'South Park' Season 19 news & update: Yelp not suing for $10 million as Cartman tackles body-shaming in 'Safe Space' episode

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Halloween is just around the corner, and people are already falling for tricks played on Internet readers who believe that Yelp is suing South Park after the parody site NBC.com.co published an article saying otherwise. The satirical story claims that Yelp has filed a lawsuit against Comedy Central and South Park thanks to the latter's recent episode that "lampooned the customer review and local business rating website."

The well-written story even included a "statement" from Yelp spokesperson who said: "The South Park episode was in extremely bad taste and not funny whatsoever. To say our critics are out there trying to get free food and using racist slurs on little Mexican children is beyond ridiculous. To compare the users of Yelp to terrorists is not only cruel, but the definition of libel and slander. I believe any reasonable court in America will agree with the lawsuit and rule in our favor."

The episode in question is "You're Not Yelping", which parodies Yelp reviewers and compares them to the terrorist group ISIS. According to Cinema Blend, the article was picked up by several media outlets, including San Francisco Business Times and Google News.

Eater reports that the lawsuit claims are entirely false, and that Yelp has zero intentions of filing a case against South Park. In fact, a real Yelp spokesperson told Eater, "The rumor about a Yelp lawsuit is entirely untrue and was started by a satire site that has received far too much media credibility. We have no interest in legal action against the fantastic team that makes the South Park magic happen."

Meanwhile, South Park continues to address current social issues with their latest episode titled "Safe Space". IGN reports that the episode featured a social issue in the form of "shaming". "Safe Space" found Randy being offered to "donate a dollar to help feed starving children". When Randy declined, he was given a condescending look by the cashier, putting him in a position a lot of viewers may have been in at some point in their lives.

Entertainment Weekly also reports that Cartman experienced shaming in another way. In this episode, Butters was tasked to filter Cartman's social media feed, exposing him to the negative comments online that caused his mental breakdown. It seemed to pose the argument that if one does not want to be shamed, then one must not post photos of himself online.

South Park airs on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.