Last night's episode of South Park was one of those rare but shimmering moments when the show is both funny and politically relevant. At issue: Family Guy, and the cartoon portrayal of the prophet Muhammad of Islam.

First, the funny, wherein Family Guy is taken to task. The episode (along with last week's) primarily makes fun of how Family Guy's humor mostly derives from jokes that are completely irrelevant to the plot. To illustrate this point, they explain that the writing staff of the show is comprised of several manatees in a large water tank who pick from a pile random balls with words written upon them such as "Gary Coleman" and "Mexico." These balls, when put together, create a random Family Guy joke. Funny, mocking, and (metaphorically) true.

Second, the political, wherein South Park reveals the persistent hypocrisy surrounding censorship. The basic plot of the episode is that Fox is refusing to air a Family Guy episode that shows a cartoon representation of Muhammad, and Kyle goes on a crusade to get them to change their minds. Layered above that is the obvious question of whether Comedy Central (i.e., Viacom) will let South Park itself portray Muhammad. The answer comes at the end of the episode, when Kyle finally convinces Fox to air the Family Guy episode. A rather mundane joke follows where Muhammad gives Peter a football helmet at his front door (I don't remember why), but when Muhammad is supposed to appear, white text on a black screen appears stating that Comedy Central refused to allow the portrayal of Muhammad.

They then show Al Qaeda's hypothetical response to Fox's airing of Muhammad, which you can view below. The hypocrisy being clear: the network is too scared to allow them to show Muhammad do something as mundane as handing Peter a football helmet, yet they air the below without a blink of the eye.

Censorship = Fear:

I got an email from my brother yesterday imploring me to watch the latest episode of South Park. I used to watch the show when it first started airing in 1997, but I've since stopped because the scripts tend to be unfunny and seemingly thrown together, with an offensive concept or two to bind the whole thing together. But my brother said this episode mocked Scientology and R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet" song-cycle, both of which have been the source of much of my amusement, so I had to watch.

And as I should've expected, the episode was for the most part boring and unfunny, relying heavily on the joke that Tom Cruise should come out of the closet (the one in Stan's room, not the metaphorical one). Yet, I'm glad I saw the episode nonetheless for its portrayal of Scientology. Rather than just mocking Battlefield Earth, they presented some basic tenets of Scientology virtually as they are. I say virtually because they got some facts wrong like overemphasizing the role thetans play for new inductees over engrams (thetans begin to play a much larger role after the state of clear is achieved).

But the best part of the episode is when the leader of Scientology gave Stan the origin tale of Scientology, something that most Scientologists do not learn until they've invested years and tens of thousands of dollars. The tale is something out of a sci-fi novel -- the evil alien overlord Xenu banishes a bunch of aliens to earth because his galaxy is overpopulated, and then blows them up with a nuclear bomb placed in a volcano -- but in the episode the story is recreated without a single joke, except that during the entire scene the text "This is really what Scientologists believe" is on-screen. So true. But to be fair, an animated recreation of Revelations or certain Mormon beliefs would seem as ridiculous.