The Cartoon Wars Are Over
Currie, Duncan
The Cartoon Wars Are Over We lost. by DUNCAN CURRIE "EVER SINCE those cartoons in Denmark, the rules have changed. Nobody shows an image of Muhammad anymore." When a character on the animated TV...
...But if you give in to that . . . you're allowing terrorism to work...
...He's still wavering...
...But when even South Park is stifled by "recent world events," it becomes clearer than ever who won...
...Many conservatives also found a new reason to appreciate Stone and Parker's talents...
...When Kyle's liberal parents catch them, his father smashes the TV with a baseball bat while his mother lectures them about "Muslim sensitivity training...
...it was Comedy Central...
...Then, when the show returns, we see the terrorists' retaliation: a short production by Zawahri, Osama bin Laden, and "al Qaeda Films...
...Forgive me, Mr...
...The White House press corps wants to know why President Bush hasn't thrown the Family Guy writing staff in prison...
...We bury our heads in sand...
...Before Family Guy's Muhammad comes on screen carrying a football helmet, a black slate flashes with word of Comedy Central's prohibition...
...it's a vastly different world that we live in right now...
...At the moment Muhammad is poised to appear, the screen goes black, and a brief message announces that Comedy Central "has refused to broadcast" the prophet's image...
...The Fox boss starts to comply...
...If you don't show Muhammad," Kyle adds, "then you've made a distinction between what is okay to poke fun at, and what isn't...
...When a character on the animated TV show South Park made that avowal a few weeks ago, he could easily have been speaking for media outlets across Europe and North America...
...When the censored episodes aired—on April 5 and April 12—the blogosphere erupted with scathing indictments of the network's pusillanimity...
...But that episode debuted on July 4, 2001—just before the 9/11 terrorist attacks...
...They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus," he told the AIP Donohue missed the point entirely: It wasn't Jesus being mocked...
...True, Comedy Central had allowed South Park to broadcast a Muhammad character five years earlier, in the episode "Super Best Friends...
...Now, even South Park, Comedy Central's irreverent powerhouse, has felt the backlash...
...The heads-in-the-sand fad soon sweeps the nation...
...Do the right thing here...
...That's how terrorism works...
...Part i of "Cartoon Wars" begins with Y2K-style pandemonium breaking loose, as South Park natives loot stores and hoard toilet paper before crowding into a community center...
...In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision...
...Cart-man wants the Family Guy episode canned, in hopes that it will bring down the whole show...
...Our only hope," he says, "is to make the Muslim extremists know that we had no part in the Muhammad episode: that even though the episode aired, we didn't watch it, we didn't hear it, and we didn't talk about it...
...But the emails i've been getting all day from South Park viewers about last night's episode just might change my mind...
...The four main South Park kids— Kyle, Stan, Kenny, and Cartman— trek to Kyle's house to watch the episode on TiVo...
...I can't be responsible for people getting hurt, especially me," grovels the Fox prez...
...But at the last minute, Fox censors the Muhammad image, thus averting a showdown...
...Could they depict the Muslim prophet Muhammad on screen...
...Meanwhile, Kyle and Cart-man are racing for Hollywood...
...Then the boys get word that Family Guy will be broadcasting another episode with Muhammad—this time, uncensored...
...Sometime in March, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker approached network executives with their idea for an episode satirizing the Danish cartoon spat...
...A lot changed two months later," one source close to the show told me, explaining the network's decision...
...Either it's all okay, or none of it is...
...The Catholic League's William Donohue, a perennial South Park scourge, blasted Stone and Parker as "little whores" for the Jesus gag...
...Finally, the Fox prez agrees to broadcast the episode uncensored...
...By enlisting some two dozen dump trucks, the professor explains, they can stockpile enough sand for the whole town...
...By highlighting the network's double standard—okay to offend Christians, not okay to offend Muslims—South Park, which has averaged nearly 3.5 million viewers per episode this season, affirmed that free expression may at times lead to hurt feelings...
...No way, came the immediate reply...
...President," one reporter smirks, "but this 'First Amendment' sounds like a lot of bureaucratic gibberygoo...
...Kyle wants it to air and strike a blow for free speech...
...Kyle and Cartman both wind up in the Fox president's office just seconds before the episode is due to air...
...You can't do what he wants just because he's the one threatening you with violence," squeals an exasperated Kyle...
...Yes: a world where terrorists apparently have veto power over American television...
...Stone and Parker did not take Comedy Central's censorship lightly...
...The Cartoon Jihad may be over...
...They made the two "Cartoon Wars" episodes an acerbic rebuke to the network...
...We can avoid looking like we're responsible for any part of this at all...
...The movie shows Americans defecating on each other, and Jesus defecating on George W. Bush and the American flag...
...But that's no reason to capitulate, especially not when political correctness becomes physical intimidation...
...Duncan Currie is a reporter at THE WEEKLY STANDARD...
...Simple...
...Terrorist kingpin Zawahri warns against it, promising a "massive" response...
...i'm not a fan of South Park," wrote Michelle Malkin after the April 5 show...
...Brandishing a gun, Cartman demands it be cancelled...
...At a town meeting, South Parkers hear from a university professor...
...This past winter's Cartoon Jihad occasioned far fewer robust defenses of press freedom than it did craven surrenders to the threats of radicals...
...How do they do that...
...On April 13, Comedy Central issued a statement defending its censorship...
...it turns out the Fox cartoon Family Guy is set to air an image of Muhammad, sparking riots across the Muslim world and leading a terrorist named al-Zawahri to vow swift retaliation...
...Yes, people can get hurt," Kyle admits...
Vol. 11 • May 2006 • No. 31
