if you can't trust comedy central, who can you trust?

i feel let down—3 times now.

when previously fearless satirists censor themselves, is any hope left? will iconoclasm survive?

in its last "season," south park had an episode called trapped in the closet, which thoroughly raked scientology and a few showbiz-star members over hot coals.

at the end, the scientologists threaten to sue—as they often do in real life. the response is a challenge: go ahead! sue me! yeah! sue all of us!

then the end titles roll: director john smith; animation john smith, john smith, jane smith, john smith; &c. you get the idea.

i wanted to see it again, so when comedy central had a marathon of the last set of south park shows, i tuned in a few minutes before the scheduled start time of trapped.

i heard the final dialogue and saw the final credits. they'd run it a half hour early. i missed it.

a few weeks ago, they scheduled it again. i tuned in. a different episode ran.

the following week, south park's email newsletter mentioned trapped in the closet having been on the previous week. i—and probably a lot of other idiots—replied, saying it hadn't been on and asking when it would.

a week went by. i got no answer.

then, yesterday, i read a new south park email that said trapped would be on that night at 10.

at 9pm an npr show said isaac hayes, who from the beginning has done the voice of "chef"—perhaps the most outrageous hyper-sexed black stereotype ever—has, because of the danish cartoon affair and in view of his 40 years of civil rights activism, decided to leave the show because it makes fun of religion.

of course, he didn't leave when it made fun of jesus or moses or buddha or joseph smith or the pope or jews or mormons or catholics or evangelicals.

btw, he's a scientologist.

10pm: trapped in the closet was replaced by another episode again.