South Park Jihad

I was thinking about the Mohammed cartoon flap, and I though to myself, "Wow, what would the South Park guys have to say about this?" Probably something that would piss off all sides involved. And, I figured, they would surely use Mohammed as a character in the show. That would certainly get them on a bunch of "naughty" lists in the Muslim world.

Then I remembered: they already had.

It was season five, episode four. David Blaine, street magician, has become David Blaine, cult leader. Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman all join the Church of Blaintology, but Stan makes a break for it and turns to the one person he knows he can count on - Jesus. (Hey, Jesus lives in South Park. Or lived, rather, before he was killed while rescuing Santa from Iraq a few years ago. It's kinda complicated.) But Jesus sees that David Blaine is a formidable opponent, and he turns to his friends for help - or, more precisely, his Super Best Friends: Krishna, with the power of shape-shifting; Buddha, with the power of invisibility; Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism), with the powers of ice; Lao-Tsu, founder of Taoism, with mind powers; Moses, the group's coordinator; Sea-Man (heh heh, heh heh) with power over the creatures of the ocean; and...Mohammed, with the power of fire.

(This episode has what I consider the funniest South Park gag ever. When David Blaine brings the giant statue of Abraham Lincoln from the Lincoln Memorial to life to wreak havoc on Washington, D.C., the Super Best Friends respond in the only way possible - by building a giant statue of John Wilkes Booth to shoot Lincoln in the back of the head.)

Yep. Mohammed was a cartoon character on South Park years ago. How come nobody complained then?

(Episode 504's original airdate was July 4, 2001.)