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Topics: News, Entertainment, South Park, US News, UK News
Kit Roberts
Topics: News, Entertainment, South Park, US News, UK News
The creators of South Park have cleared the air on whether they are being 'censored'.
Rumours began circulating after the hit show's writers announced they would be delaying the release of an episode this week.
The recent shooting of far-right campaigner Charlie Kirk has sparked chaos in the US, with Jimmy Kimmel Live being cancelled by its network after the host claimed that Trump's supporters were using the death of Charlie Kirk for political gain.
So it's perhaps not surprising that when the creators of South Park, a show known for its biting, close-to-the-bone satire of current events, said they would be delaying an episode, people began to speculate that they had fallen foul of censorship.
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But co-creator Matt Stone has insisted that the show has not been 'censored', despite the tense climate.
In an interview with The Denver Post, he said: “No one pulled the episode, no one censored us, and you know we’d say so if true."
So what actually happened to make the episode be delayed?
Stone candidly admitted that it was just plain old procrastination. We've all been there.
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“We just didn’t get it done," he said. "When you always cut it close, sometimes you mess up. That’s the price of being a procrastinator.”
South Park has taken its satire to whole levels in recent weeks, airing episodes depicting Donald Trump literally in bed with Satan.
The joke is a callback to an earlier gag in the series which saw former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in a similarly compromising situation with the Devil.
Another episode parodied far-right campaigner and Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk shortly before he was shot dead at a Utah college rally.
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In the episode, character Eric Cartman becomes a lampooned version of Kirk, and is seen 'master-debating college girls' in the bathroom to his mum's horror, with Cartman echoing Kirk's antagonistic style of arguing.
For his part, Kirk appeared to react positively to the episode, calling it 'hilarious' in a clip posted to YouTube.
It was Kirk's death which has prompted an outpouring of anger in the US, with Trump and his allies calling for crackdowns on the 'extreme left' in the US.
Kirk's funeral, organised by Turning Point USA, will be held on 21 September.
Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and several members of the US cabinet are expected to address the event, which will reportedly also feature voter registration drives and calls for political donations.