AFP 
  
 
SYDNEY, Oct 28: A controversial cartoon comedy making fun of the death of Australia's Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin may screen in his home country, despite the offence it may cause, the media reported on Saturday. 

An episode South Park, set to air in the United States this week, depicts the late Australian at a fancy dress party in Hell with a stingray barb sticking out of his chest. 

Irwin was killed eight weeks ago when a stingray barb pierced his heart while filming a segment for his daughter Bindi's upcoming children's documentary, prompting widespread mourning among Australians.

The Australian television channel, SBS, which has rights to the programme, said it would probably screen the episode next year, although that was yet to be decided as part of the network's classification process, Sky News reported.  

"It is satire and we believe in the right to satire, but in this episode is sensitive and we will consider that," SBS content manager Matt Campbell said.   

"We have offended people in the past and probably will again," a South Park spokesman said after the show's website was flooded with outraged correspondence.   

"We know regular watchers will not be shocked," he said.

The series has repeatedly come under fire for its controversial content, with an episode showing the Virgin Mary menstruating sparking widespread protests among Catholics, and its mockery of Scientology, prompting scientologist Isaac Hayes, one of South Park's main voice actors, to quit the show.

South Park has lampooned Irwin in the past, showing him terrorizing animals in a 1999 episode.  Irwin's manager, John Stainton, who recently slammed a US rapper for alluding to a stingray death while taking a swipe at a rival rapper, said this week he no longer logged onto the Internet, because of the amount of "distasteful" Crocodile Hunter material, the Australian Associated Press reported.