An update on Muhammad in South Park

In a surprising new twist to the controversy over images of Muhammad in western media, South Park continued the censoring Muhammad's image in the recent follow-up episode (no. 201) of last week's story. This was hardly surprising, in particular as this story has now reached mainstream media, and the threats against the cartoonists have become more vocal. But now, in addition to the visual censorship, Comedy Chanel apparently this time around also chose to censor his spoken name, making the episode full of bliips every time the name Muhammad should have been heard.

At first, it seemed as is this form of censoring was intentional by the South Park crew. A form of hyperbolic  censoring to make it plain as daylight how the show is being repressed. This becomes particularly apprent when, at the end of the episode, the usual moralistic speeches by some of the characters are covered by long bleeps as well. This gives the impression that Stone and Parker are trying to show us how Comedy Chanel is refusing to see the real issue at hand, but is instead giving in to fundamentalist threats. This is the impression one is left with at the end.

However, Stone and Parker have now issued a statement explaining that the new form of editing was not intentional, and that the Comedy Chanel actually did censor the name of the prophet and the moral speeches at the end of the show, one of which actually did not even mention Muhammad.

Here is the full statement as posted on another blog (M. Greenberg):

In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We’ll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we’ll see what happens to it.

Another significant point made in the episode was again to reveal to all of us that an image is nothing but a semiotic device, where we interpret what we see based on our expectations. When the image of a person in a bear suit, claimed by the cartoons in South Park in the previous episode to be of Muhammad in a suit, actually was revealed to actually be Santa in a suit, the joke is on all of us. A cartoon pretending to be a cartoon in a cartoon. Again, an image does not become, or even necessarily represent, a thing just because someone links a sound to an arbitrary image...

"We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world" (Magritte)

Muhammad in South Park

Originally, I had decided not to discuss caricatures and cartoons of Muhammad in this blog, as these are not originally religious images, but obviously created to provoke reactions from Muslims. Nevertheless, the reactions which such images do spark among Muslims transform the images from mere jokes and provocations into actual religious images, albeit as blasphemous taboos. So, when the 200th episode of South Park, aired on Wednesday the April 14^th, and again raises the issue of Muhammad as cartoon, it is ample reason to take a closer look.

South Park has already shown drawings of Muhammad in earlier episodes. First in 2001, where he appeared as a member of the super hero group called Super Best Friends. Here  he was accompanied by other major religious figures, there-amongst Jesus, Buddha and Joseph Smith. Well, that was before the Danish caricature controversy, and was probably not directed at the Islamic prohibition of images of god and his prophet, but was rather a joke directed at religion in general. The situation was different when the South Park crew decided to show Muhammad again in 2006, but this time in context of the Danish scandal. This time they decided to press the issue of Muhammad’s visual presence, which was actually censored by the Comedy Channel.

In the recent episode Trey Parker and Matt Stone are again testing the limits, questioning the relationship between images and the illustrated object. They are asking the question; when can a cartoon be said to be representative of Muhammad? In an interview the cartoonists actually do not seem to have created these drawings to provoke Muslims, but are actually provoked by the decision of Comedy Chanel to limit free speech, or rater free drawing. The question is, what will the Network allow?

The plot in the episode is as follows. All the stars and celebrities who over the years have been ridiculed in South Park decide to file a class act lawsuit against the town. The only way to stop the lawsuit is to present Muhammad to the celebrities, whose plan is to steal the prophet’s superpower: no one can criticize him. As before, to hammer in the issue the censored image of Muhammad is contrasted to uncensored images of others members of the Super Best Friends in rather blasphemous illustrations. When Muhammad arrives in South Park, the city faces the problem that Muhammad can not be shown. Thus a number of different ways to conceal the physical person are proposed.

Basically four versions of Muhammad are shown. The original version where he featured among the Super Best Friends is shown again. Originally this was shown uncensored, but is now covered by a black square; i.e. an anthropomorphic figure of Muhammad is not acceptable. Probably this particular feature has its background in the 2007-news story of a teacher arrested in Sudan for naming a teddy, Muhammad. Secondly, in a trick paring with the famous painting of René Magritte's pipe, Muhammad is shown as a stick-figure drawn on a sheet of paper and held by Stan’s dad; a drawing made by a cartoon figure within a cartoon. This was not censored. Neither was the illustration of the car from which Muhammad was speaking. Probably more provocative was the idea to place Muhammad within a silly mascot bear-costume. Again, Muhammad is not seen, but we are told of his presence. This was also allowed. The point South Park is raising is the difference in our and the Muslim reaction to drawings of Muhammad before and after the Danish cartoon controversy, which completely changed how we and many Muslims use images of the prophet.  

So much for the television network’s policy. What about the Muslim reactions? Any yet? It is still early, and probably the reactions will be limited. The riots after the Danish cartoons had much of its background in Danish and Middle Eastern religious and political leaders fueling the fire for political gains. This time,  nothing of the sort should be expected.

In a quick Google-search a few reports in the news already report of threats to the cartoonists, but mainly based on various proclamations on twitter and similar media. There seem to be few reactions as yet, and hopefully this will will be the end of it. Some warn the South Park team with the faith of Th. van Gogh:

"We have to warn Matt and Trey that what they are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh if they do air this show. This is not a threat, but a warning of the reality of what will likely happen to them".

One blog reports the following from twitter: “May Allah kill Matt Stone and Trey Parker and burn them in Hell for all eternity. They insult our prophets Muhammad, Jesus, and Moses...” Note how the reactions are not only directed at the illustrations of Muhammad, but of other biblical figures as well. Anyway, the episode is to be continued, so perhaps that goes for this blog as well...