South Park complaints work...

[Mole 0]

From EOnline.com

 

"South Park" Parked by Complaints

 

by Sarah Hall

Dec 29, 2005, 2:20 PM PT

 

 

 

Did Comedy Central grant the Catholic League its Christmas wish?

 

Following the Dec. 7 season finale of South Park, titled "Bloody Mary," the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights slammed the network for its irreverent portrayal of church icons and sought to block the episode from being rebroadcast.

 

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

 

 

 

 

 

It appears the group may have met with success. A repeat of the finale was scheduled to air Wednesday night, but was pulled from the Comedy Central lineup without explanation.

 

In the episode, a statue of the Virgin Mary is believed to be bleeding from its rear end, inspiring faithful parishioners to flock from miles around to be healed by the miraculous blood.

 

Eventually, Pope Benedict XVI is called in to investigate, whereupon he determines that the statue is actually menstruating and thus is nothing special.

 

"A chick bleeding out her vagina is no miracle," the pope declares in the episode. "Chicks bleed out their vaginas all the time."

 

Somewhat predictably, the Catholic League was incensed by the satirical portrayal of the Virgin Mary and the pope and by the fact that the episode aired on the day before the Catholic Church celebrated its Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

 

The conservative group demanded an apology from Viacom, Comedy Central's parent company, to Roman Catholics everywhere and "a pledge that this episode be permanently retired and not be made available on DVD."

 

The Catholic League also sought a personal condemnation from Viacom board member Joseph A. Califano Jr., who the group noted is a "practicing Catholic."

 

Califano was only too happy to oblige. After viewing the episode, he released a statement calling the episode an "appalling and disgusting portrayal of the Virgin Mary."

 

"It is particularly troubling to me as a Roman Catholic that the segment has run on the eve and day of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day for Roman Catholics," Califano said.

 

Califano also pledged to have Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston review the episode.

 

Comedy Central did not respond to a request for comment on why "Bloody Mary" was yanked from the schedule.

 

Screencaps of the episode were no longer available on Comedy Central's press site or on comedycentral.com's South Park section.

 

The Catholic League previously tangled with Comedy Central in 2002 over a South Park episode titled "Red Hot Catholic Love," but failed to produce any results.

[Slayer 0]

Can't wait to hear the P&S response to this

[Gary Floyd 0]

You know, I was raised Catholic, and have friends who are Catholic, and none of the them were offended by this episode.

[SuperJerk 0]

I didn't see this episode. Was the show really just making fun of those knuckleheads who think they see the images of the Virgin Mary in everyday objects?

[Placebo Effect 0]

I didn't see this episode. Was the show really just making fun of those knuckleheads who think they see the images of the Virgin Mary in everyday objects?

 

Yeah, pretty much. It was pretty much the A-story's B-story, as only about a quarter of the show is focused on the statue.

 

What a load of bullshit. Cartman tries to exterminate the Jews a year ago and THIS is what provokes media attention?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Oh well, I'm sure it'll be on that season's DVD...

[Jericholic82 0]

I didn't see this episode. Was the show really just making fun of those knuckleheads who think they see the images of the Virgin Mary in everyday objects?

The main story was that Stans dad drives to drive the boys home while drunk and gets arrested. They force shim to go to a 12 step program in which the people tell Randy Marsh that he has a disease, called Alcoholism. Randy reacts as if he is dying and starts using a wheelchair and shaves his head for some reason. Then this Mary statue starts bleeding out its BUTT and everyone is flocking to be healed by the miracle blood. He goes there and thinks he is healed by the blood.

 

The story was more about making fun of 12 step programs and the obssesion with calling everything a "disease" more tahn making fun of the church

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Leave it to the Catholics to destroy existence.

[Gert T 0]

And its a hilarious episode.

[JasonX 0]

Can't wait to hear the P&S response to this

 

Probably nothing, since it's been a running fact that when their corporate masters lay the hammer on their skulls, that P&S meekly obey so that they don't rock the boat when they want to do stuff like the "Shit" episode and need TPTB's approval ahead of time; hence why we haven't seen any episodes of Butters being physically abused/Cartman manipulating things so Butters' parents physically abuse him for Cartman's sick pleasure after Comedy Central banned "Jared Has Aides" and banned the two from ever doing an episode where Butters is physcially abused again....

