Jaunted

South Park Goes to the Middle East

4/14/2006 at 11:35 AM
Tags: Cartoons, Television, UAE (all tags)

For the section of our reading demographic that overlaps with South Park viewers, you may have heard about the censorship to-do surrounding Wednesday's episode. The episode, which contained a show within a show (just like Hamlet!) controversy about Family Guy showing an image of Muhammad that was censored by FOX, was censored itself by Comedy Central.

Issues of free speech aside, it's interesting that while Comedy Central is worried that South Park may spark unrest in the Arab and Muslim world, the Arab world is pretty positively disposed towards South Park. So positively disposed, in fact, that recent startup carrier Air Arabia, based out of Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates, has a picture of a swarthy looking Kyle (pictured, though it could be Stan) from the show on the front page of their web site. Actually, there are several versions, including Kyle wearing a fez and a dishdasha.

Keep your eyes peeled to see if Comedy Central tries to censor those images, too. There is no religion holier than copyright law, after all.

Related Stories:
·   South Park Creators Skewer Own Network [AP]  
·   Air Arabia & South Park? [Online Travel Review]  
·   Air Arabia[Official Site]