It’s not uncommon to watch an episode of South Park and wonder, how the heck did they get away with that? What would it take for the show to get censored? Well, it happens every so often, and Sunday, the biggest, longest-running cartoon franchise on TV showed ‘South Park’ its support.

In the opening credits of last night’s ‘Simpsons,’ Bart wrote “South Park — We’d stand beside you if we weren’t so scared” on the chalkboard. ‘The Simpsons’ has taken its share of swipes at political and cultural targets in the past. So what could make Matt Groening and company so scared?
The past two episodes of ‘South Park’ have revolved around celebrities suing the town of ‘South Park’ for all of the wonderfully awful things that have been done to and said about them over the years. The one thing those celebrities (and a militant group of “gingers”) covet is the ability of one particular public figure to avoid being mocked. That public figure is the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

When the storyline kicked off with the show’s 200th episode, the celebrities and Gingers were trying to get to Muhammad for that power, as Muhammad appeared in public but hidden from view in a bear suit and in a UHaul truck. ‘South Park’ creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker received a death threat from a radical Islamic Web site, which led to the follow-up episode getting a massive censoring from Comedy Central, which bleeped the name “Muhammad” and Kyle’s entire final speech.

‘The Simpsons‘ has always managed to present its satire in a mainstream show, while ‘South Park’ has never really tried to be the type of show most mainstream parents would watch with their kids. But both shows have upset plenty of people in the past, and they have referenced each other on occasion.