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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia legal bid to ban "South Park" |
| 2008-09-09 |
| The latest neo-Stalinist atrocity from the dastardly denizens of the Kremlin: MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Prosecutors in Russia want to ban the award-winning satirical U.S. cartoon "South Park," calling the series "extremist" after receiving viewer complaints, a spokeswoman said on Monday. Er, no, Stormfront and Code Pink are extremist, South Park is annoying. "South Park," a cartoon aimed at adults and featuring a group of nine-year olds in a Colorado town, has courted controversy since its 1997 debut, lampooning celebrities, politicians, religion, gay marriage and Saddam Hussein. Hippies, too. Especially hippies. But investigators have filed a motion after deciding an episode broadcast on Moscow television station 2x2 in January "bore signs of extremist activity," said regional prosecutors office spokeswoman Valentina Titova. They have plainly failed to read the South Park disclaimer: "ALL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IN THIS SHOW--EVEN THOSE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE--ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. ALL CELEBRITY VOICES ARE IMPERSONATED.....POORLY. THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM CONTAINS COARSE LANGUAGE AND DUE TO ITS CONTENT IT SHOULD NOT BE VIEWED BY ANYONE" "In accordance with the conclusions made by experts from the court investigations committee, a claim has been filed against 2x2 for its broadcast of an episode of South Park," Titova said. "South Park" has won two Emmy Awards and was first shown on the U.S. Comedy Central network. It is dubbed into Russian and rebroadcast on local networks, including 2x2, a channel which broadcasts animated series in Moscow and St Petersburg. A representative for 2x2 was not immediately available for comment. No cell phones in the Gulag. The Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith had asked prosecutors to ban South Park after it said 20 experts had studied the show for its effect on young viewers. Folks, any (other) fool would know that this show is not meant for children. The group's leader, Konstantin Bendas, said "South Park is just one of many cartoons that need to be banned from open broadcast...as it insults the feelings of religious believers and incites religious and national hatred." South Park: morally equivalent to the Mohammed cartoons. "Our complaint is against a lot of cartoons, but this one was from 'South Park' season three, episode 15," he said. The episode, called "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" on the cartoon's website www.southparkstudios.com, first aired in December, 1999, and features a singing piece of human excrement. I could do without that myself, but my TV has a channel selector. Perhaps backward-ass Russkie TVs do not. "It's one thing if they are on cable TV and viewers pay money and make a conscious choice. But young children should not be able to turn on the TV after school and watch this. They need to be defended," Bendas said. We have a very advanced method for doing that, one presumably concocted years ago in the bowels of the CIA. It is called "parental supervision." Hey, it worked for me. Russia passed a 2006 law widening the definition of extremism to include "the abasement of national dignity" and "inciting religious and national hatred," which backers say was needed to stem a wave of violence aimed at ethnic minorities. and criticism, mockery, and ridicule aimed at Czar Vlad the Foremost. There should definitely be a South Park episode based on this. |
| Posted by:Atomic Conspiracy |
| #10 Now that you mention it South Park's Mr. Hanky DOES resemble Putin. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2008-09-09 20:32 |
| #9 Bastards! The KGB killed Kenny! |
| Posted by: Stan 2008-09-09 16:07 |
| #8 bigjim-ky, I know it's not a scientific data sample, but the Tsar loves the show and so do a lot of his Russky buddies. Trust me, they get it just fine. That's probably why Putie's worried. If they follow logi_cal's suggestion, I know someone personally who would probably love to help them with it. |
| Posted by: Swamp Blondie in the Cornfields 2008-09-09 15:10 |
| #7 Putin is upset that nobody backed his claim of absorbing those Georgian provinces. So he figures by attacking SouthPark he might at least get North Korea on baord (since you have to imagine Kimmie hates them after Team America). |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2008-09-09 14:14 |
| #6 Team America 2 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2008-09-09 14:01 |
| #5 national hatred." Cos they're not as creative. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2008-09-09 11:14 |
| #4 Ditto that broadhead. |
| Posted by: Col B. Guano (ret.) 2008-09-09 10:50 |
| #3 Well, now, you know what this means? If I were Stone & Parker, I'd be doing my next episode in RUSSIAN. Oh boy, did they ask for it! |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2008-09-09 10:39 |
| #2 I guess they didn't get the episode lampooning World of Warcraft -- some of the funniest sh*t I've ever seen. |
| Posted by: Broadhead6 2008-09-09 10:22 |
| #1 South Park's shtick is to push the boundries of satire and the freedom of speech. Both are foreign concepts to the Russians. I'm not surprised that they find it confusing and not at all funny. I think its a real side splitter myself, but I'm not a ruskie. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2008-09-09 06:56 |