After pulling it out of rotation, Comedy Central is reportedly planning to re-air the South Park episode ‘Trapped in the Closet,” which mercilessly skewers actor Tom Cruise and the Church of Scientology. The controversial, Emmy-nominated installment is scheduled to make its comeback on July 19.
In the episode, Stan signs up to join the Scientologists, who believe him to be the reincarnation of founder L. Ron Hubbard. He then finds himself visited by celebrity Scientologists, including John Travolta and Cruise. When Stan tells cruise what he thinks of his acting, the Mission Impossible star locks himself in a closet and refuses to budge, despite constant pleading for him to ‘come out of the closet.’
Though Comedy Central claims the episode is on a normal rotation schedule, it’s reported that the network was pressured to yank it by parent company Paramount and the star of its big-budget summer flick, Mission: Impossible III. Matt Stone, who created South Park with Trey Parker, told Daily Variety, “If they hadn’t put this episode back on the air, we’d have had serious issues, and we wouldn’t be doing anything else with them.”
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