Legal Question in Entertainment Law in New York

Re: Comedy Central's South Park cartoon containing heavily discriminating songs

One might not forget Confucious' saying, but one must also not forget that Confucious is not the author of the U.S. Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech, including speech that may be hurtful or hateful.

There is nothing you can legally do about being offended by South Park or various other comedians. As an aside, why would you purchase South Park if you didn't appreciate or expect off color humor? As a second aside, I think you missed the point of the song. Merry F----- Christmas. Watch it again. It's tone is not derogatory towards Muslims, Buddhists, others but rather it was a caustic remark about how some American Christians automatically assume the world shares their beleifs and traditions eventhough the majority of the world is filled with believers of other traditions. Mr. Garrison is always going over the top. On last night's episode (A christmas epsiode by the way) when the mayor asks if anyone can think of a way to promote Christmas spirit, Mr. Garrison answers "Why dont' we get red of all the Mexicans?" -- A majority of which are Catholics by the way. The mayor answers, "Mr. Garrison, you asked for that last year, and we are not doing it this year."

In any case, the point is that the authors are not advocating the abandonment of Mexicans, but are making fun of certain American attitudes towards foreingers in the vein of the Christian ethic of "Charity towards all" in the context of the so-called Christmas spirit.

By the way, getting back to Confucious, there is a similar concept within American tort law to his saying, however with a major difference. The American principle is that the freedom to extend my fist ends, where your nose begins. In other words where your conduct, not your speech, but conduct impacts on another in a verifiable way, such is action is open to litigation, however being disturbed has nothing to do with it.

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