My heroes this week are South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone, for having the gusto to ridicule their own network for censoring them depicting a cartooon of Muhammad:

Comedy Central said in a statement issued Thursday: "In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision." Its executives would not comment further.

As is often the case with Parker and Stone, they built "South Park" around the incident. In Wednesday's episode, the character Kyle is shown trying to persuade 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."

My hack this week is the state of New Jersey, which passed a public smoking ban that went into effect today. I have never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I fear that once government has the power to regulate behavior it finds offensive (note: not immoral or damaging to society) it has the power to ban everything from 50 Cent CDs to Cheez-Its. Insanity.

Yes, I know that Delaware also has a smoking ban, and I find it equally egregious.

Posted by Ryan S. on Friday, April 14, 2006 at 10:18 AM | Permalink |