The show South Park is no stranger to controversy. The creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have openly stated that there is no line that they wouldn’t cross when it comes to their comedy. Anyone who’s seen the show knows that South Park loves to make fun of everything under the sun, including religions, but at what point did Comedy Central (the network South Park is aired on) think the creators had gone too far? The show and its creators get away with a lot, but the network drew the line during the third and fourth episodes of the tenth season, “Cartoon Wars,” when the creators wanted to show a visual depiction of the Muslim Prophet Muhammed.
Basically, to summarize the two episodes, it starts out with the town freaking out over a parody rendition of Family Guy because it was going to show a visual depiction of Muhammed, and Muslim terrorists said that was not okay.The terrorists said that if they show Muhammed, they are going to retaliate with violence. The whole town of South Park begins freaking out, and when the episode airs, it is revealed that Fox Network censored the image of Muhammed. Everything appeared fine, but then later the South Park characters find out that the Family Guy episode was part one of a two-part series and the second part was going to air next week with the image of Muhammed uncensored because the Family Guy writing staff demanded they show the prophet Muhammed. Cartman then decides to go to the Fox Network studio to try and get them to pull the episode because if enough episodes get pulled Family Guy will eventually go off the air, and he manipulates Kyle to come with him under the pretense that he actually cares about the Muslim religion.
The two of them travel to Fox Network (on three wheelers) but Kyle finds out that Cartman just wants to get Family Guy off the air because he does not like the show, and they fight on their three wheelers and Cartman makes Kyle crash. Cartman makes it to the Fox Network and tries to get the Family Guy episode pulled, and ends up meeting the Family Guy writing staff who turn out to be manatees and they don’t work if anything they write gets censored (it’s a whole thing). So Cartman has to manipulate the Fox Network president to pull the episode on his own and when the episode is about to get pulled, Kyle makes a speech and says that if they censor Mohammed that the Network chooses what is and isn’t okay to poke fun at; either it’s all okay to joke about or none of it is. The president lets the episode air and the image of Muhammed in Family Guy plays, a grey screen reading “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammed on their network.”
These episodes have since been pulled from the air and all streaming services despite the episode censoring the depiction of Muhammed. It’s almost a strange form of censorship as the episode itself features Muhammed being censored by both Fox Network in the Family Guy episode but also in the South Park episode by Comedy Central. Censorship is such a complicated subject in the media because there are so many other factors besides content or comedy that need to be considered when deciding how and when to air an episode. These episodes simultaneously critique censorship and participate in it. In Kyle’s speech at the end of the episode, he explains that censorship is a form of control and that in deciding what is or is not okay to be aired on or talked about on television, freedom of speech is being hindered.
The show itself goes as far as to describe the first amendment as “Bureaucratic jibbery joo” and demonstrate the hypocritical nature of freedom of speech as it relates to media censorship. There is always a fine line between comedy and controversy, and South Park is no stranger to completely leaping over it without second thought. The creators have never shied away from providing their take on current sociopolitical issues, and this episode is no exception. By raising the debate about what constitutes as violations of first amendment rights and being creative enough to derive a plot line centered around think tank manatees, the writers have not only produced a brilliant social commentary on censorship, but have made their viewers laugh, proving that once again South Park is significantly better than Family Guy (Fact).
Featured Image by Harish Karumanchi
