Russia Looking To Ban South Park

By Wyatt Earp | September 8, 2008

As far as I can tell, they’re looking to ban the cartoon, and not the town. Then again, with their recent saber rattling . . .

MOSCOW – 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.

Does anyone else see the irony with Russia – the country that invaded Georgia and killed innocent civilians – declaring an American cartoon “extremist?”

Basmanny regional prosecutors office spokeswoman Valentina Titova said investigators filed a motion after deciding an episode broadcast on Moscow television station 2×2 in January “bore signs of extremist activity.”

Um, Iran bears signs of extremist activity. When is Mother Russia going to ban them?

“In accordance with the conclusions made by experts from the court investigations committee, a claim has been filed against 2×2 for its broadcast of an episode of South Park,” Titova said.

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.”

Good for them! The last thing we need in the former Soviet Union is religious and national hatred.

“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 http://www.southparkstudios.com, first aired in December, 1999, and features the cast singing Christmas carols. (H/T – Reuters)

Mr. Hankey? Say it isn’t so! Of all the South Park characters, Mr. Hankey is the most inclusive, bringing together Jews and Christians alike at the holiday season. That delightful talking poo is anything but hateful.

I seriously urge Russia to rethink its decision.

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