 

I'm sure, if anything, P&S will let the episode be banned from TV in exchange for a promise that it will make the DVD. Or even more likely, we'll probably see a redux of the "Passion of the Jew" scenerio where Paramount will release a special "Catholic Themed" South Park disc with "Bloody Mary" and the "Do the Handicapped Go To Hell?" two-parter to capitalize on the episode's buzz.

[AndrewTS 0]

I don't get why it would be offensive either, but I never quite understood why certain Catholics utterly deify Mary.

 

I don't think the League noticed/cared when Jesus was getting his ass kicked in a boxing match, and so forth.

[JasonX 0]

I don't get why it would be offensive either, but I never quite understood why certain Catholics utterly deify Mary.

 

I don't think the League noticed/cared when Jesus was getting his ass kicked in a boxing match, and so forth.

 

That was before the changing of the Popes; it's been heavily rumored that the Catholic Church, under newly selected Pope Ratzinger/Benedict, has been pushing a much more aggressive stance from it's protest sections (IE such groups as the League) towards anyone who badmouths the Catholic Church.

 

The cynic in me though thinks that they wouldn't have said anything if not for the scene where Ratzinger got sprayed in the face, and that since they can't with a straight face bitch about that bit of satire now that Ratzinger is a public figure, that they are attacking the show over the Virgin Mary Statue on the basis that the whole Catholic obsession with the deifying Mary will confuse non-Catholics enough to let them get their way regarding banning the episode.....

[Matt Young 0]

No offense to those who practice the religion, but the Catholics have been offending me for years. They should let me have my cheap, smutty entertainment.

[JHawk 0]

Question.

 

Why are such devout Catholics watching South Park in the first place?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

To find stuff to complain about. Duh.

[JasonX 0]

Question.

 

Why are such devout Catholics watching South Park in the first place?

 

To find shit to bitch about, since "South Park" is still "that dirty, obscene cartoon" in out-of-touch with reality circles like the Catholic Church.

[Slayer 0]

I don't get why it would be offensive either, but I never quite understood why certain Catholics utterly deify Mary.

 

I don't think the League noticed/cared when Jesus was getting his ass kicked in a boxing match, and so forth.

That was before the changing of the Popes; it's been heavily rumored that the Catholic Church, under newly selected Pope Ratzinger/Benedict, has been pushing a much more aggressive stance from it's protest sections (IE such groups as the League) towards anyone who badmouths the Catholic Church.

This is what happens when you elect a KrautPope

[Failed Bridge 0]

Jared Has AIDS is banned from being replayed? I guess I am going to have to eventually pick up these DVDs then. My approach to it before was "Why bother when you can watch a whole season every week by tuning into Comedy Central?" but if they keep banning episodes then that won't ring true.

[teke184 0]

Jared Has AIDS is banned from being replayed? I guess I am going to have to eventually pick up these DVDs then. My approach to it before was "Why bother when you can watch a whole season every week by tuning into Comedy Central?" but if they keep banning episodes then that won't ring true.

 

Jared Has Aides *WAS* banned for a long time but has been recently shown on the air.

 

Same deal with Krazy Kripples, which was pulled after Christopher Reeve died but was aired again in the past two months.

 

 

 

I didn't realize that either were banned until their most recent web-site contest, in which you could pick the episodes to be shown on Comedy Central.

 

When I went through the list, which was supposed to contain all the show's episodes, Krazy Kripples' absence was immediately noticed, as that was one of the best episodes that season.

 

I had to go searching around to find out that Jared Has Aides was pulled as well.

 

 

As for the Jared episode, I originally thought the banning had more to do with the main thrust of the episode being thousands of AIDS jokes.

 

I only found out much later that the Butters abuse was the source of the problem. Damn shame, too, since the Butters abuse episodes like Butters' Own Story tend to be some of the funniest in the show's history.