As happens from time to time, Jon Stewart last night mixed solemnity with humor, responding to Comedy Central's decision to censor a South Park episode which pretended to depict the prophet Mohammed in a bear suit (apparently, it was actually Santa Claus beneath the fur).

Stewart dismissed the network's censorship mostly as an attempt to protect its employees, who had received veiled death threats regarding the episode. The authors of the threats, a radical Muslim group in New York, were the real targets on The Daily Show, as Stewart joined those already speaking out against the group. After playing clip after clip of Comedy Central shows mocking other religions and asking Daily Show correspondent and Muslim Aasif Mandvi how he personally felt about the mock depiction, Stewart gave the extremists his new favorite treatment: mockery by gospel choir. 

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Heather Horn