Not Even On SNL

I have read and seen many different television shows and articles written about the shows but not one quite like this. The article that I am referring to is called “Not Even in South Park” by Ross Douthat. In this article he talks about an episode on South Park entitled “Super Best Friends”, in which many of the characters use inappropriate language who looked for help from an unusual team of superheroes.

In many cases this wouldn’t have been noticed nor acknowledged if it did not include a Muslim prophet called Muhammad, wearing a turban and a 5 o’clock shadow. Many people saw this as a very offensive clip because of the obscene language and also how it used different religious figures such as Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Mormonism’s Joseph Smith, Taoism’s Laotse and last but not least the Prophet Muhammad. In this time before the terror attack, us Americans were more liberal in what we used and showed but ever since then we are not allowed to use Muhammad at all in the us television shows because of the 9/11 attacks. Comedy Central pulled the skit because of the over whelming threats they have received since they aired it. Once pulled they tried to do it once more but this time not showing Muhammad at all, they shadowed him but using a truck and his identity hidden. They had thought they figured out a way to hide the fact that they were using the prophet again but because of his accent, this gave it away and fired up again because of this skit. Many Muslim people did not appreciate the fact they were in some sort of why making fun of their religion. A writer based in New York wrote on a site stating that he wouldn’t be surprised if the writers Parker and Stone would end up like Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch film maker who was murdered because of his use of the Islam religion.

During its last week played, they received so many death threats that comedy central even pulled this particular episode off the internet, so now even if searched, it cannot be found anywhere on the internet. Now ever since south park has been shut down with using any western religions especially Islam, because they did not want anymore threats from the Islamic people. With South Parks situation with “Super Best Friends” has been very eye opening not only because it has now boundaries but also because it has showed us those Islamic religions cannot be a line where we would not cross again and will not be crossed.

Even though South Park now has boundaries, I feel as if any other show or movie doesn’t, one great example of this is “Kick Ass.” In this movie it has an 11 year old girl who uses many foul languages that were neither bleeped nor avoided because they saw it as funny. Our society seems as if it has given up on trying to set lines or rules on what movies may use or show because there have been movies where many little girls have dressed in overly revealing outfits. What is that showing young girls these days, that its right and ok to dress like that? If we Americans do not put a stop to this, then this is exactly what we are teaching many young girls.

This article really has opened up many people eyes to what we American let slide on television and movies. This article by Ross Douthat showed us that one little skit or shows can change our lives forever even if it’s all fun and games. In my opinion we should have more of a line that should not be crossed because as you can see one small funny show changed South Park forever; it taught them that western religions such as Islamic cannot be used or made fun of in America without have any sort of consequence.