SBS drops South Park episode on the Pope

AN EPISODE of cartoon program South Park that features the Pope has been pulled from Australian television.

The final episode of the current series of the long-running US animated series — which had been scheduled for Monday — has been “deferred”, according to an SBS spokesman.

Because of sensitivities about religious cartoons in the wake of the Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad, SBS would have to give “some more thought” to the scheduling of the Bloody Mary episode.

“Given the current worldwide controversy over cartoons of religious figures, we’ve decided to defer this program,” he said in a statement yesterday.

The episode shows a statue of the Virgin Mary spurting menstrual blood on the Pope.

It was shown in New Zealand on Wednesday night, prompting a vigil by hundreds of Catholics outside broadcaster TV Works. Despite the protest, 200,000 New Zealanders watched the program, six times the usual audience.

South Park has been doing the same old thing for years. How does it make sense for SBS to take this action now?

Well screw the Catholic fundamentalists. Get your Bit Torrent client onto this torrent. I’ll have it seeding for the next couple of weeks for anyone that wants to see what all the fuss is about.

Illustration: Cathy Wilcox

Dear Viewers,

I’m pleased to present you with the brand new Boxcutters store which you can find at:
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Thanks to Mick who, after having to deal with three guys who can’t make up their mind, produced an excellent logo.

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Brett just posted this comment:

Just thought I’d register a resolution on the whole logged in thing here. We’ve got some new code that takes your registrations and can indicate what your status is.

You’ll see up on the left, just under the Search box, a couple of links. If you’re logged in, it will give you options to go to the Site Admin - just a fancy way of saying the place where you write posts and stuff - if you’re a contributor - and a link to Logout.

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And that should make it easier for everyone.

I’ve just stumbled on this piece of news and thought I’d let y’all know about it:

Ricky Gervais takes podcasting paid-for

The Ricky Gervais Show is to become the first paid-for Podcast.

The show features British comedy personalities Ricky Gervais, Steven Merchant and Karl Pilkington. Their irreverant brand of monkey-based comedy has seen the weekly half-hour podcast storm to the top of the iTunes charts and stay there.

The first run of 12 episodes was sponsored by UK newspaper the Guardian and were free to download via iTunes. Following on from the success of the show, the second run of episodes will be hosted on Audible.com and will be accessible only to those who’ve paid a subscription fee.

For the foreseeable future, Boxcutters will remain a free podcast - don’t you worry about that

This week on Boxcutters we talk and talk and talk. For example:

• we cover the coverage of the winter games on 7;
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• Ross takes aim and unloads his anger about Magda’s Funny Bits and Clever;
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• and we take a browse through some of your letters to us.

It’s a crazy, mixed-up world out there in TV land but we’ll help you through and hopefully get you just a little more relaxed and comfortable with what’s going on.

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We plan to tell you what to do with a drunken sailor earlie in the morning but first, here’s some stuff about TV.

This week on Boxcutters you can hear:

• Some quality news (both kinds, good and bad);
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How much more could we fit in 70 minutes of TV discussion? Well, there are bits and pieces but you have to find them for yourself.

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Unfortunately, dear participants, the Boxcutters site has been hit with a lot of spam over the last few weeks. I’m sick of it and now we all have to login before leaving comments. It’s a simple and painless process that should take you all of 60 seconds.

See the link over on the left.

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I’ve just been interviewed for Hack about downloading television shows and why its good or bad. As we know, it’s a topic very close to my heart (read: I love downloading TV). Listen to Hack at 5:30 today or check out the website over here.

*UPDATE: Listen to the article as an mp3 here.

Twenty-one today, twenty-one today… That’s right, it’s our 21st episode this week so watch us go as we step into podcast adulthood.

Apart from the regular stack of TV news, we also take a look at the impending appointment of Eddie McGuire to head job at channel nine, even as they run around the office in a blind panic about what’s going on with their ratings. We also focus on the network’s scheduling pecularities.

In the countdown to the end of the summer broadcasting season, Crap TV can be found almost anywhere you go across the networks.

And our regular segments, I Don’t Buy It, Letters to Boxcutters and Quotes all get a run on this week’s brilliant episode.

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Start sitting forward on the couch, get a little interactive with your TV, cast a critical eye over the programming and send the results to hooray@boxcutters.net

Jessica Rowe fan tells it like it is over at the SMH