Did Comedy Central cave to the Scientologists?
The last episode of "South Park" I can remember watching is "Cripple Fight". I might have to check it out again because of this war between "South Park" & Scientology.
The battle seemed to escalate today. It all started when Isaac Hayes decided to quit the show earlier this week, over an episode called "Trapped In The Closet", that ridicules Scientology & its members. "South Park" creators & producers Trey Parker & Matt Stone responded by saying they've paid Hayes a lot of money to take part in episodes that made fun of Christians & Muslims, and he had no problem with it. I believe one of the first episodes had Jesus & Santa Claus fighting over who owned Christmas.
Well, now Tom Cruise is involved...
You can watch a clip from the
"South Park" episode, explaining Scientology, by clicking below...
Reportedly, Tom Cruise told Paramount (whose parent company Viacom owns both Paramount & Comedy Central) that he would refuse to promote Mission Impossible III, if Comedy Central continued to show the "South Park" Scientology episode...
Two industry sources familiar with the situation told Reuters [that] Comedy Central pulled the "Trapped in the Closet" episode from its "South Park" rerun rotation after Cruise threatened to cease promotion of his upcoming Paramount film, "Mission: Impossible III."
Cruise spokesman Paul Bloch said neither the actor nor his representatives "had anything to do" with the scheduling of "South Park" reruns and that Cruise had never said to anyone he would refuse to promote his film. Paramount spokeswoman Janet Hill denied any knowledge of such a threat.
Comedy Central officials also tried to dismiss the idea that it was done because of a threat. They claim that pulling the episode was done so they could put on 2 episodes in tribute to Isaac Hayes...
Comedy Central, which like Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc., declined comment on the rerun switch, other than to say: "In light of the events of earlier this week, we wanted to give Chef an appropriate tribute by airing two episodes he is most known for."
Yeah...right. South Park's Parker & Stone, then put out a
statement reacting to Comedy Central's pulling of the episode...
"So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"
The duo signed the statement "Trey Parker and Matt Stone, servants of the dark lord Xenu."
One thing I've found interesting about this is how it's similar to the
Muhammad Cartoon Controversy with radical Islam, or how fundamentalist Christians went nuts about "
The Book of Daniel", or still go nuts about
Howard Stern. I have the same feeling about this, that I had about those previous situations. People have a right to criticize & lampoon religions. That's the price of a free society. No religion or group has a right to shut people up, even if it's crude or sacreligious. That's a question of taste, that should be left to the public to decide. Not rioters in the street burning buildings, or Tom Cruise making threats with phone calls. Do they have a right to complain & say it's wrong? Sure, but don't silence thought & free speech. Add to it, by debating your point...