16 Years Ago, South Park’s Most Controversial Episode Premiered (And It’s Still Banned in 2026)
South Park has courted controversy since its inception. The long-running animated collection started its life as a collection of shorts created through development paper and handed round through VHS copies, the second of which featured the enduring combat between Jesus and Santa Claus over who had the rights to Christmas. When it was lastly ordered to collection, they wasted no time following an analogous path, such because the very first episode, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,” which finally led to “Mecha-Streisand” and different wildly out of pocket moments in the primary season. Across 28 seasons, they’ve by no means as soon as pulled their punches or slowed them down.
Today, although, marks the anniversary of a definite place in the historical past of south park‘s many controversies, because it marks the primary time that the collection was ever censored upon its preliminary premiere, with an episode that continues to be banned to today. On April 21, 2010, sixteen years in the past at this time, south park launched the episode “201,” which not solely marked the 201st episode of the collection whole however picked up on a number of main plot threads from all through the collection. Among these threads was using the Prophet Muhammad, who stirred a hornet’s nest, with demise threats made on the creators and ensuing in the father or mother firm actively participating in censorship.
South Park Episode “201” Was Controversial Before It Even Aired
“201” picks up from the cliffhanger of “200,” the episode that originally spurred the controversy round south park. In that episode, a bunch of celebrities threatens a lawsuit in opposition to the city however presents an answer to settle: carry them the Prophet Muhammad. The city is of course cautious of this, as depicting Muhammad is forbidden in the Muslim faith and was believed to be the supply of violent retaliation. All throughout “200,” Muhammad isn’t really seen, solely heard from behind a closed door or inside an enormous costume, however forward of its premiere, it was believed that “201” would go all the best way and reveal Muhammad completely.
This was, after all, a fairly foolish controversy on the time, as a result of south park had already depicted Muhammad in a previous episode, all the best way again in the Season Five episode, “Super Best Friends,” the place his look spurred no controversy. Despite this, Revolution Muslim (a defunct radical group out of New York) wrote a vaguely threatening publish about it, saying that what creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone “are doing is stupid and they will probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh for airing this show” (Theo Van Gogh was a Dutch filmmaker murdered after directing a brief criticism of the remedy of ladies in Islam). That, mixed with the bigger perception by media corporations to not depict Muhammad, instantly created a firestorm, splitting the edges between “South Park shouldn’t do that” and “South Park should have the freedom to do that.”
As a end result, a whole lot of eyes had been on “201” when it arrived, with the episode incomes increased viewership than episode 200. When the episode aired, although, it arrived with a number of moments of censorship, with each point out of “Muhammad” bleeped out, the character himself lined by an enormous black “Censored” bar, and the ultimate monologue to wrap up the additionally censored storyline (with greater than thirty seconds of the absolutely censored episode, together with a number of characters).
Initially, some believed that the censored components of the collection had been a part of the joke, just for the south park staff to substantiate the subsequent day that every one of those choices had been made after they delivered the episode to Paramount/Viacom. In a press release on their South Park Studios web site, the staff confirmed that Comedy Central “added the bleeps” to the episode, together with Kyle’s huge line that itself was about succumbing to the worry of the specter of violence.
“I learned something today. Throughout this whole order, we’ve all wanted to show things that we weren’t allowed to show, but it wasn’t because of some magic goo. It was because of the magical power of threatening people with violence. That’s obviously the only true power. If there’s anything we’ve all learned, it’s that terrifying people works.”
South Park’s “201” Remains Banned
After its premiere on April 21, 2010, “201” was faraway from the rotation of syndicated episodes of south park and by no means re-aired in the United States, one thing it nonetheless hasn’t finished. Not solely did it not return to air ever once more, however the episode was pulled from South Park Studios, the place followers may stream uncensored episodes of the present. As it’s possible you’ll anticipate, the episode wasn’t accessible on the platform in any respect, even with the censored components. “201” was included on the DVD launch of the seasons, though they included the censored components. The uncensored model of “201” finally leaked on-line and might simply be discovered on the web to today. Even now, although, “201” stays unavailable for streaming; the episode can also’t even be bought on-line by way of digital platforms.
Across its 28 seasons with over 334 episodes whole, plus a characteristic movie and 7 streaming specials, south park It solely has 5 episodes which might be banned from airing on TV and even streaming. This was true when the collection was on HBO Max and since then, when it migrated again to Paramount+, and the irony is that every one 5 episodes have one thing in frequent. In addition to “201,” the banned episodes south park embody “200,” plus the beforehand talked about “Super Best Friends” and the two-part “Cartoon Wars Part I” and “Cartoon Wars Part II.” As you possibly can guess, all 5 episodes depict or characteristic Muhammad.
It’s telling that throughout its tons of of episodes, and the numerous controversies it has courted and the varied organizations and international locations it has angered, there’s nonetheless just one line that south park has crossed, based on its father or mother firm. For followers that know the place to look, although, the supplies are all there, which is proof that censorship of this caliber is a toothless endeavor, particularly when a part of the censorship goes in opposition to the message of the story too.
