By now, this story may be pretty familiar to, well everyone, but here’s a quick recap:

Last week, for South Park’s 200th episode, the show revisited many familiar topics from it’s history.  One plot point revolved around a group of celebrities that had been offended by the town of South Park that wanted to kidnap the Muslim prophet Muhammad and use his power of not being ridiculed.  This was a call back to the controversy the show created in 2006, in response to the riots that ensued after a Danish newspaper showed a political cartoon of the prophet.  In last week’s episode, the image of Muhammad was covered by a Censored bar.  This week, in the second episode (it was a two-parter), not only was he not seen, but every time his name was spoken, there was a bleep.  At the end of the episode, when the characters recapped what they had learned (as they often do), there was one large continuous bleep – and then another, and then a third.   I figured at the time that this was a way that Trey Parker and Matt Stone (the South Park creators and writers) could poke fun at the way they were being overly censored.

Not so – according to a statement on their website, those long bleeps at the end of the show were put there by Comedy Central.

Why would Comedy Central censor South Park so much?  Because there had been some serious threats leveled against not just Matt and Trey, but Comedy Central in general.

There’s a great write up of the controversy in the LA Times, which discuses how Matt and Trey have been censored, while the people making the threats are protected by the right to free speech.  I avoid getting political on this site, but this whole thing really upsets me.  On the one hand, I applaud Matt and Trey for standing up for free speech, and pointing out that we have to be brave and not be afraid in the face of threats.  (In the 2006 episodes – they were also a two-parter – the town was so afraid of the repercussions of being shown an animated Muhammad on TV that they literally buried their heads in sand; a not so thinly veiled comment on how the world reacted to the threats of violence.)  On the other hand, I understand Comedy Central’s point of view – if there are threats of violence against one of their offices, and innocent people could be hurt, they don’t want to take that risk.  (This is something I can certainly appreciate.)

If nothing else, all of this does show how powerful an animated TV show can be, and the kinds of conversations it can lead to, which should make Matt and Trey proud.  Plus, the episodes are just really funny.

But if you don’t care about what *I* think, and want to know what Jon Stewart thinks, watch this video.  It’s long, but it makes all the right points.