The Jagwire Northwest High School Germantown, MD
Issue Date: Thursday, February 14, 2013 Issue: Volume 15, Issue 3 Last Update: Tuesday, February 19, 2013
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At-a-glance

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Over the last fourteen years, South Park has been one of the center points of television comedy, and definitely one of the most controversial. It has had religious, cultural, and political impacts on the United States. However, do you think there should be a time when enough is enough?

For those of you that have not heard, South Park reached a milestone in mid-April, broadcasting its 200th and 201st episode in the series history. Of course, these episodes did not broadcast without controversy. In fact, this was probably the point where the show went a little too far.

These episodes, called "Cartoon Wars Part 1" and "Cartoon Wars Part 2," feature characters on the episodes showing an uncensored cartoon-depiction of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad also appeared later in the show disguised in a bear costume, making the matter even worse for the people who work on the show.

After the episodes aired, an emerging leader of a New York based Muslim Organization tweeted that he prayed for Allah to kill the show’s creators and "burn them in Hell for all eternity." The South Park co-creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have become accustomed to a very different reception. They told CNN "in the 14 years we’ve been doing ‘South Park’ we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind."

This issue has become so serious that even the FBI has become involved with the Muslim death threats to the creators of the show. Some people love the show because of its great sense of humor and because they just love to see fourth graders swearing at adults and doing crazy things.

Some people might not care; they do not watch the show or they probably think it is just another small issue. I hope that the people who work on the show do not make this same mistake again, because who knows what is going to happen.


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1 COMMENTS - Add your comment below

5/25/2010 9:21:56 PM by Jerry    
I've seen this episode and they DID NOT show an uncensored Mohammed. The Cartoons Wars episodes did show Mohammed and they slipped under the radar several years ago. The episodes you are referencing are called episodes 200 and 201. The Cartoon Wars episodes are from several years ago and treat all of the religious icons differently then they are treated in 200 and 201 which are from season 14. I love South Park because normally they have deeper messages with universal truths. I think they were hoping for the Muslim backlash here because it PROVES the point of the entire episode. The point being that every other religion has sacred icons, but that people that do not hold to that religion are not forced to regard those icons as sacred. I mean the show has Jesus watching porn and Buddha snorting cocaine; its ridiculous. But neither group has made death threats. Nothing terribly bad is done to Mohammed in the show when you compare it to the treatment that others receive; I mean wearing a bear costume is not exactly defamatory its just....goofy. Thats what makes it so crazy that people are reacting this way, and thats what they were betting on. By getting angry people are helping South Park's agenda, and in my opinion making the show more relevant. Matt and Trey wanted to prove that Comedy Central would censor the episode, which they did. They wanted to prove that people would over react, and they have. Matt and Trey are both deep believers in free speech. They had reached the 200th episode milestone and they wanted to both celebrate the show by putting in many old characters and to demonstrate that free speech is still under attack today. And in my opinion episodes 200 and 201 did just that.
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