I wasn’t allowed to watch “The Simpsons” growing up. Not being “allowed” to watch the cartoon was a bit redundant being that my small hometown in southern Minnesota didn’t have FOX as a broadcast network and we never had cable. It wasn’t that my parents were very conservative and objected to the social and religious content of the show; my mother (a single parent) objected to Bart being a brat. In her mind bratty kids are among the greatest scourges on the face of the earth, on par with the Black Plague and tapeworm.
I never saw the ban on Homer and Marge’s family as any great loss. Sure, there were socially awkward moments as friends shared inside jokes referencing the show and I didn’t get it, but when compared to the rest of the gauntlet that is adolescents, it was minor.
Now, from time to time I do enjoy The Simpsons and their genre of cartoons for adults, I’ve even caught a few episodes of South Park in syndication (still no cable). I recently found myself following the dust-up around their 200th episode in which they depicted Mohammed, in a bear suit.
My supervisor at the parcel delivery service where I work part-time is Muslim. We have conversations pretty frequently but rarely about anything of substance or consequence, until I asked him how he felt about this particular South Park episode. He was offended by it, which surprised me. His fondness for porn and the timeless conversation starter, “who would you rather…” lead me to believe he wasn’t particularly devote to any religious practice. (By the way, I’ve discovered a number of fun and creative methods for escaping these conversations if you’re interested.)
While he wasn’t particularly concerned with the specific religious prohibition on depicting Mohammed, he was offended by satire directed at religious beliefs from those outside the religion. I disagreed. I contended that the satire offered by those outside our communities of faith have the potential to give us perspective on the ways we have wrongly communicated or misrepresented our faith.
It was easily the most substantive and meaningful conversation I’ve had with this co-worker and has provided a framework for us to have subsequent conversations about the convictions, expectations, and historical contexts of our respective faiths.
Thank you South Park for starting conversations.
(written by Isaiah Allen)
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