South Park Episode 201
Apr 26th, 2010, in News, by Patung
Indonesians weigh in on the South Park prophet [censored] bear suit controversy.
The 200th and 201st episodes of the American satirical animation “South Park” screened in the last week have featured references to the Muslim prophet Muhammad, causing a little known New York based radical Islamic group to issue barely veiled death threats to the show’s producers.
As a result Comedy Central television network heavily censored the screening of the latter of the two episodes, and attempted to block its distribution on the internet. timesonline
Someone in a bear suit
The 201st episode’s description reads:
It’s a tense situation in South Park as Muhammad has become the pawn in the game to save the town. The Ginger kids are threatening to destroy the city if Stan and Kyle don’t hand over the Prophet and the celebrities have met violence with violence by unleashing Mecha Streisand. In the midst of all of this, all anyone really wants to know is, who is Eric Cartman’s father?
Muhammad and bear suit references begin at minute two.
You cant see this bit
In Indonesia Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI) spokesman Ismail Yussanto made his own threats over the issue:
….We demand the US government punish those responsible. If they don’t, just wait.
Those who insulted the prophet could legitimately be executed without due process, he said, because in the time of Muhammad a woman who had insulted the prophet was beheaded by her own husband, and Muhammad did not punish him for this, Ismail said. okezone
A less bloodthirsty response was heard from Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI) leader Ma’ruf Amin, who asked only that Muslims around the world protest, and also okezone
[Followers of] other religions should protest too, because next time it could be another religious figure that is insulted like this, it could be the prophet Isa [Jesus Christ] who gets treated like that.
31 Comments on “South Park Episode 201”
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Eh, what nonsense again, and now over a south park episode???
I really liked the South Park episode where they ripped the scientologists another one..
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Here’s a Charlie Rose interview with the guys who make South Park
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8368416038386823686#
What’s next???? Shaun The Sheep????
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Anyway, I never heard anything about South Park before. Once I hear it, it’s just something annoying, at least for that episode. I don’t even think why certain people choose prophet Muhammad SAW to be their object eventhough they know that its going to make muslims angry.
@madrotter: Btw, I love to watch Shaun The Sheep 🙂
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venna says:
Yori:
People here in US make fun on everything in comedy: races, religions, politics, celebrities, cultures. It’s not surprising they picked prophets as their object, not only prophet Mohammad but also Jesus, etc. For the first time I came here, I was shocked when watching Comedy Channel, but then I got accustomed to it.By the way, South Park is not my favorite. I like Chris Rock & Carlo Mencia shows more. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyp1KBhN02E
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capekdeh says:
“….We demand the US government punish those responsible. If they don’t, just wait.”
Haha who is this clown? Someone ought to mail him a copy of the Qur’an. Insults to the Prophet are nothing new, and some of the most damaging ones were made during his lifetime. The Qur’an time and again tells Muslims to ignore such slander. But of course some Muslims prefer to go hadith mining because you can justify almost anything that way. What a fool.
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Tsk,
Those atheists…, they’re like donkeys, they keep repeating the same mistake.
The message is clear: don’t offend the muslims.
Geez. What is so diificult about being “sensitive” toward the muslims? Get yourself educated, please.Now watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGUOe2SSnKE
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Chris says:
[Followers of] other religions should protest too, because next time it could be another religious figure that is insulted like this, it could be the prophet Isa [Jesus Christ] who gets treated like that.
Well, actually JC has appeared regularly on the show ever since the first season, including episodes where:
– JC fights Satan in a boxing match.
– JC’s caring and sharing TV show “Jesus and Pals” becomes more like “Jerry Springer” to counter a ratings slide.
– JC rescues Santa Claus after his sleigh is shot down by Iraq/Saddam Hussein.
The prophet also appeared in previous episodes, but no one cared until after the Danish cartoons controversy in 2006/7.
Funnily enough, early seasons were fairly respectful of JC. However, I can’t vouch for later seasons, as Indonesia (where I have lived for six years) seems to be a South Park-free zone.
Does anybody know where I can get/watch “South Park” and (their other movie) “Team America: World Police”?
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ET says:
Those who insulted the prophet could legitimately be executed without due process, he said, because in the time of Muhammad a woman who had insulted the prophet was beheaded by her own husband, and Muhammad did not punish him for this, Ismail said.
