Stan: Oh my God, they killed Kenny!
Kyle: You b**tards!

South Park junkies will recognise the refrain and chuckle in memory, but only a real aficionado will know why the hooded Kenny dies his regular, macabre death. As creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone say in the DVDs, Kenny meets his grisly end oh-so-often because he's poor.



This kind of brilliant social commentary -- one that co-exists with potty humour -- is why the controversy over the show's 201st episode is unnecessary. For those in the dark, Revolution Muslim, a radical Islamic organisation, threatened Parker and Stone with death for showing Prophet Mohammed in a bear suit. Buckling, Comedy Central finally aired a "censored" watered-down episode.

Why the fuss? South Park has never been afraid to pull punches or to laugh at itself, which is why the 200th episode showed Tom Cruise band together a bunch of "wronged" celebrities in revenge.

It takes guts to make incisive observations, and we have never needed humourous self-loathing more than in this age of shrinking tolerance. Take it with a pinch of salt and laugh, we say.