The Hairpin Bend

Den politiske korrekthed trives også i USA. Dette er kommet til udtryk i en bortcensurering af Muhammed i et afsnit af den famøse og meget sjove tv-serie South Park. I det omtalte afsnit, som er en opfølgning på et afsnit i sidste uge også omhandlende Muhammed-sagen, har Comedy Central valgt at vise en sort skærm påtrykt teksten ”Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network” i stedet for at vise Muhammed. Heldigvis er rationalet bag dette ikke, at man skal vise hensyn til religiøse følelser – i så fald kunne man næppe vise South Park i det hele taget – men derimod, at man gør det på grund af sikkerhedsmæssige hensyn. Med andre ord har man fjernet billedet af Muhammed, fordi man er bange for konsekvenserne. Det er da i det mindste ærlig snak og medfører, at det ikke er nær så politisk korrekt som det først synes. Dette er også grunden til, at man i selv samme afsnit af South Park kan se en ucensureret version af Al Qaedas svar på Muhammed-tegningerne: Jesus, George Bush og en masse amerikanere skidende på hinanden og det amerikanske flag. Man er simpelthen ikke bange for voldelig respons fra Bush, kristne og amerikanske patrioter.

Nu har jeg været så heldig at se begge afsnit, og det er altså forrygende satire. I første afsnit forekommer denne forrygende dialog, når landsbyens beboere er samlet for at løse problemet:

Professor: Now look everyone, Muslim terrorist and extremist are threatening us for what Family Guy [showet, som i South Park-afsnittene, har vist billeder af Muhammed] is going to do, because they wrongly grouped us together. Our only hope is to make the Muslim extremist know that we had no part in the Mohammed episode. That even though the episode aired, we didn’t watch it, we didn’t hear it and we didn’t talk about it.
Kerney: So how do we do that?
Professor: We bury our heads [pause] in sand. We take 20 to 25 dump trucks fill them with sand and dump the sand along South Park Avenue. By using 18 dozens of shovels, we each dig a hole in the sand, stick our heads in our holes, and then have the person to our left bury our head. If we can manage to have every person in South Park buried deep, deep in sand before the Mohammed episode airs, we can avoid looking like we are responsible for any part of this at all.
Butters far: No, no. Wait a minute, that’s ridiculous. Look, what we need to do is just the opposite. Freedom of speech is at stake here, don’t you all see? If anything, we should all make cartoons of Mohammed and show the terrorist that we are all united in the belief that every person has the right to say what they want. Look people, it’s been real easy for us to stand up for free speech lately, for the past few decades we haven’t had to risk anything to defend it. But those times are going to come, and one of those times is right now. And if we aren’t willing to risk what we have, then we just believe in free speech, but we don’t defend it.
[Rungende stilhed]
Stans far: I like the sand idea.
Mr. Mackey: Yeah me too.
Kyles far: Yeah, the sand thing sounds a lot simpler…

En fornem reductio ad absurdum af politisk korrekthed. Og ja, idéen bliver ført ud i livet. En anden morsom sekvens er i det andet afsnit hvor George Bush holder pressemøde omkring tegningerne i Family Guy. Bush konkluderer, at man ikke kan overtale Family Guy-forfatterne til at ændre på indholdet, og at han ikke kan tvinge dem til det, da deres ytringsfrihed er beskyttet i the First Amendment. Følgende ordveksling finder dernæst sted:

Journalist 1: And what exactly is this First Amendment, Mr. President?
George Bush: You know. Right to free speech.
Alle journalister: Ohh! [larm]
Journalist 2: Mr. President, when your administration came up with this [kigger på sit papir] First Amendment, did you not foresee a problem like this might happen?
George Bush: Well, we didn’t come up with the First Amendment. It was already in place.
Journalist 3: What do you intend to do about this First Amendment, Mr. President?
Journalist 4: Forgive me, Mr. President, but this First Amendment sounds like a lot of bureaucratic jibbery-jabbery.
Alle journalister: Yeah, that’s right!

Jeg kunne fortsætte med at opremse sjove og rammende øjeblikke i de to afsnit, men jeg vil stoppe nu. I stedet vil jeg blot notere, at den politiske korrekthed desværre også trives i USA, næsten lige så meget som den gør i EU.