In the episode, these characters threaten to file a class-action lawsuit against the fictitious South Park unless the town can bring Mohammed to them - in a previous South Park episode, an image of Mohammed was censored, and the celebrities believe they can steal the prophet's mysterious power to be free from ridicule.Īt various points in the episode, Mohammed's figure is blacked out, hidden in a U-Haul trailer as the townsfolk debate how to bring him into the open, and eventually disguised in a goofy mascot-style bear costume.
The controversy began on April 14, when, for the show's 200th episode, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to bring back controversial characters, mostly celebrities, from its past - 'everyone who's at us,' as Parker explained to the press. Far more is at stake than a profane and intentionally crude cartoon show. These demands are new - beginning only with the Ayatollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie - and are little understood by the West. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators and executive producers speak about their television show South Park.Ĭomedy Central's censorship of a recent South Park episode after threats over a caricature of Mohammed is the latest evidence that the West is slowly surrendering, institution by institution, to diffuse but determined demands to suppress anything possibly deemed as blasphemy against Islam.
