200 (South Park)

To celebrate their landmark episode, Parker and fellow series co-creator Matt Stone combined many of South Park's past storylines and controversies.

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.

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 is angered to learn that the celebrities have no interest in receiving cash settlements from the town, though is reassured when Conner explains that he intends to steal Muhammad's "goo" to sell on the black market in Hong Kong for a significant profit.

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: a plan spearheaded by Mr Hankey).

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.

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.

[3] Parker and fellow co-creator Matt Stone conceive, write and produce most South Park episodes within a week of their broadcast date in order to maintain a sense of energy and timeliness.

[2] Parker and Stone included a joke about this process at the start of the episode, when Cartman and Kyle are fighting with each other, and Stan accuses them of just "rehashing a bunch of old stuff".

[2] Additionally, Muhammad has long been featured as one of the many characters shown in an image of dozens of South Park residents during the show's opening credits.

The Mecha-Streisand featured in "200" is designed with more sophisticated computer imagery than the original, which was a simple cut-out style cartoon like the rest of South Park.

[6][10] Although Parker and Stone have maintained that most of the celebrities they mock in South Park are chosen at random, with no personal animosity behind it, Barbra Streisand is one of the few they actively and vehemently dislike.

[54] Streisand, in turn, has been critical of South Park and her portrayal in it, and has accused the show of adding "to the cynicism and negativity in our culture, especially in children".

It marks the reappearance of Mr. Hat, a hand puppet that had been frequently used by Mr. Garrison during the early South Park seasons, but had long been abandoned in later episodes.

[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.

[58] This was South Park distilled to its essence: Cartman and his friends caught up in the stupidity all around them, created by absurd, neurotic, fearful, repressed adults.

Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly said he was surprised by the complexity of "200" and the amount of South Park references and subplots it encompassed, especially the questions over Cartman's father.

"[11] Ramsey Isler of IGN said it was fun to identify all the references to past South Park moments, but felt "200" itself didn't stand out as a great episode.

O'Neal said the use of all the celebrities demonstrated how South Park had been more original in early episodes, but now had "morph[ed] into something whose default mode is mocking famous people in the news".

[7] The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington, D.C.–based civil rights and advocacy group, said they were aware of the depiction of Muhammad in "200", but declined to put out a formal statement about it because they did not want to draw any more attention to the show.

The entry included audio clips of a sermon by al-Qaeda imam Anwar al-Awlaki, calling for the assassination of anyone who has defamed Muhammad, saying, "Harming Allah and his messenger is a reason to encourage Muslims to kill whoever does that".

[64][65] It also included a link to a 2009 Huffington Post article that gave details of Stone and Parker's mansion in Colorado,[65] and images of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, an activist writer and critic of Islam, who lives in permanent security protection because of threats.

[65] Before writing the Revolution Muslim post, Chesser wrote an April 15 entry on his Twitter page: "May Allah kill Matt Stone and Trey Parker and burn them in Hell for all eternity.

[67][68][69] Ayaan Hirsi Ali dismissed claims that the website entry was just a warning, calling it "an assault on the freedom of expression" that should not be marginalized or overlooked.

[67] New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said he was aware of the website posting, but said, "We don't think that this threat, as [it] is currently assessed, rises to a crime right now".

"[67] Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly said he would have advised Parker and Stone not to do the episode out of fear of retaliation: "On the one hand you do have to admire their courage.

"[68] The Daily Telegraph writer Douglas Murray said the entry only gave "200" more legitimacy, writing, "[It] of course just confirms the point that the South Park boys were making.

[71][72] In response to the Revolution Muslim post, the South Park episode "201", which aired the following week and concluded the unresolved storylines from "200", was heavily censored by Comedy Central.

The channel inserted audio bleeps over all references to Muhammad's name and other portions of dialogue, including the entirety of the ending speech by the show's main characters.

However, the safety of our employees is our unquestioned number[-]one priority, and therefore we have decided to take these precautionary measures.On May 1, 18 days after the episode's original airdate, a failed car bomb attempt was discovered by the New York City Police Department near the eastern corner of One Astor Plaza in New York City, on West 45th Street, a side street near the location of the world headquarters of Viacom, Comedy Central's parent company.