isn't actually responsible for "censoring" the image of the Muslim prophet Muhammed in this episode. The "censoring" is a written joke that goes hand in hand with the premise of the entire episode.

That is incorrect. They did create the episode with Muhammed in it, but Comedy Central would not allow it. However, Matt and Trey leaked the unsensored version onto the internet a few weeks later, and is still (i believe) available on P2P's.

edit: wording





[edit on 6-6-2006 by pstiffy]

It pays to be cautious. If ever beheadings are carried out in the name of, lets say religion XXX, anyone would think twice about parodying or ridiculing it.

Okay, so I just found out that Comedy Central really did censor the image of Muhammed. However, watch the episode. It seems like a hysterical joke to me. Nevertheless, I was mainly posting this to respond to people who obviously didn't see the episode and were trying to speak intelligently about it. I think the censoring of Muhammed was still totally appropriate, even though I am an advocate of free speech, most of the time.

I'm clocking you on your response time..... GO!!!

lol, is this fast enough? I guess i got here just at the right time.


And I do agree with you, and I am partly glad they did decide to censor it.

However what isn't a joke in South Park? They can take almost anything, no matter how serious, and make it hilarious, yet informative.


[edit on 6-6-2006 by pstiffy]

Originally posted by Amuk
Well CC........when it came time to stand up for your beliefs.........you folded like a kid forking over his lunch money to the school bully

Well put Amuk.

We now have a group that receives special treatment for fear that they will riot. Lets all bend over backwards to appease them less we feel their wrath.