What happened to South Park?

[WickedLiquid]

I just noticed there hasn't been a new episode of South Park since the Muhammad episode that caused all that controversy. The shows been put on hiatus after only 7 episodes that's aired in their latest season...

Are Parker and Stone in hiding because of the death threats they received? Or are they in the middle of legal issues with Comedy Central for bleeping the hell out of that episode?

I looked this up but couldn't find anything about why the show is on hiatus.

 

[schimmel]

actually the show finished its 8 episode run (there was one after 200-201), and now it's on its midseason break that happens every year. It'll return in October to finish the season, but where it'll go from there I'm not sure.

Parker and Stone are not in hiding, they openly said fuck those guys and they're not scared. They're pissed at Comedy Central because 201 was not aired the way they wanted it to be. The last time this happened was with the Tom Cruise episode, and they basically threatened to find a different network, causing Comedy Central to back down. Hopefully that'll happen again.

 

[Hexagram]

To answer your question; nobody knows. They normally take breaks in mid season but considering what's happened, it's possible they chose this time to take a break because of the controversy.

However, a new episode titled Cripple Summer aired the following week after the 2-part Muhammad spectacular. It's possible Cripple Summer was already written and completed before 200 and 201. But 201 wasn't the last South Park episode to date.

It's impossible to find 201 uncensored because it doesn't exist. Comedy Central edited the episode and all that was left was the Bleeped one. According to a statement made from the creators, Kyle's speech at the end was not about the profit Muhammad, but about fear and intimidation. I'd really like to hear what Kyle, Jesus and Santa had to say but looks like we'll have to wait for the DVD release.

 

[schimmel]

^ If there is a DVD release.

I want them to release the screenplay to the episode on their website. Sure, Comedy Central moderates the website, but they actually run it. It could happen... please? PLEASE?

 

[Green_Lantern]

Yeah...They've been taking mid-season breaks for as long as I can remember. Then again, since they create each show from scratch the week before it airs I don't blame them.

Nothing is different.

 

[Hexagram]

Yeah...They've been taking mid-season breaks for as long as I can remember. Then again, since they create each show from scratch the week before it airs I don't blame them.

Nothing is different.

This is different though. Nothing is censored on South Park, not anymore. It's obvious there is now a dispute between Comedy Central and Matt and Trey. People don't like it when you screw with their show. Conan O'Brien anybody?.

 

[schimmel]

The difference is Conan quit and will have a new show soon, Matt and Trey are almost the entire ad revenue for Comedy Central in terms of their own show (and not re-runs of old shows), but then again Futurama reboots in two days, and Ugly Americans is their first original series to get resurrected for a second season in a while. They might get cocky and call the South Park bluff if they threaten to quit, or they'll back down like they always do and bow again to the allmighty South Park

 

[madster111]

Why don't they just... 'Accidentally' leak the un bleeped version on torrent?

Last time i checked, Trey and Matt couldn't care less about people torrenting or watching their show online. They just want people to see it, so it seems to me that just letting it leak out would be the perfect solution.

Unless they want/need some money and are going to sell the DVD uncensored version based on that fact alone.


And Schimmel, do you really think comedy central would risk losing one of the most well known TV shows on the face of the planet?

 

[schimmel]

I don't know, but they have other sources of income now so I'm not saying it's likely to happen but it could? I don't wanna see it happen at all though

 

[MattAY]

They base days around South Park, as in they do those "South Psrk Sunday" jobbys. So I dont think they'd risk losing the show over something so trivial.

 

[BlackStar]

If I were Matt and Trey, I would've chosen to take a break after dealing with Muhammad.

Those extremists are fucked in the head.

Personally, I think it would be pretty rad to be a Muslim. You get to wear Pajamas all day and have a slave wife! 8)

 

[WickedLiquid]

I want them to release the screenplay to the episode on their website. Sure, Comedy Central moderates the website, but they actually run it. It could happen... please? PLEASE?

That's a good point. You'd figure after two months SOMEONE would've been able to get a hold of the script and post it online.

But then again, it's possible that ONLY Matt and Trey have a copy of the script and they're not sharing it because they feel they should be able to air it on their own show.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

Matt and Trey need to be humbled, badly.

Oh no, they aren't allowed to be extremely offensive towards the second largest religion in the world, whose beliefs have become so ingrained within its people that it could be considered as much an ethnicity as it can be a religion, by breaking one of the CORE TENETS, which are so strictly believed by the people that nothing else in the entire western world even RELATES to it. Yeah, poor babies.

