Censorship! The 6 banned episodes that you can't watch on any streaming service

After 9/11, American television became so paranoid that they ended up banning the episode in which Homer Simpson went to the Twin Towers to urinate from being re-aired in the continuous reruns of The Simpsons… For a whopping 15 years! Fortunately, you can now enjoy it just as it was originally aired. And not all TV episodes have had the same fate, because streamers do as they please trying to avoid, by any means, a lawsuit for political incorrectness. Are you coming to see the most banned episodes of television? I warn you: there are series that you wouldn’t expect at all.

It’s always sunny in Philadelphia

This is one you were expecting, of course: the gang from Paddy’s are the most disgusting, despicable, and evil characters to ever grace a sitcom, and over their 170 episodes, they’ve had time to do everything, from mocking the disabled to killing without any shame. So, which episode has been removed and why?

Well, in reality, there have been five: America’s Next Top Paddy’s Billboard Model Contest (season 4), Dee Reynolds: Shaping America’s Youth (season 6), The Gang Recycles Their Trash (season 8), The Gang Makes Lethal Weapon 6 (season 9), and Dee Day (season 14). What’s the reason? In all of them, they paint their faces in one way or another, and it is believed that they are offending other races by doing blackface (or yellowface, or whatever applies). The reality is quite different: precisely because they are a group of despicable people, they cannot help but do things like that. Anyway, a mistake they will have to correct sooner or later.

The Simpsons

Yes, the yellow family from Springfield has also gotten into trouble. Once the issue with The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson was resolved, in 2019 one of the great classics of the series stopped airing in reruns (and, therefore, also on Disney+): Daddy, Crazy for Tying. Or, as many know it, “the Michael Jackson episode.” In it, a man who believes he is the singer ends up moving in with the family… And the voice was provided by Jackson himself under a pseudonym!

The problem is that in 2019 the documentary Leaving Neverland was released, which provided evidence of the child sexual abuse by the King of Pop, and Disney did not feel comfortable having the episode with his voice available, so instead of putting up a sign at the beginning or letting people draw their own conclusions, they removed it completely. Al Jean, the showrunner of the series, even said that he believed Jackson had used the episode to get closer to children, so for now it remains in limbo (unless you have the original DVDs, of course).

Community

“Six seasons and a movie!”. If you say this phrase to any TV series fan, they will immediately know what you are referring to: Community, the craziest sitcom of the century, which explored narrative in a new way every week. A western mixed with paintball, a musical episode, a whole episode in claymation… And, as could be expected, a tribute to Dungeons & Dragons. Yes, the one that is completely removed from all platforms.

And throughout the episode, Professor Chang painted his face black indicating that he was a dark elf, one of the races available in the role-playing game. However, due to everyone’s fear of the public’s reaction, it was banned on all platforms. It’s a shame because it’s one of the best episodes of the series. It seems they only got a 1 in charisma.

South Park

We might have finished earlier by breaking down the non-banned episodes of South Park, but two that were censored almost from their own airing stand out: Cartoon Wars, an epic saga in which Cartman fights to ban Family Guy (paradoxically) before they air a joke about Muhammad, fearing the problems it will bring later. Kyle, for his part, thinks it is freedom of expression and cannot be stopped just like that.

In the end, they air it in fiction but, making a double turn in reality, Cartoon Network did not dare to air the joke itself, prohibiting an episode of South Park about freedom of expression and prohibitions. Incredible, right? Well, even more incredible is that this episode is going to be banned on streaming along with other classics like The Simpsons already did, Pip, or Trapped in the Closet. Banning South Park. What a sight to see.

Bluey

Yes, you read that right: Bluey, the children’s series about two girls playing with their parents, has also been banned on Disney+. And not just with small edits – which, all things considered, are normal when adapting an Australian series for a mainstream audience – but by removing an entire episode, Dad Baby, in which they play that Bandit, the father, has just been born, showing the process of giving birth. The miracle of life, yes, but not for this series, apparently.

The good news is that it’s fully available on YouTube, and you can check if it was really worth all the fuss (spoiler: it wasn’t). At the time, Disney+ also banned the episode Family Meeting, which is basically a constant fart joke (fabulously executed, to be fair), but they eventually decided to restore it as is. Is no one going to think of the children?

The Muppet Show

He is 50 years old, who can The Muppet Show harm? Well, we don’t know exactly, but on Disney+ the episodes presented by Brooke Shields (without any explanation) and writer Chris Langham have also been removed… after it was discovered in 2007 that he was a pedophile. You don’t want Kermit and company to get too friendly with someone like that, after all.