200 (South Park)
"200" is the fifth episode of the fourteenth season of the American animated television series South Park, and the 200th overall episode of the series, hence the name. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 14, 2010. In the episode, Tom Cruise and all other celebrities who have been mocked by residents of South Park in the past plan to file a class action lawsuit against the town, but Cruise promises to end the lawsuit if the town can get the Islamic prophet Muhammad to meet him.
"200"
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. To celebrate their landmark episode, Parker and fellow series co-creator Matt Stone combined many of South Park's past storylines and controversies. The Muhammad subplot, similar to the one previously featured in the season 10 episode "Cartoon Wars", refers to Comedy Central's past refusal to allow images of Muhammad to be shown on the network in response to the riots and threats generated from controversial cartoons in 2005 and 2007 of Muhammad in European newspapers.
"200" includes many celebrities that have been mocked in previous episodes, including Cruise, Rob Reiner, Steven Spielberg, Kanye West, Paris Hilton, George Lucas, Mel Gibson and Barbra Streisand. An additional subplot includes Cartman learning he may not know the true identity of his father. The season 2 episode "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut" claimed that Eric Cartman's mother Liane is a hermaphrodite and his father, but the events of "200" and the subsequent episode reveal that this is not the case.
"200" received mostly positive reviews. According to Nielsen Media Research, the episode was seen by 3.33 million viewers, making it the most watched cable television program of the night. Both "200" and the sequel episode "201" were nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program in 2010.[1]
Within a week of the episode's original broadcast date, the website for the radical Muslim organization Revolution Muslim posted an entry warning Parker and Stone that they risked being murdered for airing the episode, which several media outlets and observers interpreted as a threat. As a result, Comedy Central heavily censored portions of "201" by removing references to Muhammad and the episode's closing speech. The episode was rated TV-MA L in the United States.
Plot[edit]
While on a school field trip to a candy factory, Butters Stotch notes that actor Tom Cruise is seemingly employed by the factory: as he is packaging fudge into delivery boxes. Stan Marsh, who previously compared Cruise negatively to Leonardo Dicaprio, Gene Hackman, and "that guy who played Napoleon Dynamite" during the episode "Trapped in the Closet", accidentally insults him again by calling him a "fudge packer," though Cruise refutes this: claiming to be fly fishing.
Offended by the remarks of Stan and his classmates, Cruise recruits 200 celebrities who have been ridiculed by the town of South Park to bring a class action lawsuit against the townsfolk. Stan returns to the factory with his father Randy in an attempt to smooth over the situation and convince Cruise to drop the suit, though Randy inadvertently insults Cruise once more: pointing out that Cruise is wearing an employee uniform for "Fred's Fudge and Candies" whilst literally packaging fudge into boxes. Cruise angrily agrees to drop the lawsuit on the condition that Cruise is able to meet the prophet Muhammad.
The townsfolk gather, and believe that perhaps enough time has passed for the tabu to have been eliminated, though claim that nobody would be able to identify Muhammad, as it is forbidden to depict him. Randy Marsh proceeds to create a preliminary sketch of Muhammad This causes an uproar, as depictions of Muhammad are forbidden and the townsfolk fear that forcing Muhammad to appear in public will drive Muslim radicals to bomb the town.
Stan and his friend Kyle Broflovski visit the Super Best Friends, a squad of superhero-like religious figures (Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Moses, Krishna, Laozi, Joseph Smith and "Seaman") of which Muhammad is a member, to request the muslim prophet return with them to South Park. Meanwhile, it is revealed that Cruise and the other celebrities only want Muhammad for his "goo", believing it will make them immune to ridicule, as Rob Reiner has invented a machine to syphon Muhammad's "goo" into the celebrities.
By this time, Eric Cartman arrives with "Mitch Conner," a face painted on his hand as one-half of a ventriloquist act who had successfully impersonated actress Jennifer Lopez in "Fat Butt and Pancake Head." Cartman and Connor return to the Lopez imitation: attempting to join the other celebrities' lawsuit. Cartman is angered to learn that the celebrities have no interest in receiving cash settlements from the town, though is reassured when Connor explains that he intends to steal Muhammad's goo to sell on the black market for a significant profit. Meanwhile, Kyle and Stan convince the Super Best Friends to let Muhammad come to town on the condition that he remains in the back of a U-Haul truck and is not seen. When the townspeople realize they must bring Muhammad to Cruise's limo, they claim to put him inside a bear mascot outfit, though it is later revealed that Santa Claus was concealed within the suit. The town is about to give Muhammad to the celebrities, when the exchange is interrupted by a bomb planted by ginger kids: a group of fair-skinned, red-haired children who are tired of being made fun of for their physical appearance. The gingers want Muhammad for themselves, hoping to use his goo for their own means. They threaten to blow up the town if Muhammad is not turned over to them.
