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Comedy Central aired the 201st episode of Matt Stone and Trey Parker's South Park last night. The episode was a continuation of the storyline from the 200th episode which was about Muhammad and how people don't make fun of him because of religious fanatics.

When I sat down to watch the episode, I was shocked at the level of censorship.  Unlike the 200th episode, the 201st featured tons of bleeps; especially whenever they said Muhammad.  I was left wondering whether the complete change in the censorship was a joke in itself.  Today Stone and Parker released a statement.  Hit the jump for more:

In the 14 years we've been doing South Park we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central and they made a determination to alter the episode. It wasn't some meta-joke on our part. Comedy Central added the bleeps. In fact, Kyle's customary final speech was about intimidation and fear. It didn't mention Muhammad at all but it got bleeped too. We'll be back next week with a whole new show about something completely different and we'll see what happens to it.

So now that it's been cleared up, I can't seem to understand how this happened.  South Park is one of the most offensive shows on television, but at the same time no one can really feel taken advantage of because there are no taboos as far as the show's content is concerned.  So why is Comedy Central taking this wishy washy stand against the creators of one of the biggest shows on television?  Let's hope that this misunderstanding between the creators and the station is cleared up and no more unnecessary censorship ruins what is probably great television for us (the audience).

(via South Park Studios)

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