“South Park” often gets bleeped. But not usually like this.
On Wednesday, the conclusion of the two-part story involving the Prophet Mohammed was shown with a number of audio spots covered by bleeps and images hidden by a block reading “CENSORED.” Though “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have had fun with censorship in the past – including in part one of the Mohammed story, which involved free speech issues – apparently this time much of the censorship came from Comedy Central itself.
“Comedy Central was responsible for the bleeps and not showing Mohammed in last night’s episode,” a spokesperson for the network told CNN.
Via: CNN.com
The first part of the episode, which aired April 14, attracted protest from an Islamic group, Revolution Muslim. The group posted an entry on its website that included a warning to Parker and Stone that they risked violent retribution after the episode included a satirical discussion about whether an image of the prophet could be shown.
Abu Talhah al Amrikee, the author of the post, told CNN it was meant to show those offended by the depiction of Mohammed how they can voice their opposition, and wasn’t a call to violence.
Mohammed was believed to have been portrayed disguised in a bear suit in a portion of the episode, though last night’s episode revealed otherwise.
On Stone and Parker’s website, SouthParkStudios.com, a message acknowledged that Comedy Central had added some bleeps and that they couldn’t stream their cut of part two:
“After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode,” said a message on the site. “We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show.”
