Just Doing What Andrew Sullivan Tells Me To

So have you slobs heard all about the South Park dust-up? They recently did a two-part special for their 200th (and 201st) episode that featured all of the celebrities and sacred cows they've pissed on since their first season (Tom Cruise, Kanye, Scientology, Jesus, etc.) and they cheekily decided to go there and feature the prophet Mohammed, Jesus' cousin, which you're not supposed to do under any circumstances because he is shy. (Also because you will join an elite group of folks, such as Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and author Salman Rushdie, who have had fatwas issued against them and have either been killed or had to go into hiding.)

Remember a few years ago when that Danish newspaper printed that cartoon featuring Mohammed (am I even allowed to type that?) with a bomb for a turban? Yeah, the Muslim extremists kinda went nuts over that.

Anyway, so South Park went there and made a cartoon (a fucking cartoon) featuring M*hammed and were predictably (but obliquely) threatened by a NYC-based Muslim group who suggested that Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the South Park creators, would likely go the same way as Theo Van Gogh if they aired it. The boys still did what they wanted to do, even disguising the prophet in such get-ups as a bear suit, a U-Haul delivery guy, and Santa Clause, but Comedy Central caved and censored any actual image of the prophet and bleeped out any mention of his name.

Now, interestingly, before 9/11 South Park did an episode in which they featured all of the mascots of the world's most popular religions, and M*hammed was featured. That's the video above. There was no brouhaha at the time. But as you know 9/11 changed everything. (I myself haven't used my M*hammed dildo even once since.)

I'm putting this video here because I'm a blind follow of blogger Andrew Sullivan, who is friends with Parker and Stone and a big fan of the show (and because I have a deep and abiding admiration for Matt and Trey!). Andrew is my papa bear, my baby daddy, and my pool boy, so whenever he asks me to do something easy and painless, I'll do it. From his site this morning:

Here's a suggestion for the free speech blogosphere. The Youtube above, showing the 2001 episode now also taken down from the South Park Studios site, may not last very long. Embed it in your blog this morning. We need to show real solidarity with Matt and Trey. God knows Comedy Central isn't (with the grand exception of Jon Stewart, peace be upon him).

If the angry Muslims come after me, Andrew, you're going to have to take care of my cat.