Five South Park episodes have been pulled from US video on demand streaming service, HBO Max, because they either feature or reference the Prophet Muhammad.
In the past, the series creators have been similarly disrespectful of the Virgin Mary and the pope. Neither episodes were pulled.
HBO Max agreed to exclude the five animated sitcom episodes referencing Muhammad when it first acquired the series from its previous owner, Verizon.
The same five episodes were previously pulled from television syndication and South Park‘s previous streaming home at Hulu.
The decision to remove the episodes responds to safety concerns, as South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have faced threats for depicting Muhammad, which is banned in the Islamic religion and has led to violence in the past.
After initially being shown uncensored in the episode “Super Best Friends”, Muhammad was censored from subsequent episodes via a black bar. Then Parker and Stone found a way to work around this, placing him inside a bear mascot outfit.
David Hookstead, who is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller, points out HBO’s uneven response to South Park’s religious mockery.
“If the creators of “South Park” are willing to mock Islam like they do everything else, then they should be allowed to air the episodes,” he says.
“The show has non-stop jokes about Jewish people and an entire episode mocking Mormons. How was that okay to stream but mocking Islam is banned?”
“It makes no sense that Cartman can say whatever he wants about Jewish people and dress as Hitler and that’s totally fine, but if you mock Islam, then HBO won’t air the episodes.
We’re in a bad place in 2020 when comedy is getting censored.”
Source
- Daily caller
- CoS
- Image: Hollywood reporter
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