“South Park” is one of the most popular shows of our generation, and quite possibly one of the only cartoons that college kids watch regularly. I’ve always loved the show for its political commentary and “telling it like it is.” The creators, Matt and Trey, don’t care about whether or not they are politically correct, and this was extremely evident during their 200th episode. In that episode, which aired last week, they wanted to show a cartoon version of Mohammed.
Back in 2006, while the conflict between Muslims and the Dutch cartoonist who portrayed Mohammed was raging, “South Park” tried to show the Muslim prophet but Comedy Central decided against it. Well, the creators are back at it again; the entire episode is spent making their point of how it is ridiculous that Muslims get outraged and threaten violence against anyone making fun of their religious figure.
During the show, all of the celebrities “South Park” has made fun of over the years are lead by Tom Cruise in suing South Park unless the citizens hand over Mohammed. They want his power to not be made fun of. The residents of South Park realize this is a problem since they are not allowed to show Mohammed on TV. During the beginning of the episode, when we are introduced to the “Super Best Friends,” a team which consists of Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Moses, Mohammed, Lao Tzu, Joseph Smith and Seaman, Mohammed is just a big censor bar. They continue to discuss what would be an appropriate way to show Mohammed, going through ridiculous ways such as dressing Mohammed up like a pirate, putting a paper bag over his head, dressing him in a suit of armor and finally, putting him in a U-Haul.
All of this was done to show the absurdity of trying to appease a certain religious group. The funniest part of the episode, to me, was when Joseph Smith says to the main characters, “Boys, you need to understand that people get very offended when Mohammed is mocked because he is a religious figure.” At the same time, the camera pans over to Buddha snorting cocaine with a rolled up dollar bill, at which Jesus exclaims, “Buddha, don’t do coke in front of the kids!”
This is supposed to be taken as a joke, but it also shows the double standard that exists today when it comes to offending people. It is OK to make fun of Christians, Buddhists, Mormons and Jews but, for some reason, Muslims are off limits.
“South Park” touches on a hot-button political issue that goes hand in hand with a main problem in our society, being too politically correct. It is utterly ridiculous to not be able to show a cartoon version of Mohammed just because some Muslims would threaten to kill them. The creators, and the network, obviously have no problem making fun of any other religious figures. They show Buddha snorting cocaine, and I don’t see any Buddhists threatening to kill everyone who showed their religious figure, snorting cocaine I might add.
It is a double standard that I applaud “South Park” for exposing. They show the ridiculousness that they are not allowed to show a religious figure for fear of violence. We cannot put our free speech in chains just to appease a group of people. Stan’s dad is quoted in the show saying, “You saw Mohammed!? … Mohammed showed up and nobody got bombed?” The episode ends in a cliffhanger and by the time this runs, we’ll know whether or not Comedy Central grew some “cojones” and showed Mohammed.
