As a fan of South Park, I have been and will always watch their shows with an open mind without taking anything too seriously. Thus, when the last week episode (the 200th episodes of South Park) aired about the Super Best Friends again (the first time the Super Best Friends emerged in one of the episode in 2001) I watched the show in awe.
The summary of last week episode is something like this: Tom Cruise is mad when he was called a “Fudge Packer“ and he rallied all the celebrities (about 200 of them) that had been “slandered” by the town of South Park and decided to put a class action law suit if the Prophet Muhammad does not show up. They disguised Muhammad by using a black censored block and in a bear suit.
Hence, the outrage over this episode which ended up with a death threat of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on Revolutionmuslim.com (I can't access the site, I believed it has already been taken down) saying:
We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them.
I googled Theo Van Gogh and discovered that he was a film producer that was famous for his controversial statements and movies. Van Gogh worked with a writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali and made the documentary short film entitled; “Submission”, which a translation of the Arabic word “Islam”.
In the film, there were scenes which were highly offensive to Islam and Quran. Theo Van Gogh chose an approach that degraded Quran by showing Muslim women’s naked bodies covered with semi-transparent clothes. The Quranic verses which relate to restrain women and guide women how they should live their lives were written on the bodies of women who were offering prayers. This was an outright humiliation of Quran and Islam.
His portrayal of Muslim women as a subject of oppression then angered the Muslim world. In the early morning of November 2004, Van Gogh was shot eight times and died on the spot. The killer then cut Van Gogh’s throat, decapitating him and stabbed him in the chest. Two knives were left implemented in his torso with one attaching a five page note to his body. Ayaan Hirsi Ali then went into hiding.
Thus, I was more than eager to watch this week episode. Comedy Central decided to place numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode and South Park doesn’t have the network approval to stream their original version of the show. The 201th episode turned out to be filled with audio bleeps and even at the certain parts they bleeped the whole conversations.
As annoying the bleep sounds might be, I was actually quite relief after watching this week episode. Even though I missed the point of the episode, at least it was tame enough and I hope it won’t fuel the anger of the radical Muslim anymore. Let us just enjoy some good humor that does not played with religion sensitivities please?
First THREE Commenters:(Whoever won the most First Commenter contests will be featured at the end of the month!)
+ Gagay from Pinoy MD +
+ Bella from Enveeus.com +
+ Mariuca from Meow Diaries +
Bluecrystaldude
