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Wednesday's episode of South Park was not only extraordinarily tasteless and unfunny -- it also didn't have any of the show's main characters in it. Not one.
I don't think I'm too far out on a limb to say that the South Park writing staff may be on strike due to last week's censorship of their efforts to show a cartoon of Mohammed.
I wouldn't put it past Matt and Trey for one second. They're the biggest profit center of the network. They may be on strike -- that is, refusing to do an episode with the main characters, and refusing to do a remotely funny episode -- until they get uncensored. And you know what? They'll win. They'll win precisely because the network has shown that they can be bullied, when it censored them in response to radical Islamist intimidation. And the network is in more immediate danger from the loss of its biggest income-generator -- South Park -- than it is from some hypothetical response from the radical Islamists.
This may be the gutsiest move we've ever seen from the writing staff of a TV show.
And by the way -- if that's what's really happening -- Wednesday's episode was hilarious: it was intentionally unfunny.
Let's see how this plays out.
#1
#2It may have just been a 4-20 holiday episode.
#3mbruce, they may be saying to the network, you're intimidated by radical Islamists? Wait'll you see what happens when there are a bunch of offended Oprah fans!
#4I didn't see the episode last night, so I can't comment directly on it. Other than to say that the first Towlie episode pretty much sucked, too.
But South Park has previously had episodes that primamrily featured supporting characters, awith the main characters appearing only in passing, or not at all. (Not Without My Anus, the Butter's Episode, The Great Expectations episode, a couple of episodes centered on Jimmy & Timmy, etc.)
From the description of the episode, its a satire on the whole Million Little Pieces controversy. They may have been working on this (and maybe finished) before the whole Danish Cartoon riots broke out, and put this on the shelve to work on the last two episodes.
Just speculation, but possible. We'll have to see what's next.
#5jmac, I've seen that possibility discussed -- 420 is a reference to marijuana, and the episode airs on 4/19 and 4/20 -- but that doesn't explain what we saw last night. For example, there were many minutes of the show that weren't animated at all -- it was just dialog over a still frame. They've never done anything so seemingly lazy before. I wouldn't be surprised if they did the whole episode in a couple of days.
If the South Park guys are doing what I suspect they are, they are courageously standing up for free speech in this country. And I would applaud Comedy Central for doing the right thing if, seeing this, the network decides to uncensor the relatively innocuous image of Mohammed that was deleted from the previous episode.
#6jp, good points, but check out the episode and then let us know what your opinion is on this.
#7I liked the episode. Tasteless? Sure, but not graphically like the previous one where Jesus is crapping on people.
Taking on Oprah and the way she handled the Frey thing was great. Especially showing how fake the whole media machine is.
I thought the ming character and his pal were pretty bizarre. But I admire them for thinking out of the box.
#8Hudnall that is too much of a set up for even me to go with.
#9Hudnall, that was pretty funny. Great blog, BTW. I've just added your feed to my newsreader.
#10Thanks. You know what they should have done with that Mohammed cartoon?
When Mohammed is supposed to show up, the should have Mohammed Ali walk in and say "I am teh greatest!"
#11LOL. By the way, it's very funny that in the censored scene, Mohammed was only going to hand a football helmet to Family Guy. It's so innocuous -- after that big buildup from the 2-part Cartoon Wars episodes, it's the most innocuous possible cartoon of Mohammed. I'm sure Matt and Trey did that intentionally so that people would say when they saw it, what's the big deal? And that's working in their favor now. Comedy Central can put it back in, and people will just say, what was the big deal?
#12Hi Vik, came about your blog via Pajamas Media. I don't know whether you are a regular viewer of South Park, but as a huge fan myself, there was nothing out of ordinary in this episode in my opinion. In fact, I found it much better than the 2 "free speech" episodes. Watch the previous Towlie episode, good stuff. In my opinion, it was spot on for 4/20.
#13Hi Mark, welcome to the site. I've seen every episode of South Park, with perhaps one or two exceptions. Well, you have to admit, they've never spent so much screen time on still images before.
#14Thats true. I suppose it was little odd.
#15I think they might have rushed this one, so they were cutting corners. Therefore, your theory holds up because they may have done this in response to Comedy Centray. They have said they can do a show in a weeks time. They'd have learned before last week's episode aired whether or not it would be censored, giving them enough time.
As long as they don't quit, disappear to Africa for a month then blame it all on the white man, I'm with them on this.
#16The South Park production blog says that the production team got a day off on Sunday. They never get a day off during a production run.
The blog also said that they had been working on the episode before the season began, but it got shelved for the Mohammad shows. When it was pulled off the shelf, it was radically changed.
I would guess that the changes were the addition of Oprah's "characters", which had no animation. The lack of animation, the day off, and the fact that the episode was horrible lead me to think that something is happening behind the scenes.
#17Good stuff, Ammonium. I have a feeling that Matt and Trey are exactly the guys who might feel moved to stand up for free speech, and put a lot on the line for it. And I think if Comedy Central sees the light and uncensors the episode, it will all look like a non-issue in retrospect -- which would be a great achievement for Matt and Trey, for Comedy Central, and for America.
OTOH, it could be that Matt and Trey are just, and quite reasonably, p-o'd, and will get over it in a week or two and go back to normal.
#18Well, the show was back to normal tonight. I hope Matt and Trey keep pushing to get more cartoon Mohammed on SOUTH PARK.
#19Y'all are all a bunch of retards. Comedy Central didn't censor Mohammad out of that episode. That was just Matt and Trey doing what they do best....satire. They did it intentionally. They are making fun of censorship. It's amazing how many of you really don't understand South Park.
#20There's nothing about South Park to understand. It's a pointless show that makes fun of the easiest things to make fun of like AIDS, Steve Irwin, liberals, sexual abuse. The show's creators are tasteless, stupid and not funny. If you have any beliefs whatsoever, these idiots will try and make fun of you - that was the whole point of Team America - don't have any values, it's pointless.
#21that was pretty much the best episode south park has created, ahah ming and gary....you ####### people cant get a ####### joke once in a while
I thought the same thing,and it was so boldly tasteless,with as obvious gauntlet thrown down in the direction of another "sacred cow" so to speak.They seem to want a reaction from Harpo productions,literally begging to have them shut this episode down.