Never watched this show, but isn’t the point of the show basically to be saturatingly offensive? Why would you remove a shotgun-scatter subset of episodes?
They were always riding on the edge of being censored by the network. In some cases the network literally censored them right before airing (the Muhammed episodes) and in others they were just restricted after the airing (like the list above)
And Paramount also probably has a slightly different “that’s still ok” standard than comedy Central had/has
This is legitimately the exact example I cite when explaining to people why I pirate. It’s not just about about stuff being moved around across an ever increasing amount of services. The ability to pretend entire episodes don’t even exist(super best friends and 200/201 have been banned for awhile now, long before this) is why I returned to piracy.
I was super confused when I got to the second D&D episode of Community. Turns out, streaming banned the first one because an Asian man wears drowface. He appropriated dark elf culture. Eventually I pirated the episode and was very happy. Good story.
The first D&D episode is so good, and it’s unfortunate that you miss what was an excellent story because of overreaching insensitivity.
I really disliked the first D&D episode, because (a) why are they pretending D&D is a turn-based game, it’s not like they’re in combat. (Nobody ever portrays D&D accurately on TV.) (b) this is actually peak Pierce-being-an-asshole. I rewatched the series and didn’t hate him nearly as much as my first watch, and I believe this episode’s omission is why.
Not saying it should have been removed, but I wouldn’t have picked any other episode over this one.
because it was too close to blackface, i assume?
Probably, but like, that’s silly in this case
Thought I’d get a pic for reference:
aaand, I can see why it’s offensive. The joke is that he’s tonedeaf about blackface, and he didn’t wear any other elf clothes… so at first glance, it’s a guy in blackface with a white wig…
p.s. in a lot of modern depictions they’re a dark blue, or grey… I always played a drow in D&D and I never imagined my character as completely black.Yep. And that’s the joke.
Anyone notice that we never see All in the Family or The Jeffersons media, and haven’t for a decade or two? How odd. Two of the most popular sitcoms of all time just… disappeared.
Those shows taught my young self more about racism and it’s ills than anything else in life. Yes, Archie and George were racist AF! And they were the buffoons, always losing because of their boolshit. (OK, maybe it was too heavy handed for today’s audiences, I’ll grant that.)
Liberals: “NAOOWW! THAS RACISTH!”
Conservatives: “WOKE!”
What a damned shame. Fucking meatheads.
i feel that… it’s becoming a thing that can’t be talked about anymore.
on the other hand, if allowed more it’d be an excuse people make to make racist jokes… stuff like, “no the character is racist, and i’m showing why it’s bad”.also worth noting, they kept making Chevy Chase’s character racist on that show and he hates the writers for it and got in a lot of arguments.
As I’ve heard it, they kept putting in the scripts the kinds of things Chevy would say in real life, and he hated the writers for doing it.
Not every joke lands. I think this is one of those where there’s some obvious intent behind it but the joke is a bit too high concept (and not really that funny tbh) in relation to the controversy. And I say this as a big community fan - they went for shock value and it didn’t really work because there was no punchline besides “it looks like blackface but technically isn’t blackface.”
Anyone who thinks a drow looks like a black person is racist
Meanwhile, Aerodynamics of Gender is good to go:
One of the best episodes of the show though for sure.
There are multiple series I liked on Paramount+ that are missing entire seasons, and not necessarilly the oldest or newest seasons either. Bob <Hearts> Abishola, which I started watching on Paramount+(or was it CBS? this was around the time they merged), suddenly had only the latest season available, right when it turned out I had somehow missed a season.
I hate a lot of Streaming services for various reasons, am constantly wrestling with password resets for my family’s Hulu/Disney accouts, but Paramount+ is still the worst by far.
🏴☠️
Has anyone watched the most recent season of The Rehearsal? Nathan mentions that an episode of his previous show “Nathan for You” was taken off Paramount Plus because it had a segment where he started a fashion line where the profits would go toward holocaust education and remembrance. So even though this was a positive thing, it still brings up the holocaust and is therefore too sensitive subject to air. He then proceeds to paint Paramount Plus as literal Nazis in proceeding episodes to drive his point home. Highly recommend if you haven’t seen his new show yet.
That was such an amazing clip, I was absolutely howling.
By the way, have you managed to convince anyone to watch The Rehearsals or Nathan for you? I like both these shows but it’s so hard to describe them to someone and make them even consider watching it
How to with John Wilson is the same vibe. I want to recommend it but it’s very difficult to explain why it is so funny
I recommended it, too, during the first season, and my wife joined me on the couch just as the topic veered to circumcision and the dude who invented a device for stretching his foreskin and she noped right out of the show forever.
