'South Park' creators issue a statement about Comedy Central's censorship of the Muhammad episode

  Trey Parker and Matt Stone have released a statement in regards to last night's South Park

Earlier today, the internet was buzzing with the news that Comedy Central had edited-- or, as more than a few people happened to point out, censored-- last night's episode of South Park.  The episode was the show's 201st, and featured the image of the Prophet Muhammad in addition to some very unflattering jokes directed at Gingers and Tom Cruise.  The network had never censored an episode of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's show before, so it was quite shocking that they would have caved to threats issued by a Muslim fundamentalist website that didn't take kindly to the image of Muhammad in a bear suit.  Now, the creators of the show have issued a statement.  Will the show go on?  Are they angry?  Find out below, my gentle Examiner readers...

The mood of conversations taking place between South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker and their bosses over at Comedy Central must be pretty grim right now.  Last night, the network censored-- and heavily, at that-- the 201st episode of the show following a few threats leveled at the program by a fundamentalist Muslim website, who apparently wasn't too thrilled to see the Prophet Muhammad dressed up in a bear suit.  This morning, that's all anyone who's a fan of the show was talking about.  Here's what SouthParkStudios.com looked like this morning:

Now, a statement has been issued by the guys over at South Park.  What did they have to say about Comedy Central's surprise censorship?  Here's the full statement from SouthParkStudios.com:

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.

Well, that seems to answer the question of whether or not Stone and Parker will continue producing episodes of South Park, doesn't it?  There was a lot of speculation that the guys would-- in essence-- take their ball and go home, perhaps looking to air South Park on another network.  It's long been known that Stone and Parker aren't the biggest fans of censorship, so those that jumped to that particular conclusion could be forgiven for imagining such a scenario.  Secondly, it's interesting to learn that Kyle's speech was bleeped in full, as well.  Wonder what's up with that? 

What this means for the future of the episode in question, however, remains to be seen.  As of this writing, the episode still isn't available at SouthParkStudios.com-- which is home to every other episode of the show that's ever been produced.  The Comedy Examiner's Office also received emails from viewers who claimed that the rerun that was scheduled to take place of the episode last night was, in fact, an earlier episode from this season, something that hasn't occurred since Tom Cruise threatened a lawsuit against the "Trapped in a Closet" episode a few seasons ago.

Stay tuned for more comedy news, interviews, reviews, recaps, funny videos, amusing pictures, and more from the Comedy Examiner's Office in the near future, folks.  If you're so inclined, feel free to hit the "Subscribe" button up top to get all the Comedy Examiner's articles delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge, the moment they go live.  If that's too big a commitment for you, check out some of these other recent Comedy Examiner articles:

COMEDY CENTRAL CENSORS THE 201ST EPISODE OF "SOUTH PARK" FOLLOWING DEATH THREATS AGAINST THE SHOW'S CREATORS-- in which Comedy Central totally wusses out in the face of a simple assassination threat.  Way to give in to demands, Comedy Central.

COMEDY EXAMINER COMMENTARY: "LOST" FANS, IT'S TIME TO CHILL THE HELL OUT WITH THE CONSPIRACY THEORIES-- in which the Comedy Examiner gives all the LOST fans of the world a stern talking-to.  Including himself.

FUNNY VIDEO: WILLIAM SHATNER PERFORMS "TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE HEART" WITH TAIWANESE SINGING SENSATION LIN YU CHUN (WITH VIDEO)-- in which Shatner turns out to be the least-qualified guy to sing "Total Eclipse of The Heart" since...well, ever, really.  Bonus: the other dude can really belt it out.

FUNNY VIDEO: PATRICK SWAYZE AND "IRON MAN" DO A LITTLE "DIRTY DANCING" (WITH VIDEO)-- in which the title says it all, and nobody puts Tony Stark in the corner.

(photos: top-- screencap, middle-- moonbattery.com, bottom-- myspace.com)