China Banned South Park After the Show Made Fun of Chinese Censorship

Source: Reason
Published: Oct 7, 2019
Author: Robby Soave
Post Date: 2019-10-08 14:33:25 by Deckard
Views: 5238

South Park

(Screenshot via Comedy Central)

In a case of life imitating art imitating life, the Chinese government has purged all references to South Park from the country's highly restricted internet—following an episode of the show that criticized Chinese censorship.

"Band in China," the second episode of the show's 23rd season, satirizes China's heavy-handed crackdowns on free expression. The kids attempt to make a biopic about their new rock band, only to discover that they need to sanitize the plot to appease the Chinese government. Meanwhile, Randy Marsh gets sent to a Chinese prison, where he meets Winnie the Pooh—a reference to China's odd attempts to clamp down on the beloved bear for its supposedly resemblance Chinese President Xi Jinping. The episode also castigates Disney for making artistic concessions in order to remain in Chinese markets. "You gotta lower your ideals of freedom if you want to suck on the warm teat of China," one character says.

Unsurprisingly, China has not responded favorably. According to The Hollywood Reporter:

Now, those very same government censors, in the real world, have lashed back at South Park by deleting virtually every clip, episode and online discussion of the show from Chinese streaming services, social media and even fan pages.

A cursory perusal through China's highly regulated Internet landscape shows the show conspicuously absent everywhere it recently had a presence. A search of the Twitter-like social media service Weibo turns up not a single mention of South Park among the billions of past posts. On streaming service Youku, owned by Internet giant Alibaba, all links to clips, episodes and even full seasons of the show are now dead.

And on Baidu's Tieba, China's largest online discussions platform, the threads and sub-threads related to South Park are nonfunctional. If users manually type in the URL for what was formerly the South Park thread, a message appears saying that, "According to the relevant law and regulation, this section is temporarily not open."

The South Park ban proceeds news that Chinese broadcasters will no longer air the Houston Rockets' NBA games because a general manager tweeted in support of the Hong Kong protests. Both incidents should serve as reminders that China is a one-party state whose authoritarian government squelches freedom of speech at every turn.

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#1: sneakypete    To: Deckard (#0)

I wonder what the Chinese word for "Irony" is?

sneakypete posted on 2019-10-09 11:59:26   Reply   Private Reply

#2: Tooconservative    To: Deckard (#0)

China has made South Park disappear entirely online in the mainland and Hong Kong.

OTOH, this might not be a fight they can win. South Park's creators love to pick a fight and they still produce episodes of the show week by week. So China could get the full South Park treatment in the West and be able to do nothing about it. And it can happen in the next week or so since they still produce it that way.

I'm hoping that in the next week or so, South Park really winds up and delivers a knockout punch to the jaw to the Chi-com regime, one they won't soon forget.

Tooconservative posted on 2019-10-09 12:36:01   Reply   Private Reply

#3: Hank Rearden    To: Tooconservative (#2)

China has made South Park disappear entirely online in the mainland and Hong Kong.

Yeah, except for all the torrents available via VPN. Which means it hasn't disappeared in China.
Ol' Pooh Bear in Charge has got himself in quite a fix with Hong Kong, I hope the prick chokes on it and that this SP episode circulates widely, as I expect it will. I grabbed it while reading this; will watch it tonight.

Hank Rearden posted on 2019-10-09 21:39:09   Reply   Private Reply

#4: Tooconservative    To: Hank Rearden (#3)

Yeah, except for all the torrents available via VPN. Which means it hasn't disappeared in China.

Yeah but if the Chi-coms catch one of their citizens watching or spreading South Park, they will disappear into the Chinese prison slave system. They've done worse for very minor political offenses, like commie regimes always do.

Tooconservative posted on 2019-10-09 22:03:33   Reply   Private Reply

#5: Tooconservative    To: Deckard, Hank Rearden, sneakypete (#0)

As some wise person here at LF predicted recently (oh, yeah, that was me), South Park's Matt Stone and Trey Parker are not backing down and have upped the ante with the Chi-coms.

RedState: South Park Doubles Down on Its Anti-China Stance for Its 300th Episode

After being banned, Stone and Parker offered a sarcastic apology to China, showing that they won’t be caving anytime soon.

Or ever.

Now, for their 300th episode “SHOTS!!!,” Stone and Parker are turning their “apology” into a one-two punch.

The episode primarily revolves around character Eric Cartman’s refusal to get an immunization shot and the town’s efforts to force him to get one, but a side-plot involves character Randy Marsh’s struggles with everyone’s anger with him for working with China to sell weed in the previous episode.

Near the end of the episode, Marsh is confronted by his business partner Towelie, who tells Marsh that unless he stops working with China, then he’s out.

Stone and Parker have a way of using their storylines in order to get real-world messages across and use Towelie as a vessel to state that they aren’t going to work with China at all.

“I’m never working for a company that’s regulated by a communist government,” Towelie tells Marsh.

Marsh agrees to stop selling to the Chinese, but Towelie isn’t satisfied and forces Marsh to say “F**k the Chinese government” out loud.

Marsh first says it quietly, then at Towelie’s prompting, says it even louder.

“F**k the Chinese government! There!” yells Marsh.

You may recall the old political advice about politicians who shouldn't pick fights with newspapers who buy their ink by the barrel. Well, in the 21st century, we should update that to "don't pick public fights with a cartoon show that thrives on controversy and who produces their shows week-by-week, often based on current events." It's a damned gold mine for them.

Or, to use another hoary aphorism, don't wrestle with a hog because you'll just get muddy and the hog enjoys it. Here's a little clip of Chinese women in an episode about scammy online shopping networks, India, and Chinese people. In the end, they drive a shopping network host to suicide on the air. Wholesome stuff!

Tooconservative posted on 2019-10-10 13:34:52   Reply   Private Reply

#6: sneakypete    To: Deckard (#0)

IMNSHO,South Park should be recognized as an international treasure. They have said things that need to be said,in a way that draw attention to the statement as well as why it was necessary to make it.

People rarely forget points you make with humor.

sneakypete posted on 2019-10-10 18:40:31   Reply   Private Reply