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"Bloody Mary" is episode 914 of the Comedy Central series '' South Park .'' It originally aired on December 7 , 2005 . In the audio commentary, Trey Parker admits to somewhat regretting making this episode even more than Trapped In The Closet , due to the excessive controversy the episode made. PLOT The boys, Kyle, Cartman and Stan (minus Kenny, plus Ike) attend karate class while Stan's dad goes for a couple of drinks. After class, Randy drives the boys home. Randy needs to urinate after the evening of drinking. Randy decides to urinate in a beer bottle, as opposed to stopping on the side of the road. Randy asks Stan to steer while he tries to urinate in a beer bottle. The resulting swerve gets the attention of a police officer, and he gets pulled over for Drunk Driving . Randy is ordered to attend Alcoholics Anonymous , where he is taught that he is powerless to control his drinking and that alcoholism is a "disease." He does not believe his son, who just tells him that he just has no " Disaprin ". Randy, who Stan describes as a “ Hypochondria c,” then begins to, ironically, drink more, since he has decided that he is in fact powerless to control it and cannot stop. Around this time, a statue of the Virgin Mary begins to bleed – out of its Anus – and people begin to flock around it to find a cure for their diseases. Randy believes it can heal him of his disease. Randy has Stan drive him to the church where the statue is, and – after cutting in line, arguing his ‘disease’ is worse than that of others – he is drenched in the holy blood, and then jumps up, declaring he will not drink anymore (ostensibly because the bleeding statue is his " Higher Power "), and abstains from alcohol for five days. The new Pope Benedict XVI comes to investigate, and discovers that the blood is not actually coming from the statue's anus – but its Vagina . Since " Chicks Bleed Out Their Vaginas All The Time ," this is no miracle, and Randy, realizing this, suddenly realizes God did not heal him. He at first declares himself powerless again, but then Stan makes him realize that if God did not help him, he must have done it himself. Randy then declares that he will never drink again, but Stan objects to this too, saying that if Randy completely avoids drinking, drinking is still controlling his life, and that true discipline involves figuring out how to live in moderation; nothing, he says, is actually easier than some. The two then walk home, Randy asking Stan how much drinking would be proper. CONTROVERSY The episode was aired on December 7 , 2005 , which is the eve of the Feast Of The Immaculate Conception , a Catholic observance related specifically to the Virgin Mary. The Catholic League For Religious And Civil Rights condemned this episode for its treatment of the Virgin Mary. They demanded an apology to Roman Catholics and that the episode "be permanently retired and not be made available on DVD." In particular they also demanded that Joseph A. Califano, Jr. , a member of Viacom 's (the parent of Comedy Central ) board of directors and a practicing Catholic, issue his own statement of condemnation. 1 Califano did later release a statement calling the episode an "appalling and disgusting portrayal of the Virgin Mary," and pledged to have it reviewed by Viacom's president and CEO, Tom Freston . Bishop William Skylstad , president of the United States Conference Of Catholic Bishops , sent a letter to Freston saying the network showed "extreme insensitivity" when it aired the episode.2 When Comedy Central re-aired all the episodes from South Park's Fall 2005 season on December 28 , 2005 , "Bloody Mary" was noticeably absent from the broadcast. Comedy Central responded to e-mail inquiries about the fate of the episode with the assurance that "Bloody Mary" has not been retired and would not be pulled from the DVD release.3 However, still missing are screen captures from the episode on Comedy Central's press site and the South Park section of comedycentral.com.4 At the time, South Park had already stirred controversy two weeks earlier after the " Trapped In The Closet " episode. This created a further blow to the show's producers and directors. In February , 2006 and drew 210,000 viewers, six times South Park's normal audience for the channel.10 After receiving 102 formal complaints from viewers, the network issued a statement a month later saying "…C4 acknowledges the strength of feeling in relation to the programme, and we sincerely apologize for any offence taken."11 In June 2006 complaints received by New Zealand's Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) were rejected: The airing of the show was found to not be in breach of broadcasting standards. According to the BSA, " {Link without Title} ut showing disrespect does not amount to the sort of vicious or vitriolic attack normally associated with the denigration standard." They also said the episode was "of such a farcical, absurd and unrealistic nature that it did not breach standards of good taste and decency in the context in which it was offered". 12 New Zealand Catholic bishops have decided to appeal the decision.13 In February 2006 , Archbishop Denis Hart in Melbourne , Australia wrote to television network SBS asking them not to air the episode. The network's programming director originally rejected the request, but later decided to postpone the episode citing the controversy over the ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad Cartoons .14 SBS ended up showing " Christian Rock Hard ". SBS will be showing the episode in late 2006, before screening starts of Season 10. The episode was, however shown on The Comedy Channel , on August 30th 2006, one reason for this was that they could advertise that they had shown an Australian premiere South Park before SBS did. In late March 2006, Rob Corddry , reporting on Comedy Central's own '' The Daily Show '' said: :…Christianity has evolved and matured. No longer do they stone people to death for blasphemy. Now they write a lot of letters to advertisers. Even a secular, atheistic, morally bankrupt entity like Comedy Central can be affected. Just ask Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of ''South Park'', whose recent episode entitled "Bloody Mary" was pulled after a single airing. Now obviously at Comedy Central can't show you that offensive material… The ''South Park'' clips shown while Corddry spoke included plenty of offensive material (fornicating cats, a man vomiting and then falling in his own vomit, Butters viewing his parents having sex, etc.) but there was nothing from the "Bloody Mary" episode. Like the Trapped In The Closet episode, Bloody Mary did return to the air on August 2, 2006 at 10 P.M. TRIVIA
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