While the United States is presently in the midst of some extremely complicated times when it comes to the relationships between media companies and the government, South Park has done absolutely nothing to shy away from controversy. Season 27 of the Comedy Central show launched back in July, and there has been no effort from the filmmakers to shy away from hot button issues (which, to be fair, is the South Park way). Because of this, however, there has been some concern in recent days that the delay of the most recent episode was a result of censorship – but now series co-creator Matt Stone has gone on the record easing those worries.
The fifth episode of South Park's latest season didn't debut as originally scheduled last Wednesday, but it has now been put on the record that the delay was not due to any kind of behind-the-scenes conversations/objections regarding content. Matt Stone has spoken with The Denver Post and assured fans that the creatives were simply unable to hit the necessary deadlines for the episode to air. Said the filmmaker,
No one pulled the episode, no one censored us, and you know we’d say so if true. We just didn’t get it done. When you always cut it close, sometimes you mess up. That’s the price of being a procrastinator.
"Cutting it close" has long been a part of the South Park creative process. While there are many animated shows that takes months to develop single episodes, the production schedule for Matt Stone and Trey Parker's creation is accelerated so that the stories can be as timely as possible and comment on current events (if you haven't seen the documentary 6 Days to Air: The Making Of South Park, I highly recommend it, and it's currently available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription). Season 27 has been working with a different schedule than previous years, as episodes have been airing every other week instead of weekly, but it seems that even having an extra week to work was not enough to complete episode five.
It's worth noting that this is not the first time that the show has missed a deadline.
To be fair, concerns about censorship are understandable. In addition to all of the controversy regarding the cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the second episode of South Park Season 27 – titled "Got A Nut" – was pulled from reruns because it makes reference Charlie Kirk (it's still available to watch on Paramount+).
We have not yet gotten any teasers for the next episode of South Park, and we thusly don't know what it will be about, but the expectation is that it will air during the show's normal time slot at 10pm ET/PT on September 24.
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