southpark 201

Episode 201 of South Park

2010-04-22T00:18:00.000-07:00

Last week’s episode of South Park left us with several pressing questions: Who is Cartman’s real father? Would the assembly of pissed-off celebrities succeed in kidnapping Muhammad so they could steal his “goo,” which makes him impervious to mockery? Would the gingers get there first? Could anyone find a way to defeat Mecha-Streisand, since Robert Smith was apparently too busy to do a cameo? Why does The A.V. Club continue reviewing this show, when week after week they just don’t get it?

Then, in the last 24 hours a far more pressing question came up: Would South Park continue making relatively light fun of the idea that even making relatively light fun of Muhammad is verboten, especially now that they’ve received death “warnings” from radical Muslims? And wouldn’t you know it, the answer to that question spawned its own question: Did the creators of South Park intentionally bleep out all occurrences of the name “Muhammad” tonight as a way of satirically commenting on the controversy? Or was it Comedy Central’s own fears over stoking the flames even further that caused them to chicken out? And by doing so, did America give in to terrorism?

Unfortunately I don’t have an ironclad answer for you on whether the bleeping was meant to be there all along—though I expect we’ll find out soon enough. On the one hand, yes, it seems like could it have been hastily added after the fact, owing to some combination of wanting to point out how ridiculous the whole thing is while also covering their own asses. (After all, the name “Muhammad” was bandied about freely last week, before anyone brought Theo Van Gogh into this.) On the other, it definitely would appear that the long bleeps covering up the de rigueur “I learned something today” speeches at the end were an extended “fuck you” to censorship, and as such they simply had to have been planned. It seems too crucial to the “message”—that if you let censorship have its way, art loses all its meaning (or something hifalutin like that)—for it to be a late addition, so I’m going to err toward the “it was planned all along” argument, while keeping the idea in reserve that Parker and Stone decided to just be really, really annoying about it once Comedy Central forced their hand. (After all, the network hasn't exactly been smiles and sunshine about this before.)

But whatever the reasoning, it’s sure to become one of, if not the most talked-about episode of South Park ever by this time tomorrow—which is sort of funny, considering it was once again less of a cohesive episode than a grab bag of balls-out crazy scenes and cameos only loyal fans would really appreciate. Like I said last week (though I think it was lost under the looming shadow of that “C+”), that’s not necessarily a bad thing. South Park has established an insanely complex backstory and cast of tertiary characters, and there’s a certain thrill in seeing it try and cram as many of those as possible into one place, storytelling logic be damned, just so we can see the return of favorites like Mr. Hankey, Dr. Mephisto, Mr. Slave, Big Gay Al, and Pip (who finally returned from his mysterious three-year absence, only to be crushed to death). But it is funny to think what sort of impression this episode will have on anyone coming to South Park for the first time, just because they read about it in the ensuing press.

Also funny: the welcome surprise of Scott Tenorman’s Killing Joke-inspired revenge on Cartman, where we got the answer to the question Cartman insisted “way more” of us cared about than the Muhammad thing. Actually, finding out that Cartman’s dad was one of the Denver Broncos—who also happened to be Scott Tenorman’s father, whom Cartman had killed and then fed to his half-brother back during what is arguably the show’s finest hour—was a suitably fantastical, completely illogical contrivance that answered a question we didn’t really need answering in the first place, but it certainly fit right in with the rest of the crazy. (Also in that category: Mitch Connor’s Vietnam flashback. That guy has a pretty rich history for a left hand.)

Anyway, I would still prefer watching a regular South Park episode with a single plot to the crazy cartoon cavalcade that was “200” and “201,” but I suppose taking issue with South Park for indulging itself over its milestone would be like getting mad at a toddler for making a mess of his birthday cake. And while I did, in fact, take some issue last week with the show rehashing jokes that were—say it with me—funnier the first time, tonight took all of those rehashes and spun them off into newer, deliberately ridiculous places. Hey, it even found room for a throwaway riff on white liberal guilt in the Obama age, something the show may have built an entire episode around on a week where it didn’t have bigger things to concern itself with. And really, it was worth any number of crammed-in callbacks for the stinger of having Tom Cruise end up on the moon next to Willzyx; that silent shot of a decaying killer whale on the moon just never stops being funny.

But of course, all anyone will want to talk about is the bleeping, and whether it’s worth making such an extreme point about censorship at the expense of some potentially irritated viewers—and boy, there were a lot of them. So I’ll shut up now so we can all do that. First, even though I’m tempted to skip trying to assess a grade, I think I’ll just arbitrarily tack on some points to last week’s for a nice, safe, non-controversial “B,” which is sort of the equivalent of making some big statement about how silly it is that you can’t make fun of Muhammad, while also going out of your way to make sure that no one can ever accuse you of actually making fun of Muhammad. Thematic!

UPDATE: Well, that was fast. Not 15 minutes after I posted this article, South Park Studios replaced its page for "201" with the following message: "We apologize that South Park Studios cannot stream episode 201 at this time. After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show. We will bring you a version of 201 as soon as we can." So there you have it, I guess. The bleeps were added after the fact and against the show's wishes—which really makes you wonder what was being said in that last scene. Hopefully we'll have more clarification on this later.

