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Comedy Central
"South Park" season 23, episode 2, "Band in China"
- "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker issued an "apology" to China through the show's Twitter account on Monday.
- The statement comes after The Hollywood Reporter reported that "South Park" had been banned from China's internet.
- The most recent episode of the animated series, "Band in China," mocked the country's censorship.
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The creators of "South Park" have issued an "apology" to China after the show's most recent episode mocked the country's censorship and Hollywood's reliance on its theatrical market for movies.
The official "South Park" Twitter account tweeted the comedic statement below on Monday:
"Official apology to China from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
'Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn't look just like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the Great Communist Party of China! May this autumn's sorghum harvest be bountiful! We good now China?'"
The statement comes after The Hollywood Reporter reported on Monday that "South Park" has been banned from the Chinese internet and videos, mentions, and discussion forums for the Comedy Central animated series had been removed or shut down.
The episode, "Band in China," references China's crackdown on Winnie the Pooh imagery, which has become a symbol of resistance to the country's leading Communist Party and its leader Xi Jinping. The Disney movie "Christopher Robin" did not even play in China last year.
The statement from Parker and Stone also mocked the NBA's apology to China after the Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted on Friday (and then deleted) an image with the slogan "Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong" in solidarity with the Hong Kong protesters. The NBA issued a statement that said it was "regrettable" that Morey's views "deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China."