(alternately titled - Comedy Central: Most of your Programming Blows...South Park is One of your Bigger Money Makers; Are you Seriously this Stupid?)
(or...in more friendly language...Trey Parker and Matt Stone - Right Fans Sides with You!)
South Park - love it or hate it - is one of the longest running and most successful social satires of our time. We wholeheartedly enjoy Parker and Stone's brazen political INcorrectness and "lighten the f*** up!" attitude. We like Carlos Mencia's brand of ethnic humor for similar reasons even if we think he's a bit crude and uncreative. South Park is far from perfect. It often borders on "shock value for its own sake" and "immature toilet humor" (both of which are reasonable criticisms most of the time). Its' creators are - like me - libertarian. They are also quite evidently atheists and spend as much time mocking people of faith as they do mocking both political parties (and their cultural representatives in Hollywood and in small town America), which we often find bothersome. They do, however, get credit for mocking ALL faiths...not just Catholics and other Christians (as is common in the mainstream media), and for that, we thank them. I can respect an atheist who is fair in his criticisms and willing to listen to and respect those who disagree with him. In fact, one fantastically written two-part episode of the show from the tenth season (entitled "Go God, Go!") hilariously lampooned the notion that a world without religion would be devoid of military conflict when three tribes of atheists in the distant future went to war over what the most logical name for their beliefs would be (They GET IT! Atheism is just as much of a religion as any other! And it is not faith that begets war but flawed human nature!).
I say all of this in the forward of this letter to Comedy Central because I think it's crucial to understand how Parker and Stone think if you want to get the proper sense of anger over the recent events involving the much-anticipated celebration of their 200th episode. But let us rewind for a moment. Back in the year 2001 - not long before the 9/11 terror attacks that launched us into the fourth age of modern history (pre-WWI, intra-war economic depression, post WWII cold war - the age of imperial expansion, and finally the age of terror), South Park aired an episode called "Super Best Friends" which featured a collection of icons from various religious faiths (Jesus Christ, Santa Claus (yes, yes...we know this is not a religious icon), Moses (depicted as a bizarre energy being that took the shape of a mask), Buddha (who can frequently be observed snorting cocaine...yes really), and of course...Muhammad. This episode aired without incident. Muhammad was not even particularly relevant to the plot - he was just...there. A few years later, in another well-done two-part episode called "Cartoon Wars," Parker and Stone lampooned the networks for censoring the image of (or even mention of) Muhammad with a story about a Family Guy episode featuring Muhammad in a random (and not particularly funny) bit of side-humor. Comedy Central censored the image of Muhammad in that episode, but this actually sort of worked to accentuate the reality that censoring his image was quite silly.
Now this season, Parker and Stone created a two-part celebration of their long and successful career that was intended to be a lovable look back at the many classic episodes. The plot was essentially a huge rehash of dozens of other plots rolled into one incredibly convoluted story that centered, once again, on Muhammad. The first part of the two-parter aired as scheduled (and Muhammad's name was not censored at all, though the plot kept him hidden from view in an attempt to mock the whole idea of censoring a religious icon out of fear). However, South Park Studios received a threatening letter from a radical fundamentalist Islamic group calling themselves the Muslim Revolution. The letter disclosed Parker and Stone's home addresses, the address of South Park Studios' headquarters, the home address of Comedy Central's Programming Director, and a reference to a journalist who was killed in Europe back in 2004 by Islamic Jihadists for covering the mistreatment of women in Muslim-dominated towns in the South of the EU. In response to this letter, Comedy Central pulled the 2001 episode "Super Best Friends" and both parts of the most recent two-parter (200 and 201) off of their streaming website (southparkstudios.com) and, when airing 201 on television (something the network says it will not do again, given the threats it has received), they bleeped out Muhammad every time his name was uttered and censored 38 seconds of the episode which had absolutely nothing to do with Muhammad (the lesson of the day - a series of three speeches delivered by Kyle, Santa Claus and Jesus on the virtue of never giving in to fear and intimidation).
Parker and Stone are contractually obligated to continue working for Comedy Central (they have exclusive rights until November of 2013) - however, South Park's creators have expressed outrage over the defiling of their work and may attempt to argue in court that Comedy Central has abrogated the contract by declining to air 201 several additional times as they have traditionally done with other episodes of South Park to increase viewer exposure. We write this letter in support of Parker and Stone.
We at Right Fans believe that no person, group, or "ism" should be immune from objective criticism, reasonable free debate and, when our funny bones need tickling, satire. We believe that Islamic fundamentalists very ardently hate freedom and seek at every turn to limit all of the aforementioned free speech on the subject of their religion because they know that any real scrutiny will demonstrate how dangerous and corrupt their core beliefs really are. We believe that now - when we face constant threats from jihadists when we dare question their righteousness - now is the time when we must speak up EVEN LOUDER! It is our duty as freedom loving Americans to stand up to evil - censoring 200/201 to appease the "Muslim Revolution" (headquartered right here in New York City!) is morally tantamount to ceding Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. Appeasement doesn't work - never has...and never will. We believe that Parker and Stone signed a contract in good faith that guaranteed that their work would be shown in the manner of THEIR CHOOSING. And we believe Comedy Central is now in violation of that contract (in spirit), though we are not lawyers and have not read the fine print in order to determine if the technicality of the law has been broken.
We stand behind you Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone - and we hope that the network execs at Comedy Central come to their senses and restore their honor and the integrity of your artistic expression. We also hope that, no matter the outcome of this conflict, you never sign another contract with them again. They haven't earned that privilege.
Sincerely,
Right Fans
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