I'll take "gutless opportunists" and the points.

I get it. It's easy to make fun of scientology. It's brave to stand up to Oliver Cromwell Jr. in the White House. And, ooooh, those darn "Jesus is God" people must be stopped. But when the guys who pay Parker and Stone say bend over and take it like an inmate, they race each other to see who can drop their pants faster.

Philly.com: Howard Gensler - 'South Park' episode no comedy for network


Depending on your world view, Peabody Award-winning "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker are either satirists who ridicule the powerful and pompous, brave defenders of free speech or gutless opportunists on the highway to hell.

Their latest foray into the news, following beefs with Scientologists, Christians and just about every other religion known to man and beast, revolves around Muslims... er, Christians... er, Comedy Central.

This Holy Week episode of "South Park" was to contain an image of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, in its unique cut-from-construction-paper style.

Comedy Central, remembering what happened when a Danish newspaper ran cartoons of Muhammad, nixed the idea - perhaps fearing thousands of angry people outside its offices, perhaps fearing that "South Park" would lose its edge when Parker and Stone had a fatwa issued against them.

But the "South Park" guys don't like getting their ideas censored and so the episode instead featured an image of Jesus defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

As you might imagine, some people found that offensive.

But Parker and Stone didn't win a Peabody by evading the tough issues so they re-wrote the episode around the Comedy Central decision. Hence, the character Kyle is shown trying to convince a Fox network executive to air an uncensored "Family Guy" even though it had an image of Muhammad.

"Either it's all OK, or none of it is," Kyle said. "Do the right thing."

The executive decides to strike a blow for free speech and agrees to show it. But at the point where Muhammad is to be seen, the screen is filled with the message: "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Muhammad on their network."

It is followed shortly by the images of Jesus, President Bush and the flag.
Being familiar with the free- speech issue, we got the joke. Because Comedy Central feared Muslim violence, it wouldn't air the mere image of Muhammad. Because Comedy Central did not fear rampaging Christians, but merely a letter-writing campaign to the FCC and local politicians that might also generate favorable publicity for "South Park," it would air a far-more-heinous image with Jesus, the president and the flag.

Trying to make some hay ("Hay", he says. - F.G.) of the issue, frequent "South Park" critic, William Donohue, of the anti-defamation group Catholic League, called on Parker and Stone to resign out of principle for being censored.

Ahhhh, but they are not men of principle, so that's not an option.

"The ultimate hypocrite is not Comedy Central - that's their decision not to show the image of Muhammad or not - it's Parker and Stone," he said. "Like little whores, they'll sit there and grab the bucks. They'll sit there and they'll whine and they'll take their shot at Jesus. That's their stock in trade."

Mr. Donahue is one of the few who always cuts through the crap.