To be fair to 'South Park' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, there is every chance they knew exactly what they were doing with this.
The latest episode of the provocative animated series - now in its 23rd season - saw them take on China's censorship laws, and specifically, how Western companies like Google and even the NBA are happily bending the knee to China. The episode centres on Stan, Kenny, Butters and Jimmy forming a heavy metal band that eventually ends up getting a biopic made about them before they even chart. Another subplot in the episode also sees Randy Marsh imprisoned in a Chinese work camp.
Without giving away the full plot of the episode, it takes a lot of shots at China and - sure enough - the Chinese government has responded. THR reports that every single image, episode, clip, and fan page of 'South Park' has been wiped out of existence on China's heavily regulated internet. China's own streaming services, such as Youku, has scrubbed 'South Park' from its libraries and social media platforms such as Weibo have deleted any and all references to the show.
It's no surprise, seeing as how China aggressively policed any mention of Winnie the Pooh. Why Winnie the Pooh, you ask?
In a nutshell, Chinese premier Xi Jinping had been compared to Winnie the Pooh and the comparison was enough to cause China to clamp down on the comparisons anywhere on their walled-off internet. In fact, China's heavily regulated internet often bans or curtails any negative representation of Xi Jinping, not to mention policing discussions on the Hong Kong protests or anything critical of the government in general.
Not only that, movie studios have faced criticism in recent years for deliberately tailoring scripts to appease Chinese censorship laws, as China is now expected to be the largest film market in the world by 2020.
The episode is currently available on Comedy Central.
