201: F-U Comedy Central!

I was cleaning out the DVR Wednesday night and thought I accidentally deleted South Park "201." At work Thursday I went to the South Park Studios website to watch the episode. Of course, I got the message everyone else got--that it was not available and might not be, due to network censorship. At that point I just wanted to see what the big deal was. Further blips posted on Facebook that day made me so curious I almost couldn't stand it. Last night I was going through and catching up on recorded shows when I realized I didn't delete "201," I had deleted "200."



So, I started watching "201," and was getting really irritated because, like most of the episodes so far this season, it wasn't funny. I didn't really care about the Cartman's dad issue and I already knew they had bleeped every reference to Mohammad. Then we came to the end of the episode. Kyle's final monologue, plus other characters including Jesus, were completely bleeped. Minutes of dialogue censored. WHAT DID THEY SAY??!!


I looked around online this afternoon and there's no clear answer except that Mohammad WAS NOT mentioned by name in any of the final dialogue that was bleeped. What? Then what did they say?


I've always been a fan of South Park. It came out when I was in high school, and I've watched it ever since it first started. In the beginning it wasn't too much different than other "controversial" cartoons of the past, like The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthead, and even Ren and Stimpy. It was potty humor. It was base and crude, but it wasn't the worst thing out there. The plots were often silly, and the only point they made was we'll be as gross and juvinille as we want to be and you'll keep watching. Over the years it evolved into a very relevant, mature social satire--better than anything out there, IMO.


There was the episode where they didn't bleep the word shit, and kept a counter in the corner for how many times they said shit in the episode. They still did some silly, pointless episodes now and then, but the overarching theme seemed to really grow up. I went from liking South Park to loving South Park. Then there have been the other projects by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that are euqally as good--like "Team America." If you didn't laugh until you wet yourself watching that movie then you don't have a sense of humor, period. I'm sorry to anyone who didn't like that movie, but that makes you officially a tool.


I'm fully aware that the world has changed since South Park first went on air. And I'm not a supporter of pushing the boundaries just for the sake of pushing boundaries. I understand there's a difference between when they showed a cartoon image of Mohammad in the "Super Best Friends" episode years ago and now. But whatever they censored this time...it can't be any worse than anything that's been done on that show before. The episode where they killed Chef still remains, IMO, one of the most disgusting and crude episodes to date, even though Isaac Hayes brought that on himself and deserved the treatment the show gave him in that final episode. South Park has never held anything sacred, and has NEVER avoided controversial topics. I can't think of a single group that hasn't been harpooned on that show yet.


One so-called group threatened violence over "201." All threats of violence must be taken seriously, but Comedy Central really screwed themselves by choosing to air the episode anyway with all of the edits. Just don't air it if you are that afraid. That still wouldn't be right, but to bleep the entire final minutes of dialogue in a show that was clearly dependent on it--the rest of the plot was lame and pointless, and usually in those episodes the final speech by Kyle ties it all together--was the worst thing they could have done.


I'm beyond pissed at Comedy Central right now, and don't know the appropriate way to show my support of Matt and Trey but not Comedy Central. I would honestly not fault them if they never made another episode, or if they finally went to another network (which I've thought they needed to do for a while now anyway). I want to continue to watch South Park, but I'll be damned if I turn my TV to Comedy Central ever again. I also love "The Daily Show" and "Colbert Report" and don't want to penalize those shows for the actions of their obviously retarded network. It really puts me in an ethical bind here, and I don't like being put in those situations either. That just compounds the anger of the situation for me.


So, without any censorship here on my blog: FUCK YOU COMEDY CENTRAL! Until the network apologizes, agrees to let Matt and Trey stream the episode from their website and stops pulling this kind of PC bullshit, I will not watch Comedy Central. And if anyone didn't see the episode, I've still got it on the DVR. I've locked it so it can't be deleted on accident. Censor that!  Oh, and MOHAMMAD MOHAMMAD MOHAMMAD!