brave [little] meme

This is not the first time Hulu has had to pull an episode of a show, but what’s interesting about this one is the reaction the action provoked.

The Family Guy episode in question deals with two sub-plots: Atheism, and Star Trek. Now, which of these two is likely to have caused the pull? My bet would be on simple copyright issues, as stated by Hulu themselves, but some suspect the foul hand of Christian Fundamentalism at work. 

This seemingly paranoid reaction may have something to do with past experience: the show South Park has often been the target of religion-based calls for episodes to be banned, both with regards to Islam as well as the cult of Scientology (and no, Scientology is not a religion no matter what you say).

It therefore should come as no surprise that, despite the availability of other perfectly reasonable explanations, people would choose to single out religion as the likely cause of this small act of censorship. Life, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony.