Anyone watching South Park last night may have noticed that there were at least a few more audio bleeps than usual, as well as some unfamiliar censorship blocks. That’s because, as the New York Times reports, the subject matter is making for some warmer water than South Park Studios is typically used to, thanks in large part to their depiction of the Prophet Muhammad.
Last week, South Park aired their 200th episode. Without getting too into the plot details, the episode sent up a number of past storylines and controversies, most notably the depiction of the Islamic Prophet. Bear suits were involved. You get the idea. Though it wasn’t the Prophet’s first appearance, it was, however, the first time an episode resulted in what are being called death threats toward series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Revolution Muslim, a New York-based organization, posted on their site after “200”‘s airing that Parker and Stone risked winding up “like Theo Van Gogh.” Van Gogh was killed in Amsterdam in 2004 after making a film about the abuses of Muslim women. The group site was not up at the time of this writing.
As a result, episode 201 was more heavily censored by Comedy Central and will not air on SouthParkStudios.com. In its place appears the following:
After we delivered the show, and prior to broadcast, Comedy Central placed numerous additional bleeps throughout the episode. We do not have network approval to stream our original version of the show.
Parker and Stone did state, however, that they are working on getting a version of 201 up as soon as they can. And they should. Seriously, Cartman killed his own dad? Oooops!
