There Are Currently 5 South Park Episodes Missing From Max

HBO Has Removed Several South Park Episodes From Its Streaming Service

Many banned South Park episodes have surfaced on streaming services since they were deemed unfit to be broadcast on TV, but there are still five South Park episodes not on Max. Initially, 18 South Park episodes were banned in the past, but 13 of those have become available since. However, there are still 5 episodes of South Park that aren't available for streaming:

Even though these banned South Park episodes instantly became fan favorites when they first aired on television, it's unlikely that they will ever be available on any streaming service. Even though there is a clear public outcry for them, they'll likely remain banned for the foreseeable future, but there are less-than-legal ways of finding them online.

Super Best Friends

Season 5, Episode 3

South Park season 5, episode 3, "Super Best Friends," aired on Comedy Central in 2001, and flew largely under the radar for quite a while. In the banned South Park episode, famous magician David Blaine comes to the small Colorado town and starts a cult known as "Blainetology," a very clear dig at Scientology that leads to Chef leaving South Park. After Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman the rest of the "Blainetologists," Stan starts to realize that the cult isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

After unsuccessfully trying to convince his friends they've been brainwashed, Stan calls upon a Justice League parody of superheroes known as the "Super Best Friends," to help free the town from Blaine's planned mass suicide. The kicker is, the Super Best Friends are just the heads of the world's most popular religions (and Aquaman, or rather "Sea Man"). The team consists of Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Krishna, Joseph Smith, Laozi, and the Islamic prophet Muhammed.

When the banned South Park episode aired, the South Park creators surprisingly received little to no backlash. That is, however, until episodes "200" and "201" came out. One of HBO Max's many removed properties, the episode is absent because it depicts Muhammed. While nothing in the Qu'ran explicitly states that the prophet can't be put into an image, supplemental hadith texts ban drawing his image. Therefore, most Muslims simply stay away from depicting prophets. Though "Super Best Friends" got away with it in the early 2000s, it's now one of the banned South Park episodes not on Max.

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Cartoon Wars Part I & II

Season 10, Episodes 3 & 4

One key event in 2005 sparked one of the most infamous banned South Park episodes. South Park season 10, episodes 3 and 4, "Cartoon Wars Part I & II," see the town in a panic after Family Guy announces that they will be showing the prophet Muhammed in the series. Cartman decides that airing Muhammed as a character is offensive to Muslims, and goes on a journey to Hollywood to stop them, continuing South Park's long-running feud with Family Guy. Kyle follows him there and attempts to urge the head of Fox to air the Family Guy episode as an exercise of free speech.

"Cartoon Wars Part I & II" is inspired by the Jyllands-Posten Muhammed cartoons controversy, in which a Danish newspaper published cartoons featuring Muhammed in 2005, sparking protests across the globe and even violence and riots in places like Benghazi. The episode, which aired in 2006, was initially set to be the first episode of the season. However, South Park creators got into a feud with Comedy Central over depicting Muhammed, so they pushed the episode back.

While one of South Park's many controversial episodes was in production, Comedy Central still hadn't approved major portions of "Cartoon Wars Part I & II." Therefore, upon its release, they aired the episode with a black title card over the Muhammed sequence, and it is unsurprisingly not on Max. "Cartoon Wars Part I & II" garnered a lot of attention for its censorship. That said, it was more well-known for lampooning Family Guy. Parker and Stone were not happy about the censorship, claiming the network was hypocritical, as most other religions were considered fair game, but Islam was not.

200 & 201

Season 14, Episodes 5 & 6

Stone and Parker found themselves in a whirlwind of trouble after the South Park episodes "200" and "201" aired, and they are also South Park episodes HBO removed from Max. Like the other three banned episodes, season 14's "200" and "201" still aired on Comedy Central but were heavily censored. "200" and "201" saw celebrities the show had previously mocked return to town, including Tom Cruise, Rob Reiner, Steven Spielberg, Kanye West, Paris Hilton, George Lucas, Mel Gibson, and Barbra Streisand.

