dailyloe.com – Sixteen years ago today, on April 21, 2010, South Park released the episode ‘201.’ It marked the 201st episode of the series and the first time the show was censored upon its initial premiere. The episode remains banned to this day.
‘201’ picked up from the cliffhanger of ‘200,’ the episode that initially spurred the controversy. In that episode, a group of celebrities threatens a lawsuit against the town. They offer a solution: bring them the Prophet Muhammad.
The town is wary of this, as depicting Muhammad is forbidden in the Muslim religion. It was believed to be the source of violent retaliation. Across ‘200,’ Muhammad is never actually seen, only heard from behind a closed door or inside a giant costume.
Ahead of ‘201’s premiere, it was believed the episode would go all the way and reveal Muhammad entirely. This was a quite silly controversy at the time, because South Park had already depicted Muhammad in a past episode. That was 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. The post said that what creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were doing stirred a hornet’s nest. Death threats were made at the creators, and the parent company actively engaged in censorship.
South Park has courted controversy since its inception. The long-running animated series began as a series of shorts created via construction paper and passed around via VHS copies. The second short featured the iconic fight between Jesus and Santa Claus over who had the rights to Christmas.
When it was finally ordered to series, the creators wasted no time following a similar path. The very first episode, ‘Cartman Gets an Anal Probe,’ led to ‘Mecha-Streisand’ and other wildly out of pocket moments in the first season. Across 28 seasons, they have never once pulled their punches or slowed down.
Today marks the anniversary of a distinct place in the history of South Park’s many controversies. It is the first time the series was ever censored upon its initial premiere. The episode remains banned to this day.
