Sep 9th 2008 By Tom Radler

Russian Authorities Label 'South Park' as 'Extremist'

Since its first episodes over a decade ago, "South Park" has certainly been controversial -- with parodies ripping into celebs, hot-button political issues and characters that include a pot-smoking towel and singing piece of excrement.

Now prosecutors in Russia are trying to get the series tossed off the airwaves. A regional prosecutor's office filed a motion to ban the show on the grounds that "experts" determined that an episode "bore signs of extremist activity."

These experts were from the Russian Union of Christians of Evangelical Faith, which claims to have done a study on the effects of the show on young people.

"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," said the group's leader, Konstantin Bendas. The episode in question, called "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics," has the cast singing Christmas carols and features the aforementioned singing poo.

Question Raised: Do you think Mr. Hankey is promoting extremism?

Tags: russia - south park - SouthPark

Email This

Comments:

Add a comment

Wednesday 10 September

By Doug

Lowest Ranked

I agree. I think it should be banned. When a "popular" show promotes disrespect, sloth, ignorance, idiocy, etc. as humor, it tells people that being this way is okay. Yes, I enjoy an off-color joke now and again. But to promote this as the "average" way of life is offensive.

Wednesday 10 September

By Ephie

Highest Rank

Wouldn't the real problem be the fact that you have children who are not being trained well enough at home to know that a cartoon is not the basis for which to base the rest of your life on?

You can say the show is promoting unhealthy lifestyles, however if we began banning shows that aren't squeaky clean we'll be left with Family Ties... and that show was cancelled ages ago.

Of course if you monitored your child's pop culture consumption, you wouldn't have to worry as much about what's on TV... cause you'd be right next to him or her to change the channel.

Wednesday 10 September

By Heather

Highest Rank

I have to disagree with the above statement. This show is a satire, through and through. It does not promote sloth, ignorance, and idiocy; it in fact makes fun of all these things (but I have to say that it may promote disrespect, but only to those who think they deserve it and not earn it).
But yes, they go about this in a very graphic way, and that's okay, that's their right.
I can certainly understand why a country like Russia would like to ban this, but let's not bring the argument to american soil.
But yes, this is extremism, but that is not a bad thing in this case. Not only to they attack the precieved norm, but they attack other extremist aspects as well, no one is safe, and I love that.
I believe that the two creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are geniuses.
Okay, this went on for WAY too long.

Wednesday 10 September

By OH MY GOD ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Highest Rank

Anybody who takes this seriously are idiots and don't have a sense of humor.

It's a freaking comedy TV show. And they make fun of EVERYBODY, and I've been made fun of a couple of times but it's this crazy thing called taking a joke.
God, how can people be so sensitive? No matter what you ARE going to get made fun of so deal with it.

And what do they mean by this extremism? wtf? only a complete lunatic would follow what the south park characters are doing in an episode.

OH OH OH and to terrorists:
Don't go and bomb up America because we're doing something that, wahh, you don't like.
If you want to take revenge, how about doing it on the actual people that's pis sing you off rather than innocent people?
Because by the way, the whole world is watching so if you wanted to take revenge on people who are watching it.
you've got a lot of work to do (:

Wednesday 10 September

By Brett

Highest Rank

It seems like freedom of speach isn't that important
to the religious right. Evangelicals especially do a lot of whining, but "South Park" spreads the love. Every group or organization of relevance gets hit. Children learning to question what there told to believe doesn't seem like a bad thing to me, but I'm one of those children who questioned. So lets tape my mouth shut for I have the plague known as logic and reason. Tell you what I'll trade you freedom of speach for freedom of religion. Then we can all watch "South Park's" fact based observation of different faiths and decided on which(as)if any is best for the country by using LOGIC!!! As for the ruskee's complaint of "extremism" that seems laughable to me, but then again most every country has there extremist groups. What do they all have in common? OH YEAH RELIGION!!!

Wednesday 10 September

By Michael

Neutral

I agree with the Russians because they are Special and cannot tell the diference a Cartoon and Reality. It is our job to protect them from anything that might bring them out of the 19th Century.

Wednesday 10 September

By Kira K.

Highest Rank

The show is satire.

It uses humor to get people to seriously think about political and social issues, and makes enough potty jokes along the way to keep it from being weighed down by its serious ideas.

I don't understand how encouraging people to consider the world around them is an extremist idea, or how leading people to learn about their own society could possibly be harmful. What's harmful is unthinking stagnancy in society. What's harmful is the inability to think for oneself, to question and understand the world which one lives in. What's harmful is the *lack* of thought-provoking controversy.

My parents didn't allow me to watch South Park when I was a kid. I started watching it when I was sixteen. If anything, the show has taught me to be more understanding and open-minded, and that stupidity and laziness will only cause me to end up like the idiots that populate the town of South Park. I love the show because it makes me think, makes me reconsider my beliefs, and is freaking hilarious to boot.