Eleven years on the air and "South Park" is still setting Comedy Central ratings records -- and offending viewers.
Wednesday night's premiere (3.7 million, 2.5 adults 18-49 rating) was up 21% from last fall's debut and topped all of cable during its time period. It stands as the show's most-watched fall premiere since 1999. "Park" also helped the premiere of "The Sarah Silverman Program" (2.4 million viewers, 1.6), which was up 18% to a series high.
Those expecting the "South Park" opener to revisit the creative heights of last year's "Imaginationland" trilogy may have been disappointed, however. Though any gag mocking the faux-authenticity of P.F. Chang's and the militancy of China's Olympics opening ceremony is always welcome, the show's other (and admittedly more funny) storyline left some viewers wincing even by "South Park" standards.
In the episode, the Colorado kids are traumatized by memories of watching "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" over the summer, saying the movie essentially "raped" their action-hero icon. The episode featured a trio of parodies from famous movie rape scenes ("The Accused" and "Deliverance") to make the point that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg violated their beloved character in the long-awaited, yet ultimately disappointing sequel.
Paramount execs were apparently taken by surprise and didn't watch the episode (can't take your eyes off Trey and Matt for a minute, can you?). But you can watch it below.
Here's a video clip of one of the controversial scenes, and there's another after the jump.
(NOTE: "Refresh" your browser if the video player's controls do not appear).