Cruise recruits 200 celebrities to bring a class action lawsuit against South Park for defamation in the banned South Park episode. Cruise agrees to drop the suit, but only if he can meet the prophet Muhammed. The two-part arc sees the Super Best Friends again, Mecha-Streisand, and Cartman's Mitch Conner, along with yet another depiction of the prophet Muhammed. One of South Park's biggest mistakes was deciding to air out all the controversy they'd garnered over the years in a two-parter, and it had repercussions.

Kyle's ending speech is censored with one very long audio bleep. Muhammed is covered with a big black box, Muhammed's name is covered by audio bleeps, and the episodes can't be streamed on Max. All of this censorship aside, the episodes received attention from several extremist groups, who hurled very real death threats at both South Park creators and Comedy Central. Upon the airing of "201," NY state police even beefed up security around the studio because they feared extremist attacks. "201," in particular, has never re-aired in the United States.

Where Can You Watch The Missing South Park Episodes

You Can't Stream Them

Not only has HBO pulled the five banned South Park episodes from Max, but they are also absent from the South Park Studios website. Whenever an episode is ed through less-than-legal means, it gets taken down almost immediately. There's no way to watch these five South Park episodes not on HBO Max. However, the only place where you can see these episodes is on DVD boxed sets of the seasons in which they initially aired. They are still censored as they were on TV but the episodes are there.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are probably used to threats at this point, but the outcry that "200" and "201" prompted, in particular, was too much for Comedy Central to handle. Therefore, these five banned South Park episodes have never made it to streaming services due to public safety.

Several TV Shows Have Episodes Missing From Streaming

The Simpsons, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia, And Other Beloved Sitcoms Have Had Movies Removed From Streaming

South Park is known for pushing boundaries with its humor, but there are a surprising number of popular shows that have also been forced to remove episodes in the past. One of the few animated series with a longer legacy on television than South Park, The Simpsons has banned several episodes in the past, many of them in international countries. However, one notable example of an episode that is no longer available on Disney+ is season 3's "Stark Raving Dad."

The episode is best known for featuring Michael Jackson as a guest star, but it was allegations against Jackson that led to the show's removal. Following the 2019 release of the documentary Leaving Neverland, which details the allegations against Jackson of child sexual assault, the episode was pulled from Disney+.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is another show that seems to court controversy, deliberately making shows that comment on hot-button topics. However, with five It's Always Sunny episodes no longer available to stream, it is clear that some feel the show has gone too far in the past. The most common reason behind these episodes being pulled is the use of blackface, especially in episodes like "The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6."

This emerged as a common reason for several sitcom episodes being pulled from streaming in recent years. There was a public discourse about the ugly history of blackface and the fact that many shows continue to use it. While many people argued these shows are commenting on the use of blackface itself rather than using it to demean anyone, shows like Community and 30 Rock pulled episodes for the same reason. Whether people agree with the reasoning, South Park remains in good company among shows with banned episodes.

South Park

TV-MA

Animation

Comedy

8/10

63

8.6/10

Release Date

August 13, 1997

8/10

63

8.6/10

South Park follows the irreverent misadventures of four grade-schoolers—Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny—that take place in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado. The animated series explores various social and political issues through its characters' humorous and often absurd escapades.

Cast

Karri Turner, Matt Stone, Trey Parker, Isaac Hayes, Mary Kay Bergman, Mona Marshall, Eliza Schneider, Sebastian Yu, Jessie Jo Thomas, Milan Agnone, Jennifer Howell, April Stewart, Ronnie James Dio, Peter Serafinowicz, Jonathan Kimmel, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Castellaneta, Meat Loaf, Malcolm McDowell, Norman Lear, Tommy Chong, Gian Ganziano, Thom Yorke, Kyle McCulloch, Robert Smith

Showrunner

Trey Parker

Seasons

26

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