‘South Park’ Creators Mock Chinese Government Following Series Ban: “We Too Love Money More Than Freedom”

South Park‘s Matt Stone and Trey Parker are sorry. Kind of. Following last week’s (October 2) blistering takedown of China’s human right violations and Hollywood’s complicity in them, the Comedy Central show was scrubbed from the Chinese internet. In true South Park fashion Stone and Parker begged for forgiveness in a statement claiming that they too “love money more than freedom and democracy.”

A recurring joke throughout Season 23’s “Band in China” revolved around Winnie-the-Pooh. The fictional Disney bear that was banned by Chinese censors after bloggers repeatedly compared the bear to President Xi Jinping. As expected, that led to South Park literally and graphically murdering the honey-loving bear at the end of its latest episode. And that didn’t go well.

In response to the savage episode that heavily criticized the Chinese government for its censorship practices, said government deleted almost every South Park episode, clip, social media account, and even fan pages from the country’s internet. According to The Hollywood Reporter, all mentions of the show have been erased from China’s Twitter-like social media service Weibo as well as the streaming service Youku.

Stone and Parker knew what they were getting into when they made the controversial episode. After all, they named it “Band in China.” The result is right there in the name, and true to form the creators don’t seem to care that they’ve actually been banned in China. In a statement tweeted by the official South Park Twitter handle, the creators wrote “Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts,” before adding “Xi doesn’t look just like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10!”

Season 23’s “Band in China” felt like a return to form for the series. The episode revolved around both Randy Marsh and his son Stan trying to sell products to the Chinese people, knowing that they were the greatest chance for making a profit. For Randy that meant selling ‘tegridy, his brand of weed. And in Stan’s case that was selling a music biopic for his recently formed metal band that was Chinese censor-approved.

As silly as all of this sounds, what “Band in China” really was, was a ruthless examination of Hollywood’s hypocrisy when it comes to China. The episode repeatedly targeted Disney in its wrath. Though Hollywood, one of the United States of America’s biggest industries, talks up a big game about the importance of freedom and acceptance in art, more big blockbusters are being intentionally edited to please Chinese censors in an attempt to make money overseas. This is happening while the world at large is well aware of the Chinese government’s long history of human rights violations. And as South Park reminded viewers again and again, from Star Wars to Marvel movies, all of your favorite franchises are at least a little bit complicit. Looks like South Park is officially back.

New episodes of South Park Season 23 premiere on Comedy Central Wednesdays at 10/9c.

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