The most controversial episode of ‘South Park’ ever made
For the most part, cartoons are usually reserved for children’s programming, with stations like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon dominating the Spongebob Squarepants, Adventure Time and Samurai Jack. But, as interest in subversive cartoons grew in the late 1990s, so too did more adult-orientated animations, which ranged from the goofy work of Family Guy to the utterly insubordinate South Park.
Indeed, ever since its first release in 1997, South Park, created by friends Trey Parker and Matt Stone, has shown little interest in following the guidelines of good taste, often going out of its way to be as incendiary as possible. Such has led to several episodes being banned across the world throughout its 27-year history, as well as celebrities depicted in the show reacting bitterly to their appearance.
Yet, there was one episode that created far more fury than any other: season 14, episode six, ‘201’.
Released as a two-part episode with ‘200’ to ‘celebrate’ making over 200 episodes of the show, the story followed a group of celebrities who demand South Park show them the prophet Muhammad while a team of superhero-like religious figures, including Jesus and Buddha, swoop in to save the town from the angry clamour. A deliberately provocative episode, the story, penned by Parker, references Comedy Central’s past refusal to show Muhammad during the controversies of 2005 when riots were sparked following the publishing of his image in European newspapers.
Much of this dissatisfaction from Parker and Stone came from the fact that Muhammad had previously been depicted in the 2001 episode ‘Super Best Friends’, yet, years later, following the global controversy, the station now refused to show his image. Instead, in response to the episode, Comedy Central bleeped out all references to the Islamic prophet and censored his appearance.
Once the first of the two-part episode aired, South Park received threats from a Muslim group who said that they would resort to violence if the prophet were ever fully depicted.
Compelled to release a statement, South Park Studios stated at the time: “In the 14 years we’ve been doing South Park, we have never done a show that we couldn’t stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central, and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn’t some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle’s customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn’t mention Muhammad at all, but it got bleeped too.”
The episode in question, ‘201’, has never again been aired in the United States following its original release and is one of the only episodes not to be available on the Comedy Central platform. To this day, it remains the most controversial South Park episode of all time by quite some distance.
