Comedy Central Hypocracy: We Attack Jesus, Not Mohammed
By Brent Bozell
For a long time now, we have known that Viacom was a shameless merchant of sleaze TV, a conglomerate intent on shredding everything good, decent, and even holy to feather its own filthy nest with money. What is new is that we didn’t know that Viacom had a limit to its shamelessness.
Any attack on Christianity, not matter how repugnant, is not only acceptable, it is celebrated. But the very idea of a scene mocking Islam … and Viacom runs for the hills. Viacom-owned Comedy Central has announced it would not let its super-sleazy cartoon “South Park” show a cartoon image of Mohammed, lest Muslims be offended. They put out a brief statement: “In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision.” Its executives would not comment further, but an insider told AP’s David Bauder the reason was the network brass’s “concerns for public safety.”In a convoluted two-part episode aimed at embarrassing its own network, the creators of “South Park” wrote a show about not being allowed to show the prophet Mohammed in cartoon form. The “South Park” view is expressed in the second show: “Either it’s all OK, or none of it is,” said one character. But the creators of “South Park” don’t go for all-or-nothing mockery in this plot. For example, they don’t really attack al-Qaeda in these episodes. They draw laughs by having Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri act as foils for Hollywood-scriptwriter inside jokes.
When Mohammed was slated to appear, the image of Mohammed was replaced with a black screen, reading: “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network.” So keep score. Comedy Central wouldn’t allow “South Park” to show a cartoon depiction of Mohammed … but it didn’t have any problem with the show ending with a depiction of Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush: “Look at me, I’m Jesus. Would you like me to crap on you, Mr. Bush? Mmm, yummy, yummy crap!”
There was no black screen explaining, “Comedy Central has refused to broadcast a mockery of the image of Jesus during Holy Week on their network.” Viacom’s standards are curious, to say the least. It mocks Christians all year long — Easter mockery is a natural next step after last year’s special, “Merry F—ing Christmas” — but the image of Mohammed is a sacred cow that must be respected.
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Viacom used to be the scum of the Earth, parading around and accept awards from the ACLU for their “courageous” programming. (Last June, the ACLU Foundation of Southern California hailed Comedy Central boss Doug Herzog with its “Torch of Liberty” Award: “Herzog has also always stood by ‘South Park’ and its creators’ right to free expression.”) These people are still the scum of the Earth, but now they can’t in any way claim that they’re courageous when it comes to controversy. They’re hypocrites and cowards of the most odious rank.
This article by Mr. Bozell explains in detail the problem of Comedy Central’s hypocracy: while the network executives are pioneers of free speech in the “Bash Christianity” category, they clearly fear the wrath of offended Muslims. How quaint it is to find that Christians will not retailiate by violent means to protest something that would be clearly offensive to followers of Christ, yet the fear of offending a minority religion in America brings to mind protests and violence last seen in Denmark or the Middle East.
If the United States is to be a haven for free speech, its people must give up their politically correct mindset. Free speech allows people the chance to be offended and allows for disagreements. Happenings like these are inherent to free speech! I’m quite sure King George III of Britain was deeply offended by the American Revolution. But that didn’t stop the Continental Congress from signing the Declaration of Independence did it?
