201 (South Park)
| "201" | |
|---|---|
| South Park episode | |
Kyle gives a satirical speech about the effectiveness of threats and violence. During the original broadcast and DVD release of the episode the speech is completely obscured with a continuous audio bleep. Muhammad is visually obscured by a black box. Comedy Central was responsible for censoring the audio, drawing heavy criticism from audiences who felt the network did so in response to Muslim violence threats.
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| Episode no. | Season 14 Episode 6 |
| Directed by | Trey Parker |
| Written by | Trey Parker |
| Featured music | "Time of the Season" by The Zombies |
| Production code | 1406 |
| Original air date | April 21, 2010 |
"201" is the sixth episode of the fourteenth season of South Park, and the 201st overall episode of the series. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 21, 2010. The episode continued multiple storylines from the previous episode, "200", in which a group of angry celebrities demand South Park produce the Muslim prophet Muhammad. In "201", a superhero-like group of religious figures team up to save South Park from the celebrities and their monster Mecha-Streisand, while Eric Cartman learns the true identity of his father.
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. Like "200", it alludes to several past storylines and controversies from previous South Park episodes, especially Comedy Central's refusal to show images of Muhammad on the network following controversies in 2005 and 2007 when cartoons depicting Muhammad ran in European newspapers, resulting in riots and threats. Prior to the broadcast of "201", the radical Muslim organization Revolution Muslim posted a warning on their website that Parker and Stone risked being murdered for their depiction of Muhammad. Comedy Central modified Parker and Stone's version of the episode, obscuring all images and bleeping all references to Muhammad—to the effect of disruptively obscuring the entire two-minute moral conclusion of the story. Nevertheless, both "200" and "201" were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2010.
The censorship drew strong criticism of Comedy Central. Critics said that the network's action would encourage further threats from radical groups. "201" was not shown in repeats, has not been made available on the South Park website, and has not been shown in Sweden, Hungary, Australia or the Netherlands. In most places the episode "Sexual Healing" was shown instead of episode 201. In the United Kingdom, some parts were removed, and a short on-screen message appears, stating the outline of the removed parts and "MTV (on Viva)" or "Comedy Central" "...has refused to air an image of Muhammad on their network". According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 3.5 million viewers, making it the most watched cable television program of the night.
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