South Park Season 20: 5 Key Themes From Episode 3

This is one of those “blink and you miss it” commentaries, but in the scene where we discover Freja has committed suicide we see “Exclusive Video” of the woman jumping to her death. We see the word “CENSORED” and a black banner across the falling body, but it follows her down all the way to the splat with blood clearly visible.

If there's one show that should know about censorship it's South Park. They have a legal team that they have to pass jokes by so they know if they're going to get in trouble. Here the guys seem to be commenting on the fact that in a world where so much is censored, there are things which should be but aren’t. We see salacious images and scenes of horror with some part of it supposedly censored but which fails to hide the human suffering and death we are witnessing voyeuristically. Scenes of war, death, suffering, blood, all shoved in our faces with only the smallest thought given to the emotional impact on viewers or the privacy of the victims. Some of the scenes we see on news programs could cause genuine trauma to children or those who are most empathetic.

Censorship should never be used to hide the truth or to make people ashamed of their bodies. There is also the fact that making people aware of the horrible things going on in the world will make it more likely they will act. The Black Lives Matter movement wouldn't exist without it. But a choice should be made about what censorship is used for and whether we are exposing a truth, or simply exploiting the pain of others. To be fair, South Park does a pretty good job of getting laughs out of other people's pain, but at least they make a point while they're doing it.