And you know, it's not like they would ever go this far for any other group. They would never make an episode about how "Niggers aren't real people and here's why," or "Hitler was right in killing the Jews and here's why," and then ending the show by saying I STAND BY EVERYTHING THAT I SAID. Sure, they've made a few jokes about it but it's never been 100% directed towards a group before. So I'm sorry if I feel no pity for them being censored.

And they may whine and bitch but they aren't going to leave Comedy Central, because they would not last anywhere else. Comedy Central is the only place short of HBO that would put up with their shit, and hell I don't even know if HBO would. And if they went anywhere else, they would make a fraction of the money they are now. And Comedy Central doesn't need them that much, they have enough other programming to get by fine. So what else can Matt and Trey do besides sit on their thumbs and continue to make shallow pop culture references that cease to be funny two months later with one or two episodes that can actually survive a little while? Oh yeah, they could go back to making original movies. They could make BASEketball 2! Oh, I'm salivating at the thought of it.

Basically, South Park is good enough, but fuck Matt and Trey.

 

[WickedLiquid]

But Longo, we're not talking about a compliant or another law suit, we're talking about an actual death threat. You can't do that and Matt and Trey were trying to point out that this was actually about fear and intimidation but nobody got the message because all we could hear was BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP.


Considering Van Gogh was brutally murdered in his home town on a public street during the day, you can't ignore the reality of this issue that something similar could happen to them.

You can respectfully disagree with what Matt and Trey did, to say you can't completely contradicts the idea of free speech. But you can't threaten them with death. Say you're wearing a hat that I find offensive. I can come up to you and say "I don't like that hat, take it off!" Now you might think I'm an asshole but I'm not going to get arrested for saying that. Now if I put a gun to your head and say "take the hat off or I'll spray your brains all over the place" I could get arrested, and even possibly sentenced to prison for attempted murder.

You see it's really not Muslims they're going after. It's the people who claim their religion commands them to slay the unbelievers. Any sensible person with half a brain knows that not all muslims are terrorists, but unfortunately there are people who DO use Islam to perpetuate an ugly negative stereotype. And we have the freedom to stand up against them. To say that we don't prescribe to their beliefs, and therefore we don't believe drawing their prophet justifies violence, hatred and murder.

 

[Longo_2_guns]

First off, Van Gogh killed himself, I don't know who you're thinking of.

And true, they're getting death threats, but it's all coming from an extremely vocal minority.

How many of the extremest muslims do you think there are? A few thousand who would do it regardless, maybe a few million if we're counting those who would fight if insulted. For the record, lets say Ten Million. A rough guess. So if they were trying to just put down this group of muslims, do you know what percentage of ALL Muslims they would be targeting it at?

.0066%

There are 1.5 BILLION Muslims in the world, and all 1.5 BILLION of them will be offended by this. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the number of people who become enraged and militant INCREASES because of this. This kind of thing hurts much more than it helps.

For the 10 million people this stands up to, it also incredibly offends another 1.49 billion. I mean, that would be like launching an ICBM on every city in Europe in an attempt to just kill Hitler.

Any sensible person with half a brain would realize that even those you don't target will always be affected.

 

[WickedLiquid]

First off, Van Gogh killed himself, I don't know who you're thinking of.

I''m talking about a film maker who was shot, stabbed, and beheaded on the streets of Amsterdam simply because he made a movie that was critical of Islam.
His wikipage

He's gone, he's dead, he's never coming back, all because he decided to critique a religion. Well as much as you may not want to accept it, Islam is NOT above criticism.

You claim that this offends more people than it's intended to. Which is true since Kyle's message about fear and intimidation was completely bleeped over by Comedy Central. Perhaps if Comedy Central did not choose to bleep over that part and showed some real balls, we'd get a better understanding of who this was directed at and the importance of addressing this issue.

But regardless Longo, we're talking about Muhammad supposedly being kept in a bear costume... Muhammad was in no way shown in a negative context. Then we find out he wasn't even in the bear costume and it was Santa all along. But still, nevermind the fact that Buddha was snorting cocaine and Jesus was looking at Internet porn, the idea that Muhammad was inside the costume was enough to offend... how many people did you say?

