The return of 'Bloody Mary'

View image: "Only women bleed, only women bleed..." -- Alice Cooper (1975)

View image: The Super Best Friends in 2001.

Readers responding to the news that the banned "South Park" episode "Trapped in the Closet" is scheduled (again) for its first repeat showing since November of 2005 have also tipped me off (in Comments -- thanks, DVC) that the "Super Best Friends" episode was rebroadcast this week, and the world failed to end. In this 2001 show, various religious figures (including Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Joseph Smith, Krishna, Moses and Lao Tsu) were depicted as superheroes who team up to fight the evil David Blaine, except for Buddha who doesn't believe in evil. According to Wikipedia, it was also repeated in syndication in April 2006 -- despite Comedy Central apparently refusing to show a cartoon depiction of Muhammad in "Cartoon Wars, Part II," which premiered the same month. (Sorry, Danish cartoonists. Next season I would like to see Trey and Matt actually incorporate those Muhammad cartoons into the show: "Cartoon Wars, Part III"?) And the "Bloody Mary" episode, which was withheld from re-airing after protests from the Catholic League (see "Vile 'South Park' Episode Pulled," the League's own take on the matter) is now scheduled for repeat August 2. C'mon folks, this is a show that began as a cartoon Christmas card about Jesus duking it out with Santa. Could the other kind of "market pressures" (i.e., audiences that actually want to see these shows -- and will endure the ads that accompany them as the price of doing so, unless they have DVRs and can zip through them) emerge triumphant at last? Hail, freedom!

4 Comments

By Brandon Colvin on July 13, 2006 2:36 PM

That's such an excellent victory. "South Park" has always been and will continue to be the torchbearer for artistic freedom on television. Finally, people are coming to their senses.

By Ashley Mathis on July 13, 2006 3:51 PM

I am so excited! I have read so much about the episode here that I have rediscovered South Park!

Also, I had completely forgotten about the Super Best Friends episode. Perhaps representations of Mohammed made before 9/11 don't offend?

By Ken Lowery on July 13, 2006 9:59 PM

Check out that closing paragraph in the Catholic League statement:

“Already, we are being deluged with hate mail that is as obscene as it is viciously anti-Catholic. All because we exercised our First Amendment right to request that Comedy Central not offend Catholics again! But we’re used to such things and will not be deterred.�?

The irony is so bitter, the logic so insanely flawed, and the contradiction so bald-faced that I'm actually a little impressed. This guy has a PR job waiting for him in Hell.

(Or Purgatory, if that's still on the books.)

By zac schmitt on July 13, 2006 11:52 PM

i don't even like south park very much at all, but this news makes me sooo happy.

those catholic league statements would be laughable if sentiments of that ilk didn't make me so sad. while the catholic league has every right to shout about how little they like the episode, using freedom of speech to limit speech is mind boggling.