The people of South Park decide to turn Muhammad over to the gingers, fearing the violence that will befall their town if they do not. The celebrities are angered by this change in events, but refuse to resort to violence for fear of ruining their careers. Instead, the celebrities decide to awaken the rebuilt Mecha-Streisand, a giant mechanical monster form of Barbra Streisand, who previously terrorized the town of South Park before being destroyed. The celebrities hope to use Mecha-Streisand to force South Park to accept their demands. Meanwhile, due to the chain of events, Cartman decides Connor's scheme has become too complicated and tries to quit, but Connor convinces him to stay involved by revealing that the townspeople of South Park have lied to him about his true father. Although they previously claimed his hermaphroditic mother Liane was his father, Connor insists this is a lie. Cartman confronts his school teacher Mr. Garrison and Garrison's old hand puppet Mr. Hat, who admits to Cartman there was indeed a cover-up. The gingers are given Muhammad, but they demand he come out of his bear outfit. Mecha-Streisand roars threateningly as the episode ends on a cliffhanger, setting the stage for "201".
Cultural references[edit]
During one scene, a frustrated Tom Cruise angrily jumps up and down on a couch while Oprah Winfrey sits next to him. This is a reference to an incident on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2005, in which Cruise repeatedly jumped on the couch next to Oprah, fell to one knee and loudly professed his love for actress Katie Holmes. Cruise has been repeatedly mocked for his behavior. In another scene, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are shown to have actor Harrison Ford leashed, chained and ball-gagged, as the actor wears the fedora he wore in the Indiana Jones films. This is a reference to the twelfth season episode "The China Probrem", in which Lucas and Spielberg literally rape Indiana Jones repeatedly, which served as a commentary by Parker and Stone for their opinion of the 2008 Spielberg/Lucas film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.[11] A cartoon image of film director Tim Burton is featured in the episode, despite having not been previously ridiculed by the show. In the episode, Burton is mocked for not having an original idea since the 1988 comedy horror film Beetlejuice, and for his tendency to feature film actor Johnny Depp in so many of his films that he should "just have sex with him [Johnny Depp] already".[6] Cartman's Jennifer Lopez hand-puppet repeatedly demands food from the American restaurant chain Taco Bell, particularly enchiritos, which is one of the many Hispanic stereotypes utilized by the character.[6] Also, when the celebrities are discussing whom to bring in to help capture Mohammed, Barbra Streisand is referenced as "her," to which the discussion goes "her who?" "her" "oh...her." This is slightly reminiscent of the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors when Rick Moranis and Steve Martin are talking about Audrey, who the dentist had physically abused, where Steve asks "what did I ever do to you?" and Rick answers "it wasn't what you did to me, it was what you did to her" Steve: "her? oh...her" [57]
Reception[edit]
Ratings[edit]
In its original American broadcast on April 14, 2010, "200" was watched by 3.33 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research, making it the most watched cable television show of the night.[58] It outperformed the previous week's episode, "You Have 0 Friends", which was seen by 3.07 million viewers,[59] and it was seen by roughly 177,000 more viewers than its closest competitor on April 14, USA Network's In Plain Sight. The episode received an overall 2.0 rating/3 share, meaning that it was seen by 2% of the population, and 3% of people watching television at the time of the broadcast. Among viewers between ages 18 and 49, it received a 1.9 rating/5 share, and among male viewers between 18 and 34, it received a 3.7 rating/13 share.[58]
Digital censorship[edit]
The day after the episode aired, the episode was available for streaming on the site. After a week, like the other Muhammad episodes, it was taken off. The message presented to the user for this episode is "We apologize that South Park Studios cannot stream this episode".[87] The sequel episode, "201", also has not been made available for streaming, but a different message describes an intent to potentially post that episode. Similarly, the episode and its sequel are not available to stream or buy on services Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Paramount+, or Amazon Prime Video. Furthermore, digital copies of these episodes that were purchased prior to their ban from digital distribution are no longer available for streaming or download.
When the series was transferred to HBO Max in 2020, it was announced that "200" and "201" would be 2 of 5 episodes cut from the series, alongside "Super Best Friends", "Cartoon Wars Part I", and "Cartoon Wars Part II". The latter two episodes were not previously censored from digital streaming services.[88] These episodes are also missing from Paramount+.
Home media[edit]
Although "200" was not currently available on the internet legally, and had not re-aired since April 2010, it was confirmed on February 11, 2011, that "200" would be released on DVD.[89] "200" along with the thirteen other episodes from South Park's fourteenth season, was released on a three-disc DVD set and two-disc Blu-ray set in the United States on April 26, 2011.[90]
The version presented on the DVD and Blu-ray is the uncensored version, with Muhammad's name unbleeped,[91] unlike the episode that follows, "201", which is presented on disc in its original network censored version. During the commentary in both "200" and "201" Parker and Stone never mention Muhammad directly, referring to him only as "the prophet of the Muslim faith".[92]
Despite the package claiming otherwise, both "200" and "201" were completely omitted from the Region 4[93] and Region 2 releases.[94]