Ever since it first aired on television in 1997, Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s hugely popular animated comedy, South Park, has courted controversy due to its crude jokes, deliberate lack of tact, and the creators’ steadfast refusal to self-censor or bow to external pressures. However, two years after the show debuted, a feature length film was released – South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut – and in order for it to gain an R rating, Stone and Parker had no choice but to chop and change certain scenes. This legendary memo, from Stone to the MPAA, was sent along with the movie’s second cut.

The first picture is of the whole memo; below that is a close-up of the text. Transcript follows. See also: Monty Python’s I would like to retain ‘fart in your general direction.’

(Letter taken from the More Letters of Note book; reproduced with Matt Stone’s permission. For more info and to read reviews of that book, go here.)

Transcript Date: [Illegible]

To: [Redacted]

From: Matt Stone

CC: [Redacted]

Re: MPAA cut #2 Here is our new cut of the South Park movie to submit to the MPAA. I wanted to tell you exactly what notes we did and did not address. We left in both the “fisting” and the “rimjob” references in the counselor’s office scene. We did cut the word “hole” from “asshole” as per our conversation. We took out the entire “God has fucked me in the ass so many times…” It is gone. Although it is not animated yet, we put a new storyboard in for clarification in the scene with Saddam Hussein’s penis. The intent now is that you never see Saddam’s real penis, he in fact is using dildos both times. We have the shot animated that reveals the fact that Winona is not shooting ping-pong balls from her vagina. She is, in fact, hitting the balls with a ping-pong paddle. We took out the only reference to “cum-sucking ass” in the film. It was in the counselor’s office and we took it out. We left in the scenes with Cartman’s mom and the horse as per our conversation. This is the one joke we really want to fight for. Call with any questions. Matt P.S. This is my favorite memo ever.