South Park has courted controversy since its inception. The long-running animated series began its life as a series of shorts created via construction paper and passed around via VHS copies, the second of which featured the iconic fight between Jesus and Santa Claus over who had the rights to Christmas. When it was finally ordered to series, they wasted no time following a similar path, such as the very first episode, “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,” which eventually led to “Mecha-Streisand” and other wildly out of pocket moments in the first season. Across 28 seasons, they’ve never once pulled their punches or slowed down.
Today, though, marks the anniversary of a distinct place in the history of South Park‘s many controversies, as it marks the first time that the series was ever censored upon its initial premiere, with an episode that remains banned to this day. On April 21, 2010, sixteen years ago today, South Park released the episode “201,” which not only marked the 201st episode of the series total but picked up on several major plot threads from throughout the series. Among those threads was the use of the Prophet Muhammad, which stirred a hornet’s nest, with death threats made at the creators and resulting in the parent company actively engaging in censorship.
South Park Episode “201” Was Controversial Before It Even Aired
“201” picks up from the cliffhanger of “200,” the episode that initially spurred the controversy around South Park. In that episode, a group of celebrities threatens a lawsuit against the town but offers a solution to settle: bring them the Prophet Muhammad. The town is naturally wary of this, as depicting Muhammad is forbidden in the Muslim religion and was believed to be the source of violent retaliation. All across “200,” Muhammad is never actually seen, only heard from behind a closed door or inside a giant costume, but ahead of its premiere, it was believed that “201” would go all the way and reveal Muhammad entirely.
This was, of course, a quite silly controversy at the time, because South Park had already depicted Muhammad in a past episode, all the way back in the Season Five episode, “Super Best Friends,” where his appearance spurred no controversy. Despite this, Revolution Muslim (a defunct radical organization out of New York) wrote a vaguely threatening post 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 short critical of the treatment of women in Islam). That, combined with the larger belief by media companies not to depict Muhammad, immediately created a firestorm, splitting the sides between “South Park shouldn’t do that” and “South Park should have the freedom to do that.”
As a result, a lot of eyes were on “201” when it arrived, with the episode earning higher viewership than episode 200. When the episode aired, though, it arrived with multiple moments of censorship, with every mention of “Muhammad” bleeped out, the character himself covered by a giant black “Censored” bar, and the final monologue to wrap up the storyline also censored (with more than thirty seconds of the episode fully censored, including multiple characters).
Initially, some believed that the censored elements of the series were part of the joke, only for the South Park team to confirm the next day that all of these decisions were made after they delivered the episode to Paramount/Viacom. In a statement on their South Park Studios website, the team confirmed that Comedy Central “added the bleeps” to the episode, including Kyle’s big line that itself was about succumbing to the fear of the threat of violence.
“I learned something today. Throughout this whole ordeal, 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 terrorizing people works.”
South Park’s “201” Remains Banned
After its premiere on April 21, 2010, “201” was removed from the rotation of syndicated episodes of South Park and never re-aired in the United States, something it still hasn’t done. Not only did it not return to air ever again, but the episode was pulled from South Park Studios, where fans could stream episodes of the show uncensored. As you may expect, the episode wasn’t available on the platform at all, even with the censored elements. “201” was included on the DVD release of the seasons, though they included the censored elements. The uncensored version of “201” eventually leaked online and can easily be found on the internet to this day. Even now, though, “201” remains unavailable for streaming; the episode also can’t even be purchased online through digital platforms.
Across its 28 seasons with over 334 episodes total, plus a feature film and seven streaming specials, South Park only has five episodes that are banned from airing on TV or even streaming. This was true when the series was on HBO Max and since then, when it migrated back to Paramount+, and the irony is that all five episodes have something in common. In addition to “201,” the banned episodes of South Park include “200,” plus the previously mentioned “Super Best Friends” and the two-part “Cartoon Wars Part I” and “Cartoon Wars Part II.” As you can guess, all five episodes depict or feature Muhammad.
It’s telling that across its hundreds of episodes, and the countless controversies it has courted and the various organizations and countries it has angered, there’s still only one line that South Park has crossed, according to its parent company. For fans that know where to look, though, the materials are all there, which is proof that censorship of this caliber is a toothless endeavor, especially when part of the censorship goes against the message of the story too.
