Five episodes ofSouth Parkare missing from HBO Max’s streaming library. These include Season 5’s “Super Best Friends,” Season 10’s “Cartoon Wars Part 1” and “Cartoon Wars Part 2,” and Season 14 episodes “200” and “201.” As first highlighted byThe Hollywood Reporter, the common thread between these episodes is that all five include depictions of religious figures, including the Prophet Muhammad.
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Former Comedy Central head Doug Herzog previously commented on the censorship put in place for episodes “200” and “201” back in 2016. He explained how the episodes were censored as a point of safety after they received threats: “We were protecting everyone who works here. That was the decision we needed to make. That was the hardest we’ve ever pushed back.”
This decision didn’t sit well with co-creator Trey Parker, who admitted he was “pissed” as he felt the quality of both “200” and “201” were “really good.” This willingness to challenge censorship and boundaries has always been a key component toSouth Park’s narrative and humor and extends beyond the show itself, with Matt Stone and Trey Parker lending their sense of humor and creative vision to video games such asSouth Park: The Fractured But Wholeand mobile gameSouth Park: Phone Destroyer.In the end, however, the death threats, need to increase studio security, and the entire censorship process became so exhausting at the time thatSouth Park’s creative team decided to stop fighting the censoring and move onto the next episode.
It’s worth noting that these episodes were also unavailable on other platforms that had the rights toSouth Park’s entire episode library. Netflix, Hulu, iTunes, Comedy Central, Amazon Prime Video and even South Park Studios have not featured the episodes.
South Parkis available to watch now on HBO Max.
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