I love love this show. To me, it’s more like a comfy/slice of life kinda experience. I mean it still is funny, but it’s becoming one of my comfort shows
Rehearsals really is impossible to describe. I watched the first episode, and the last 2 minutes hit so hard, that I seriously questioned if the show is attempting to genuinely help the people or is it for the comedy. He walks the line so well. Can’t wait to watch more.
I really like the second season till now. It had some hard to get through moments, but the interconnected nature of the episodes gives it a bit more depth than season 1
Familiar with the shows but I’m now going to try both based on your recos, thank you!
Have fun! Curious to see what you think! :D
The stupidest censorship I’ve seen like this is Community’s first DnD episode. Chang dresses up as a drow and that is considered “blackface” even though they address it in the episode that he isn’t black but a drow. So goodbye episode on streaming.
That’s subversive and funny for all of the right reasons.
They managed to take corporate money for product placement in a pretty funny way, too.
Community is great at that.
I mean, I guess if you’re a drow and see this, you might be offended.
Not because it’s drowface, but because it’s a human, therefore not drow, and thus is beneath the drow.
They kind of have an extreme isolationist, and borderline racial superiority thing going on.
But they are also praying to a giant spider and kill their own children, so not exactly nice people.
Oh, man. A Drow in a long-sleeved Guayabera. That’s an insult to my Cuban heritage. Keep it banned. /s
He’s one of those weird seldarine drow that hangs out with the humans.
Whoever thinks black people look like that is racist
And they even clown on those who think it is blackface
So are we gonna ignore the hatecrime?
Literally one of the first reactions.
Not offensive, but fucking terrifying!
Do you think this isn’t an obvious reference to blackface? The joke doesn’t make sense if blackface had never been a thing, so it’s a joke about blackface. And that’s bad.
Community is my favorite show and this episode is fantastic. But pretending it’s not blackface just because “he’s actually a drow!!!” is so stupid.
Haven’t seen the episode, but it seems clear they’re making fun of blackface.
they could have avoided this crap by just choosing grey. drows and variants come in various shades. it’s so fucking stupid
The joke wouldn’t work as well if they did that. They joke about blackface, so you need black. This doesn’t look like a black person does anyway, so I don’t see how gray would make it better.
They joke about blackface, so you need black.
Yeah, making a racist, bad take joke was so worth it. It surely wouldn’t have made Shirley look out of touch that way, making a different joke that wasn’t as SUPER EDGY.
Reminds me of how that musician Michael Jackson did whiteface 😮💨 I was beyond offended, we need to address behaviour like this more often, absolutely deplorable.
Why the fuck would they remove Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride?
Also, cancelling Cancelled it peak irony.
Because it celebrates inclusion.
This is legitimately one of my favorite television episodes ever. Like, across all shows. It’s perfect in every way and such an amazing time capsule from the 90s.
Proof that piracy is the best solution to overcome authoritarianism.
And corporate bullshit
Reminds of the the time that Sony made a pretty advanced root kit to fight piracy. The only people that were not infected were the pirates who wouldn’t have bought their CDs.
The original (and true) definition of fascism was corporatism.
fuck streaming services. just pirate it.
What was the controversy in Simpsons Did It? All I remember is the epitomal line.
¥You sucked it out of a garden hose huh?"
I mean at this point, why even allow South Park to be streamed at all? The whole point of the show was deeply offensive tomfoolery and the social commentary.
Wasnt that that one where they show Mohammed
That’s Super Best Friends
And Cartoon Wars, on this list, simply referenced showing Mohammad. They tried to get it on but Comedy Central cut that scene, so the final cut of the episode just had a blank screen during the moment that Mohammad was supposed to be on screen.
Just watch them on their website for free https://www.southparkstudios.com/
Ironic. CANCELLED was mine when I clicked watch random episode.
I think Trey and Matt know something…
So dumb, the episodes exist and can be watched without much hassle. Why even ban them? It’s not changing the fact they exist and some of the best episodes.
Because most people people are stupid, emotional animals that couldn’t critically think their way out of a paper bag.
It’s the answer to SO many questions.
Imagine paying for Paramount Plus at all. I just stopped paying for it (card expired) and nothing changed. This was like a year ago, I never fixed the issue. Still watching a bunch of Star Trek. I don’t think they run a very tight ship over there at Paramount, lol.
That’s also the reason I still subscribe to Spotify. I haven’t paid for it in like 3 years, but my premium status still hasn’t expired 🤣
Never subbed to anything but Spotify. Love to have that free!
Same shit happened to me. It did eventually so working but only after like 2 years
That was me and Siriusxm
Great. Now I know which ones to watch.
Thanks, I have been meaning to get the full series on Blu-ray. Any idea if the older stuff has the vhs segues of Trey and Matt’s skit shows?
I just checked and ufortunately, the older seasons don’t seem to have much special features.
Do you suppose older DVDs have them?
