Everything is Fair Game....

Or nothing is. - paraphrase of Kyle of South Park- "Cartoon Wars".

I will revise the quote once I watch it again, but I have something to say about this episode. Aside from being uproariously funny (that fight that we've been waiting for years between Kyle and Cartman and the way Family Guy is written - brilliant!), Trey Parker makes the most salient point of his career.

Either you make fun of everyone - or you make fun of no one. We can't bow to pressure or the threat of violence if the First Amendment is something that you believe is a right. Actually, this isn't even about the First Amendment - it is about hypocrisy. Make fun of Christians, Jews, Scientologists all you want, but don’t make fun of the Muslims. Is it because they are attempting to be respectful or is it out of fear?

For the longest time, I didn’t watch South Park. I thought it was juvenile, base, crude, and something I shouldn’t put into my little brain. Not exactly the good and noble things Paul tells Christians to meditate on, ya know? Finally, I watched one episode. I laughed so hard, I cried. I don’t watch South Park for the spiritual encouragement. I watch it because it’s funny and one of the most libertarian leaning shows on the air. There should be no sacred cows. Everything should be fair game for satire. We take ourselves far too seriously.

I remember when I saw the episode several seasons ago where Cartman forms a Christian rock group to get a platinum album before Kyle.

Kyle: “You don’t know anything about Christianity!”

Cartman: “I know enough to exploit it.”

How many of us have felt that some of the Christian acts on the radio might not be Christians at all… that they only started making Christian music because they wanted a record deal and perhaps aren’t quite talented enough to make it onto mainstream radio?

I saw a brief clip on Fox with a Christian pastor who was furious that Jesus was shown defecating on President Bush and the American flag (the Muslim retaliation for showing Mohammed on Family Guy). My thought? Get over yourself. If you can’t take a little heat from a secular cartoon show, how on Earth can you intellectually defend Christianity to a non-believer?

Stand up for our faith. Yes. What South Park did was in bad taste…. Almost everything they do is in bad taste. That’s why I’m not all up in arms about it. They are equal opportunity offenders.

Since it now known that Comedy Central censored the South Park episode this week, what are they going to do about the older episode called "Super Best Friends" where Jesus, Mohammed, Buddah, Moses and other religious figures team up to stop David Blaine? Are they going to ever air that episode again? If they do, will a little black box appear over Mohammed with a big red "CENSORED" tag?