And that’s just the tip of this iceberg of tastelessness. Icebox.com, the newly launched flash animation site that runs Mr. Wong, has enough coarse content to offend everyone. (In the show “Hard Drinkin’ Lincoln,” for instance, the former president jokes that the last time he was drunk he freed the slaves.) The cofounders–veterans of shows like “King of the Hill” and “The Simpsons”–started the Web site in part as an incubator for edgy shows that can be sold to network and cable producers. They know there’s a precedent: push-the-envelope programs like “The Simpsons” and “South Park” have trash-talked their way into popular culture. (Mr. Wong’s creators are both former writers for “South Park.”) As the Net becomes an ever more influential testing ground for mainstream media, it is raising new questions about the boundaries of creative expression.
Mr. Wong is perhaps the most insulting character in the Icebox.com gallery. A coalition of Asian-American groups is trying to get the show pulled from the Net, calling Mr. Wong an amalgamation of hate-fueled racist stereotypes. They charge that the show is not just offensive but dangerous. The site’s core audience, young men between the ages of 15 and 25, are the primary perpetrators of hate crimes against Asians. The protesters say if the show were based on similarly vulgar stereotypes of blacks or Jews, it would never have gotten off the ground. “You wouldn’t see a show like that, because they know it wouldn’t sell,” says civil-rights activist Karen Narasaki, one of the organizers of the campaign against the series. “What does it say about the perception of Asian-Americans that they thought this had the potential to be a hit?”
The site’s founders are unrepentant. “Our intent is entertainment,” says CEO Steve Stanford. “We believe in complete creative freedom, and we won’t censor material.” For now they’ve put the show on a routine hiatus, but they say the final decision about whether to continue the series will be left to the writers. And the truth is, if Icebox froze it out, any number of sites would pick up Mr. Wong in an instant.