'South Park' Creators Receive Death Threats Over 200th Episode

2010-04-22T00:10:00.000-07:00

'South Park' Creators Receive Death Threats Over 200th Episode

If you watched the first part of South Park's celebratory 200th episode last week on Comedy Central, part of you might recall it as a reunion of sorts of all the beleaguered celebrities playfully torn a new one over the course of fourteen seasons on the air. While they gathered under the leadership of Tom Cruise to sue the town over all the insults they have endured, another part of you may have recognized the episode as its own satire of sitcoms that celebrate their own genius by rehashing clips and situations from previous shows. If you are an extremist radical member of a certain religious faction, its entirely possible your mind was focused on another aspect altogether. And it is not Scientology.

According to a report on CNN, a radical Islamic website posted a warning to Trey Parker and Matt Stone that they may be on the violent end of a retort for airing this particular episode. Were they just Jimmy Buffett fans upset at the implication that his music is nothing but "drunken fratboy monkey garbage" or disagreed that Tim Burton "hasn't had an original thought since Beetlejuice?" Unfortunately it is nothing so trivial and hilarious. Instead, once again it was an uproar over showing the Prophet Mohammed.

Except - the Prophet was not seen in this episode. Unless a crudely sketched stick figure interpretation by Randy Marsh counts. That was apparently enough to tell Parker and Stone that they "will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh," the Dutch filmmaker murdered by an Islamic extremist in response to his 12-minute documentary, Submission: Part I, which shed light on the mistreatment of women in the religious faith. Of course, this was not a threat. Just "a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them."

As is usually the case with most religions, they are a bit behind the times and clearly did not see Season Five, Episode 68 entitled "Super Best Friends" where a group of prominent religious figures including Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Joseph Smith, Krishna and Lao Tzu team up to defeat the cult of magician David Blaine. In that episode, the Prophet Muhammad "with the power of flame" was visualized - in a positive light alongside his fellow Supermen - a full four years before the Jyllands-Posten cartoon controversy of 2005. In April of 2006, South Park aired the two-part episode, "Cartoon Wars", which featured Eric Cartman on a crusade to get Family Guy canceled after Muhammad is slated for a guest appearance on one of their episodes. Fearing a terrorist attack, the town buried their heads in sand in a show of solidarity to Islamists that their eyes would not feast on this unholiest of acts. Ultimately, the Family Guy episode airs but the moment of Muhammad's appearance is cut away from with a message that read "In this shot, Mohammed hands a football helmet to Family Guy. Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network."

And the joke continues on Episode 200 with the town fearing retribution for the scorned celebrities' single demand of producing the Prophet to satisfy their own selfish gain. Harnessing the power from "the one person on this Earth who is completely free from slander", Cruise and Co. believe it will free them from all criticism, parody and satire. While nothing less than a childish plan, it is certainly better than "warning" Parker and Stone with a graphic visual of Theo Van Gogh with his throat cut and a dagger in his chest.

In an interview with Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin, Trey Parker said that it is "messed up" to subscribe to the mentality that any one person or group is immune from ridicule because of the fear that "they might hurt us." He also said that it would be "hypocritical" against what they have tried to do with the show and what's good for the Catholics should also be fair game for anyone else. That includes the duo taking shots at George Clooney and Steven Spielberg, both of whom are often credited as spreading the word about their original short, The Spirit of Christmas, around Hollywood. Clooney even provided the barks for Stan's gay dog in season one and was the voice of the doctor in Bigger, Longer & Uncut that replaced Kenny's heart with a baked potato. Matt Stone said how "sad" he was how major media outlets including The New York Times and Comedy Central "pussied out" over printing the Danish cartoons or showing Muhammad in the wake of the controversy since it essentially left the author hung out to dry.

The Islamic website in question, Revolutionmuslim.com, has been unresponsive since CNN reported the story. The author of the "warning", Abu Talhah al Amrikee, advised readers on where to find Parker and Stone by providing the addresses of their personal production offices and Comedy Central. Abu told CNN this was to "give people the opportunity to protest" and not meant of a threat of any kind despite an audio sermon running over their pictures by Anwar al-Awlaki (an Al Qaeda leader targeted for capture or assassination) reminding followers of what the punishment is for insulting the Prophet. Unlikely that it is another film from Al-Zawahiri depicting American celebrities pooping "yummy yummy crap" on the American flag and each other with the proclamation that his work is funnier than Family Guy.

Part two of Episode 200 (justly entitled "201") will air tonight (Apr. 21, 2010) to answer the big questions. Will Mitch Connors and his taco loving alter-ego, Jennifer Lopez, reveal the true identity of Cartman's father? Will Mecha-Streisand finally destroy South Park once and for all? Will the celebrities or the ginger kids be able to get the Prophet out of that bear mascot outfit? Just what was Tom Cruise doing as a candy packer in that fudge factory? Most importantly, will the people of the real world be able to lighten up a little? Or at least have explained to them that if they don't, some might have their radical websites hacked by a video of Cartman's greatest cover tunes. Not a threat, just a warning.