Below The Beltway

Though Comedy Central announced earlier this week that the Scientology episode that was pulled earlier this year would return to normal rerun rotation, its clear that the controversy about what actually happened won’t go away:

Matt Stone and Trey Parker are still angry that Comedy Central in May yanked a repeat of the “Trapped in the Closet” episode lampooning Scientology and its most famous member, Tom Cruise.

At the time they were told it was being pulled because suits at Viacom, which also owns Paramount, thought it could turn people off Cruise and his upcoming Paramount flick “Mission: Impossible 3.” (Turns out Tom was quite capable of doing that all by himself without Matt and Trey’s help.)

And Stone & Parker had some fun with the Viacom execs when they took questions the day after Comedy Central made the announcement:

“First of all, we can’t take any questions about Tom Cruise or Scientology or ‘South Park,’ ” Stone cracked right off the bat at the Q&A.

“How much did you wrestle with the Scientology episode?” was the first question.

“Since that pertains to ‘South Park’ we can’t answer,” Stone responded.

Comedy Central spokesman Tony Fox, who was also up on stage, told the reporters the episode was pulled so that they could instead air an episode paying tribute to Chef, played by Isaac Hayes.

(…)

“That’s our story and we’re sticking with it,” Fox said — a sort of “we all know what’s really going on here” wink — after tossing that mountain of horseradish all over the reporters in the room.

“Nicely done,” Matt or Trey sneered from his seat onstage. The two applauded Fox; the reporters giggled.

And even more fun with Tom Cruise:

Stone said they dodged the news media back in May when the “Trapped” episode was scrubbed because “you didn’t want to be in a headline with him and start getting that Tom Cruise stink on you,” even though they were on the other side of the argument.

They also had something new to say about another controversy this season:

Stone and Parker also admitted they were stunned when, right around the same time, Comedy Central refused to let them show an image of Muhammad in an episode lampooning the so-called “cartoon wars” — the violence that broke out in Europe and several Muslim countries over Danish cartoons that protesters said were blasphemous because they depicted the prophet.

Stone and Parker were particularly surprised since, a few years earlier, the network had run an episode in which Muhammad was portrayed as a superhero who could turn himself into a beaver.

Comedy Central’s response ?

During the Q&A, [Comedy Central head Doug] Herzogtold the TV critics that it had been a tough situation and a “judgment made on behalf of a big media company” and that “history might show we overreacted and we’re willing to live with that.” Then he noted that the image of Muhammad was there — “it’s underneath the black screen.”

No kidding — he really did. He added, “We’re looking forward to the day when we can uncover it.”

As Cartman might say, dumbass.