Such a revealing honesty re. the prophet.
Kaffir all over the world, beware! HTI is on its way.
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Jesse says:
For the Righteous Dude… it’s easy enough to find past seasons of South Park at Ratu Plaza or your favorite pirate DVD reseller…
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Oigal says:
The message is clear: don’t offend the muslims
What makes one group so special over everyone else..get a grip on reality..
“Aww mommy, them other kids are picking on me”…..sigh
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deta says:
“Aww mommy, them other kids are picking on me”
Shh… mommy don’t care who is bullying whom. Now turn off the TV and go to bed.
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yeah i’ve seen southpark for sell in bandung too… everytime i go to holland i got a good friend who gives me loads of cool docu’s, films and also all the southpark stuff that has come out since my last visit…
recommended watching (from the last batch):
the devil rode in on horseback, docu about the genocide in darfur, you gotta have a strong stomach to watch that one though (and to stay a little bit on topic, that’s arab muslims murdering black muslims over there and as long as the muslim community doesn’t speak up about this i can’t take any thing like the south park thing serious, i’m sorry)
grizzly man, movie from the great werner herzog about this guy who lived with grizzly’s for some 12 years and got eaten in the end, all original footage, truly incredible, your hairs will stand up watching that one…
anyways, yes, going with oigal on this one…
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The message is clear: don’t offend the muslims
What makes one group so special over everyone else..get a grip on reality..
“Aww mommy, them other kids are picking on me”…..sigh
Oigal, out of love and compassion I’ll say this to you: you’re insenzates.
Put yourself in their shoes. Take the training.
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Odinius says:
“Hey everybody, let’s protest something that was never even put on the air!”
More fun from the Ministry of Fundamentalist Idiots.
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To get a bit serious, I support the right of anyone to peacefully protest something they find insulting or whatever. But this is absurd on three levels. First, the calls or intimations of violence by some of these fundies are completely out of line, and kind of pathetic too. This is the real insult to Islam. Second, the damned episode didn’t even air. Third, the goddamned show insults everyone, and singles out no one. So it’s not even remotely like the Jyllands Posten affair, another absurd reaction but which was at least initiated by a specific and focused attempt to bait and insult Muslims.
Hey fundies: go get laid already!
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An interesting fact is that the so-called “Muslim” group behind the threats is “Revolution Muslim”, which has like 10 members (maybe?) but has somehow managed to get an ish ton of press. And it’s headed by two ex(/undercover..?)-Zionist settlers.
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It’s just some douchebags with a URL. Who really cares who they are? Other, quite real groups have subsequently made even more absurd statements. These groups could very easily have said “no, this is silly.” Instead they said “yeah! yeah! me too! me too!”
These fundies and extremists, through their embarrassing rhetoric and stone-age sensibilities, have insulted Islam in full public view.
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Berlian Biru says:
I fear you’re all missing the real villain in this piece, no not the idiots and wannabe jihadis who posted a threat on their website, such losers exist in every society, but Comedy Central’s management who so cravenly capitulated to the threats.
You know Hollywood, I use the term generically, and the western liberal media and arts crowd are never done patting themselves on the back for their “courage” as they bravely “speak truth to power” as they onanistically call it. Thus putting the Virgin Mary in a bottle of piss, mocking the Pope, calling for George Bush’s assassination are all viewed within the collective circle jerk as radical and brave.
Confronted with real threats, faced with a chance of really standing up to evil bigots they fold like a cheap infidel’s tent in a sandstorm. Remember this is Comedy Central, the supposed cutting edge of comedy and polical and social discourse, when threatened with an actual, if really extremely unlikely, cutting edge we see how worthless their much vaunted bravado really is.
To quote from an excellent summary of where this is all going;
“But there’s still a sense in which the “South Park” case is particularly illuminating. Not because it tells us anything new about the lines that writers and entertainers suddenly aren’t allowed to cross. But because it’s a reminder that Islam is just about the only place where we draw any lines at all…
In a country where the latest hit movie, “Kick-Ass,” features an 11-year-old girl spitting obscenities and gutting bad guys while dressed in pedophile-bait outfits, there isn’t much room for real transgression. Our culture has few taboos that can’t be violated, and our establishment has largely given up on setting standards in the first place.
