South Park Irwin episode to screen

An episode of South Park showing Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin attending a party in hell with a stingray barb through his chest is set to be screened in New Zealand.

Irwin died just eight weeks ago when a stingray barb pierced his heart while he was filming off the north Queensland coast.

The South Park episode, which had been scheduled for broadcast in the United States on Wednesday, is likely to upset Irwin fans and his family - wife Terri and children Bindi and Bob.

It is not the first time the show has created waves.

"We have offended people in the past and probably will again," a South Park spokesman told a London newspaper. "We know that regular watchers will not be shocked."

In the episode, Satan hosts a fancy dress party attended by Irwin, Princess Diana and Adolf Hitler - among other famous dead people.

But Irwin is kicked out by the Devil because he's not in costume.

Last night C4's programme director Andrew Szusterman, through a spokesperson, said: "It is really difficult to comment without having watched the programme."

The station would consider its "legal position" before deciding whether to screen the episode.

The Herald on Sunday has learned that C4 has screened all the episodes it has purchased, and the one mocking Irwin is unlikely to be different.

A spokeswoman for Australian TV network SBS admitted some Australians might find the episode offensive, but said it was likely to go to air. "The show is always pushing the boundaries," she said.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority received its largest number of complaints when, in February, C4 screened a South Park episode showing a menstruating statue of the Virgin Mary, despite noisy protests.

Tom Cruise reportedly stopped an episode mocking him from being aired in Britain.

In the episode Nicole Kidman and John Travolta were depicted trying to coax Cruise out of a closet. According to TheRegister.co.uk, Paramount has agreed not to show the episode again, after Cruise complained.

New Zealand Forum on the Family said the Irwin episode was typical "of the type of disrespect handed down to children from South Park".

"We need to able to laugh at ourselves but when it targets an individual it becomes offensive," said spokesman Bob McCoskrie.