The Associated Press reports that MTV has issued an apology following outrage over the depiction of India’s revered former leader, Mohandas K. Gandhi, on the new animated series Clone High, USA.
Clone High, which doesn’t air outside of North America comically explores what might happen if mad scientists harvested DNA from historical figures and populated a high school with their teenage clones.
The fictitious Gandhi clone, known as G-Man, is the school’s resident party animal. He joins a cast of characters that includes an awkward Abe Lincoln, a womanizing John F. Kennedy, a power-hungry Cleopatra and a cynical Joan of Arc.
After lawmakers and political activists fasted at Gandhi’s memorial in protest Thursday, the cable network issued a statement saying, “MTV U.S. apologizes if we have offended the people of India and the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.”
While MTV says it regrets any offense taken by the content in the show, it defends the series, saying it is intended for U.S. audiences who are accustomed to the satirizing of public figures.