Except where Islam is concerned. There, the standards are established under threat of violence, and accepted out of a mix of self-preservation and self-loathing.
This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that “bravely” trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force.”
Says it all really.
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@ Berlian Biru:
You would find Glenn Greenwald’s latest article at Salon – “The New York Times’ Muslim problem” – highly educational. An excerpt:
“The various forms of religious-based, intimidation-driven censorship and taboo ideas in the U.S. — what Douthat claims are non-existent except when it involves Muslims — are too numerous to chronicle. One has to be deeply ignorant, deeply dishonest or consumed with petulant self-victimization and anti-Muslim bigotry to pretend they don’t exist. I opt (primarily) for the latter explanation in Douthat’s case.”
A little dose of reality for you.
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We (in the West) routinely disapprove of creative expressions that are degrading or insulting to specific ethnic, racial, and religious groups. Not sure you are a US resident, BB, as is the person you’re quoting, but if you were, you’d remember a radio jock named Don Imus who lost his job after calling the almost entirely black college basketball team “nappy-headed hos.”
One supposed difference now. In the “nappy-headed hos” incident, no one threatened Imus with violence. SBut perhaps there’s a second difference: that back then, there was an actual threat of violence. This time, I wonder if it’s not just an overblown media circus?
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capekdeh quoted:
“The various forms of religious-based, intimidation-driven censorship and taboo ideas in the U.S. — what Douthat claims are non-existent except when it involves Muslims — are too numerous to chronicle. One has to be deeply ignorant, deeply dishonest or consumed with petulant self-victimization and anti-Muslim bigotry to pretend they don’t exist. I opt (primarily) for the latter explanation in Douthat’s case.”
Absolutely! Beat me to the punch…
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@ Berlian Biru – for the record, we are in agreement about Comedy Central’s decision being stupid.
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BB quoted
This is what decadence looks like: a frantic coarseness that “bravely” trashes its own values and traditions, and then knuckles under swiftly to totalitarianism and brute force.”
Says it all really.
It says it all indeed and even more. Those who are too wise or too proud to react to insults of their values and traditions get run over and trampled or are at least ignored. Loudmouths and intimidators on the contrary get consideration and respect.
The genesis of western political correctness. -
Odinius said:
It’s just some douchebags with a URL.
That is the best, most succinct summary of the affair that could possibly be written. lol
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alistair cordon says:
I love South Park. I love how they diss religions and all.
Having said that…well, I’m a muslim. I don’t watch these episodes because I’m afraid that if I laugh -and I’m sure I will- then I will sin… -
Ross says:
Berlian Biru says we are all missing the point, but I thought I’d made it in my comment above,
‘why on earth is another segment of the media resorting to self-censorship to curry favour with Ismail’s breed of bigots?’The decline of the West is illustrated by its determination to batter down its integral ‘Christendom’ values and its quivering cowardice in the face of those who relish its collapse.
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Rambutan says:
I never understood why Muslims are so easily offended.
And It’s funny that HTI proclaims to be a peaceful movement while supporting killing people for offending the prophet…
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realest says:
I dont know anyone who watches south park in indonesia, it doesnt even air in cable
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@realest…,
Duh, we’re indonesians don’t live under the rock (we’re not patricks).
We have access to internet, too, where we can download southpark series (beside porns of course).
I watched southpark when I was young, and thought expletives and cynicism were cool.
Now I despise people (of my age) who spew too much expletives and cynicisms (trying to emulate Dr. House persona in order to look smart and cool). I do tolerate the younger ones though…, I just take them as sillies.
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Ismail Yussanto…a name to remember and watch for.
It really is quite alarming that his sort of person is going to and fro in the streets of Indonesian cities, believing that he and his fellow-primitives have the right to dispense with due process and kill people who upset them.
The rest of us have to take the slings and arrows of everyday life and watch offensive drivel like South Park with no recourse except letters of protest. I have only ever seen a few of its shows and have no wish to watch any more. Like Ismail, I am not forced to watch them, thank God.
Considering that some moron who makes films of pit-bulls tearing each other to pieces was recently told by the US Supreme Court that he’s entitled to circulate his obnoxious movies, as they are protected by ‘free speech’ rights, why on earth is another segment of the media resorting to self-censorship to curry favour with Ismail’s breed of bigots?