After News of ‘South Park’s Paramount+ Move, Fans Are Snatching Up Boxed Sets Amid Censorship Concerns

Though South Park may have famously killed off Kenny McCormick dozens of times throughout its nearly three-decade run, a few new elements of the animated series have now found themselves on the chopping block: some of the show’s most subversive episodes. 

Scheduled to depart its current platform of (HBO?) Max, for Paramount+ on July 1st, rumors have started swirling about which South Park episodes will actually survive the move to its new streaming home. These whispers were fueled by a now-viral post from TV critic, Artie Reviews, who claimed that up to 15 episodes — including “Jared Has Aides,” “Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus” and “200/201” — would likely wind up MIA come South Park’s Paramount+ debut.  

“I understand why ‘200/201’ and ‘Super Best Friends’ will not be available to stream, but the rest are pretty good episodes that shouldn’t be banned,” he captioned the list, one allegedly sourced from Paramount+’s existing South Park offerings abroad.

“Maybe Paramount is scared of Scientologists going after them, or are in cahoots with the cult?” he concluded. “Who knows.”

For the time being, Paramount+ has yet to address these rumored cuts, leaving us neither sure nor (HIV) positive that these episodes will get the axe. But even with speculation that HBO, which currently has some of the above episodes, could work out another streaming deal — some fans aren’t taking any chances with the Comedy Central staple, doing their damndest to avoid tears of unfathomable sadness by stocking up on the series’ DVD and Blu-ray offerings. 

“Do these recent box sets come with the banned episodes everyone is worried (about) being removed on streaming?????” one poster asked on the South Park subreddit, including images of a few of the series’ home media options. 

They were far from the only one looking to secure their South Park collection. “Just bought both of these when I found out about all the banned episodes on P+,” another fan shared, confirming that the at-risk episodes were “all there,” as another argued that spending $50 a pop on two boxed sets would likely prove worthy in the long run. 

“We’ll (be) owning all the good South Parks before the streaming mess and Randy’s weed escapade would be worth it,” they joked.