There are 1.5 BILLION Muslims in the world, and all 1.5 BILLION of them will be offended by this

So what do you suggest? We just give up on ideas, concepts and opinions all together? We give up on the freedoms we stand for? And if those 1.5 billion muslims all agree that people should be slaughtered for having a sense of humor or expressing criticism then my God, we're all in a lot of trouble aren't we? I never said you can't get offended, in fact I said people have the RIGHT to get offended and disagree. I'm simply saying that you cannot punish those who offended you by murdering them.

Any sensible person with half a brain would realize that even those you don't target will always be affected.

Yes, and I'm sure German's felt a sting watching every WWII movie and being reminded of their history, and jews were unhappy with Passion of the Christ, and I'm sure FOX news hate Michael Moore documentaries. But the point is that they all got over it, well, maybe FOX is still butt hurt, but nobody was threatened with death, and nobody was KILLED.

You can disagree all you want, but when you involve violence you are in the wrong.

 

[madster111]

Longo, they have insulted almost every religion to date.

One of the running gags of the show is to have Jesus Chist himself be clearly blasphemous.
And then they killed him.

The fuck is your point?

"I'm PACKING"


Because when they repeatedly offended THE BIGGEST RELIGION ON EARTH, we all laughed and took it with good grace.
We didn't threaten to kill anybody.

The 2.2 BILLION Christians have a SHITLOAD more to hate South Park over.

 

[schimmel]

Matt and Trey need to be humbled, badly.

Oh no, they aren't allowed to be extremely offensive towards the second largest religion in the world, whose beliefs have become so ingrained within its people that it could be considered as much an ethnicity as it can be a religion, by breaking one of the CORE TENETS, which are so strictly believed by the people that nothing else in the entire western world even RELATES to it. Yeah, poor babies.

And you know, it's not like they would ever go this far for any other group. They would never make an episode about how "Niggers aren't real people and here's why," or "Hitler was right in killing the Jews and here's why," and then ending the show by saying I STAND BY EVERYTHING THAT I SAID. Sure, they've made a few jokes about it but it's never been 100% directed towards a group before. So I'm sorry if I feel no pity for them being censored.

And they may whine and b**** but they aren't going to leave Comedy Central, because they would not last anywhere else. Comedy Central is the only place short of HBO that would put up with their s***, and hell I don't even know if HBO would. And if they went anywhere else, they would make a fraction of the money they are now. And Comedy Central doesn't need them that much, they have enough other programming to get by fine. So what else can Matt and Trey do besides sit on their thumbs and continue to make shallow pop culture references that cease to be funny two months later with one or two episodes that can actually survive a little while? Oh yeah, they could go back to making original movies. They could make BASEketball 2! Oh, I'm salivating at the thought of it.

Basically, South Park is good enough, but fuck Matt and Trey.

... in short, you're an idiot.

Matt and Trey live in a country that was founded on the principal of FREE SPEECH and because of that are allowed to be as offensive to anyone they so choose. They've done this to Mormons, they've done this to Christians, they've done this to Scientologists, they've done it to AIDS patients, cancer patients, Somalia, cripples, mentally handicapped, the list goes on and on. The Muslim religion states that no Muslim may depict the Prophet Mohammad, but what about the rest of us who aren't Muslim? It says nothing about us. Why can't we do it? It's not like they were making him out to be a bad guy, either. He's a super hero, part of the Super Best Friends, he can fly and shoot fire and has saved the world before (see: Super Best Friends).

I really don't quite get why you have to play Devil's Advocate in certain topics. It seems more and more like you just NEED to be the one who disagrees with the rest of the people posting in here simply to get a debate going. Why?

 

[Hexagram]

There are 1.5 BILLION Muslims in the world, and all 1.5 BILLION of them will be offended by this.

Then that means there are approximately 5 billion people on this planet who are not Muslim. Whether they are Christian, Jew, Hindu, Atheist, etc, they all do not believe Mohammad was the true prophet and therefore will have no problem seeing him made fun of. The same way Muslims seem to have no problem seeing Jesus Christ made fun of.

And tell me something Dr. Evil, if these 1.5 BILLION muslims will get so offended, why was there no carnage when the real Mohammad was actually depicted on South Park back in 2001?

 

[schimmel]

The same way Muslims seem to have no problem seeing Jesus Christ made fun of.

They also have NO problem burning US flags even when it sometimes isn't the US who makes a Muhammad joke (like the dude in Europe).