'South Park' Jokes About Penn State Scandal – Parents Outraged
South Park's season finale on Wednesday tackled the very fresh and controversial subject of the Penn State Sex Abuse scandal by poking fun at some of the key characters involved.
However, some people aren't laughing.
"South Park," has never been afraid to push the envelope as far as its programming is concerned, and has always acted like animated reporters in regards to whatever the hot topic of the moment is causing controversy from their day it aired. Now 15 years later they are still on the air with Comedy Central renewing their contract through 2016.
Last night's episode used jokes aimed at Joe Paterno and the cover up that happened at the school instead of directly making fun of the children.
Watch the clip and decide for yourself.
The Christian Post asked readers how they felt about the clip, and received mixed results with good points on both sides.
Matt Picciano thought it was "Best Way to make a joke about it. They did it indirectly and didnt focus the whole show on it."
Parent Rich Schnur didn't agree and said, "Nobody should be making fun of abused children! The writers for South Park need to stop and ask themselves how insensitive can I be. Some things are just not funny!"
Keith Foster said, "Matt and Trey [South Park's creators] like to stay up with current events, it makes the show more relevant and helps with comedy. There's no such thing as too soon for South Park.. Hell, they killed off Bin Laden before Obama did."
Christopher Mandala agreed and added a serious show like a news network poking fun at the situation would be worse, "When someone plans to watch South Park (or any show in that genre for that matter) there has to be a certain degree of political incorrectness that is expected," he said.
"It would be one thing if NBC news was making jokes about such a serious issue, but it's entirely different when it's a show like "South Park," which has always been forthright about the type of humor that it will focus on. Saying they couldn't or shouldn't, violates the free speech we hold so dear in this country."
Replying to the supporters of "South Park" was again Rich Schnur. "It’s ok to laugh but why laugh about children being raped? Obviously you don't have kids? Would you be laughing if your son or daughter said they were raped? How would you feel if people were laughing about your son or daughter that was raped?"
According to the comments, it appears parents are against the show making light of the situation while the younger crowd on the whole is a bit more accepting.