The scene has made worldwide news, with Australian papers already pulling out the arsenal they'd only just put away after Greer's public execution.  Whilst the furore hasn't yet neared the wrath of such acts as sending them a muzzle (but strong women are always going to get a good belting from the boys' club of mainstream media), the Daily Telegraph has labelled the episode a "callous act of disrespect" and a "sick stunt". The same has been cried from press in America, and in the UK, a Mediawatch group has called for the episode to be banned. 

 

But what's actually brilliant about the stunt is that when it airs next week, the joke will well and truly be on the furore itself. In the episode, Satan holds a costume party (dressed as Britney Spears), and at first, thinks Irwin is a guest who has attended in a tasteless Irwin costume. Satan finds this a terrible party faux-pas, and tells the guest, "It's just a little too soon, you know? He only just died a few weeks ago, and wearing that just isn't super cool... you'll have to leave."

 

However, Satan discovers the guest really is Irwin, and consequently throws him out, anyway - for not wearing a costume.

 

Thankfully, SBS has defended the social satire, and announced that the episode will air in Australia - though, admittedly, this is made easier by the very point being removed by the time that actually happens (Australian South Park screenings are a year behind the US). Then again, if by the time the episode airs next year we no longer find the scene offensive, that could, in fact, prove the point Satan protests on the matter. When Americans finally sit down to the episode next week, one wonders what they will make of finding their cause championed in the show itself... by a homosexual devil in a Britney Spears costume. It's not very "tasteful", I suppose, no. But it is very, very clever. 

 

Thanks to the magic of embedded video, we can now all watch the offending episode...