Some people can't take a freaking joke.

Indians (and I mean people from India, not the misnomer of Native Americans) are protesting a cartoon. That cartoon is MTV's Clone High USA, and the furor is over a teenage Mohandas Gandhi who loves to party and send "shizouts" to his friends. The argument is that this characterization is damaging to the history of Gandhi and insulting to his character.

I've seen 1½ episodes of Clone High. The concept is actually very funny, seeing what these important historical figures would be like if they were alive today. Nostradamus as the Dungeons and Dragons freak is a stroke of brilliance, if you ask me. From what I've seen, the episodes tend to revolve around Honest Abe trying to be honest with himself and his friends, and meanwhile trying to get all up in Cleopatra's hizzy, thus overlooking Joan of Arc's advances. The writing could be a little better, but the show is for late teens, so I can't hold it to a standard like The Simpsons (or Futurama, dammit). Besides, this is post 1990s MTV, and the script is just a delivery system for popular songs and guest apperances. Marilyn Manson singing about the Food Pyramid, though, was pretty boss.

Anyway, these characters are clones growing up in the 21st century. The fact that they are clones should be telling enough (look at the clone of Marie Curie). It's not like Last Temptation of Christ and the show is challenging the history that you've come to worship blindly. Who is anyone to say what Gandhi would have been like had he grown up with a cell phone and an MP3 player? Perhaps he would have grown up conflicted, having to choose between having fun or doing something to rebel against his oppressors; after all, having fun is the easier choice when we're bombarded with it from so many sources, like MTV, ironically.

Hey India: if you want to fast and protest something, how about the Cold War between you and Pakistan? You've got your own Weapons of Mass Destruction problem to deal with. That's oppressive aggression; I don't think protesting a silly cartoon is what Gandhi had in mind. In fact, I bet Gandhi would have found the caricature flattering and amusing.