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By Dave Lake
MSN TV
EDITOR'S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING FEATURE CONTAINS VIDEO AND DISCUSSION OF
AN ADULT NATURE.
Trying to choose the 10 most controversial "South
Park" episodes is like trying to choose the worst Rob Schneider movie -- there are just so many to choose
from. But as the show begins its 13th season, on March 11 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on
Comedy Central, we thought we'd round up the episodes that have generated the
most publicity over the years. And there have been a lot of them. Right from the
get-go, this scathing satire, centered on four kids from South Park elementary,
built a reputation on being an equal-opportunity offender, leaving no stone
unturned and no topic too taboo. Many learning institutions in turn banned the
show's merchandise from their grounds, and several countries have banned the
show's broadcast entirely (we're looking at you, former Soviet Union), no
doubt stoking the fires of its brainchildren, Trey Parker and Matt Stone. There were many amazingly
offensive and amazingly hilarious episodes to go through, but we were up to the
challenge of finding our 10 favorites, and we present them to you here with
clips from each.
Episode: "Trapped in
the Closet"
Season: 9
Controversy:
The mother (or should we say motherf---er) of all controversial "South Park"
episodes is no doubt this one, which skewers Scientology, Tom Cruise, John Travolta, and R. Kelly in one fell swoop. Dubbed Closetgate, Comedy
Central, a network owned by Viacom, pulled a rerun of this Emmy-nominated
episode, supposedly under pressure from Tom Cruise, who threatened to bail out
of promoting his upcoming film "Mission: Impossible III," which was being released
by Paramount, a division of Viacom. Isaac Hayes, who had long performed the voice of Chef on the
series, and who also happened to be a Scientologist, quit the show abruptly just
days prior to this episode's broadcast. He later returned, and this
episode has seen multiple reruns.
Episode: "The China
Probrem"
Season: 12
Controversy: The
episode implies that "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull" is a raping of the franchise by having the film's star, Harrison Ford, literally raped several times in the episode
by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg in an variety of famous movie rape scenes.
Favorite "South Park" haters the Parents Television Council cited the episode
for "exploiting the sensitive topic of rape for a trivial movie
satire."
Episode: "It Hits the
Fan"
Season: 5
Controversy: Inspired
by the saucy language of ABC's "NYPD
Blue," the episode opens with the gang talking about "Cop Drama," a network
show planning to air a scene with an uncensored S-word in it. "South Park"
then drops 162 uncensored S-bombs -- that's one every eight seconds -- for
the remainder of its 22 minutes, with a counter at the bottom of the screen
keeping track of each one. But aside from the gratuitous use of language, the
episode ponders a larger question: Why is it considered offensive when an
animated comedy pushes the envelope via edgy language, while a serious drama
doing the same thing is considered art? Another episode, titled "With Apologies
to Jesse Jackson," pulled a similar stunt using the N-word.
Episode: "Mr. Hankey,
the Christmas Poo"
Season:
1
Controversy: A Russian Pentecostal organization demanded
that the Russian government revoke the license of the nation's oldest private
entertainment channel after it aired this Christmas-themed classic from the
show's first season featuring a singing, hat-wearing turd. The
organization's appeal was flushed and the station's license was
kept.
Episode: "Jared Has
Aides"
Season: 6
Controversy: After
Jared Fogle, the spokesman for Subway restaurants, visits South Park to discuss
his weight loss, the boys misunderstand his methods for losing weight. Fogle
explains it was a series of appointments with his personal trainer and his
dietitian, his aides, which the boys misinterpret as his AIDS. The rest of the
episode's plot revolves around Butters, South Park's favorite overweight kid,
and his abuse at the hands of his parents after they think he's attempted a
liposuction surgery on himself at home. Ironically, Comedy Central banned
the episode, not due to its AIDS-related material, but due to its portrayal of
Butters being abused by his parents.
Episode: "Scott
Tenorman Must Die"
Season:
5
Controversy: Consistently voted one of the show's most
popular and most outrageous episodes by fans, "Scott Tenorman Must Die" is
notable both for the appearance of the band Radiohead as themselves (most celebrities are
impersonated on the show) and the depths with which Cartman will go to seek
revenge. In this case, feeding the titular character chili made from the remains
of his parents. It is also, according to Stone and Parker, the first and only
episode to not have two plots.
Episode: "Terrance
& Phillip in Not Without My Anus"
Season:
2
Controversy: Conceived as an April Fools' Day prank, and
fueled by the generous publicity received by the Season 1 cliffhanger, the
second season premiere, which was intended to answer the question of who
Cartman's parents were, instead focused on an unrelated episode involving the
show-within-the-show characters of Terrance and Phillip. Fans were outraged, and
as such Comedy Central pushed Parker and Stone to quickly create the real
episode, which they did, and which aired three weeks later.
Episode: "Bloody
Mary"
Season: 9
Controversy: The
Catholic League protested the episode because of its depiction of a Virgin Mary
statue bleeding from its rectum. It originally aired on Dec. 7, 2005, the night
before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, a Catholic holiday relating to
the Virgin Mary. There were conflicting reports that Comedy Central had agreed
to not rerun the episode, however the network denies ever having agreed to such
a demand. There was also outrage in New Zealand, where the nation's
Catholic Bishops' Conference attempted, unsuccessfully, to stop the episode from
airing.
Episode: "Hell on
Earth 2006"
Season: 10
Controversy:
In the episode, a guest at a Halloween costume party shows up as wildlife expert
Steve Irwin with a stingray barb sticking out of his chest.
After being confronted for wearing such a tacky costume, the guest turns out to
be Irwin himself, and is subsequently removed from the party for not wearing a
costume. The episode aired just weeks after Irwin died from having a stingray
spine puncture his lung while filming a segment for a television show. Shortly
after the episode aired, a friend of the Irwin family issued a statement saying
the episode "goes too far too soon."
Episode: "Cartoon
Wars Part II"
Season:
10
Controversy: In 2005, after a Danish newspaper published
a series controversial editorial cartoons featuring the Islamic prophet Mohammed
that sparked violence in several countries, Comedy Central censored a photo from
the episode that depicted the prophet appearing on an episode of "Family
Guy." In its place, the show ran a title card reading "Comedy Central
has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network." Aside from the
political overtones, the episode also takes aim at "Family Guy" and its writers,
as well as a network executive named Doug, presumably a dig at Doug
Herzog, president of Comedy Central.
What is your favorite outrageous "South Park" episode? Write us at heymsn@microsoft.com and let us
know.
