Ed Brayton has the latest on Scientology v. South Park. The background is that Isaac Hayes, a/k/a Chef, quit the show, purportedly because of the show’s disrespect toward religion. Matt Stone, one of the creators, noted that Hayes had cashed a pile of checks while the show was making fun of Christianity; it was only after Scientology’s ox was being gored that Hayes decided to bail out.
Now, rumor has it, Comedy Central has pulled a rerun of the “In the Closet” episode making fun of Tom Cruise and Scientology. The official line is that the network pulled the controversial episode to “make room” for two episodes for which Chef’s character is best known as sort of a tribute. But the reality is probably as Ed suggests — Cruise threatened not to do publicity for Mission Impossible 3, distributed by Paramount. Both Comedy Central and Paramount are owned by Viacom. Ah, media consolidation.
Still, I’m reminded of a couple of sayings for those who are foolish enough to get into a war with Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park’s founders:
“the show’s disrespect toward religion”
It took him this many seasons and a feature-length picture to figure that out? Wow. I think the first South Park episode was Jesus and Santa fighting ala “Mortal Combat”.
Although, in all fairness, I used to watch South Park until just after the movie. I tried to be a good sport when they were making fun of my religion, and some of the other stuff was amusing. However, I could only take so much of them saying “You’re stupid” about my beliefs, even if they are saying it about everyone’s. Maybe Hayes’ threshold was higher than mine.
South Park generally is nasty,mean and can be ‘low class’ but with brillant writers,and it’s the current taste.If that’s the type of humor you like generally,then don’t complain specifically.
[…] Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel. […] Don’t wrestle with a pig: you both get dirty, and the pig likes it.
Heh, that’s funny, Doug — I saw the headline and the last two lines of the entry before I saw the middle. I thought you were referring to the Scientologists when you cited those proverbs. :)
At any rate, you’re right. I hope Parker and Stone are left with the creative freedom to be bold in their social commentaries, as their corporate distributor obviously has no backbone.