“South Park” is known for its lewd and offensive humor, and that’s part of what makes the animated series such a fan favorite. While viewers are loving the ability to check out the entire series on HBO Max, there are five “South Park” episodes missing because they’re actually illegal to watch.
- You can’t find the episodes anywhere online. Well, that is, not on any legitimate streaming sites. You could probably find them on torrenting sites and other private networks (but you didn’t hear that from us).
- So, what makes these “South Park” episodes illegal? It’s all down to the depiction of religious figures, which is too offensive to air. In one of the episodes, “Super Best Friends,” Stan, Cartman, Kenny, and Kyle work with Jesus Christ to take down David Blaine.
- Were the episodes really that bad? In “Cartoon Wars” parts one and two, Kyle and Cartman get in a fight over an episode of “Family Guy” that was going to show the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. Because depictions of the Prophet are prohibited, he’s never shown on screen, but the plotline alone was enough to have the episodes pulled. There were two other episodes that ridiculed Muhammad as well, but Comedy Central pulled the episodes soon after. “We were protecting everyone who works here. That was the decision we needed to make,” former Comedy Central head Doug Herzog said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. “That was the hardest we’ve ever pushed back [over the show’s content].”
- “South Park” was known for being deliberately provocative. However, did it really need to be deliberately offensive? Whether or not you prescribe to a given faith, doing things that you know are prohibited or frowned upon simply to get a rise out of a given community is inappropriate in many people’s eyes, not to mention immature. You don’t have to share someone’s faith to respect it, right? Clearly, “South Park” didn’t get the memo.
