S P O I L E R
S P A C E
Refs.
The Squid and the Whale -Title
National Geographic -Springfield Geographic
Fantasia 2000 -Whale in the stars similar to the “flying whales” in the Pines of Rome segment of film
Comments
Tonight’s blackboard gag is a nod to the recent controversy that South Park had gotten into the past few days. For those who have been living in a cave (or, in South Park’s case, had their head buried in the sand), for the show’s 200th and 201st episodes, South Park id a two- parter that revisited a number of plotlines and situations from previous episodes. One of them involves how months before 9/11, South Park showed Islamic founder Muhammad without any problems, but had him censored in a two-parter that was inspired by the controversy over a series of Dutch comics depicting Muhammad. The plotline involved celebrated threatening to sue the town of South Park, with them planning to drop the charges if Stan can bring them Muhammad, whose “goo” can allow anyone to be prevented from being ridiculed (hence making him the interest of both celebritied who were bashed on South Park, especially Tom Cruise, and “gingers”, kids who have red hair and freckles).
Following the airing of the 200th episode, a radical Islamic website warned South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone about the depiction of Muhammad. However, the “warning” ended up resulting in numerous death threats towards Trey and Matt, and as a result, not only was the 201st episode heavily censored (with the censors bleeping out all mentions of Muhammad and a huge section at the end that was supposedly a moral about how no one is safe from ridicule), but also the episode that actually did show Muhammad was pulled off of all websites and video services that featured legal downloading/viewing.
MUSIC ALERT -Danger! High Voltage by Electic Six (Intermittent power montage) -La Mer (song during closing credits)
-Joe Klemm