An episode of controversial cartoon series South Park has sparked outrage after depicting Hollywood director Steven Spielberg in a rape scene with Harrison Ford.

The show made its season 12 debut on Yom Kippur on Thursday.

In the opening episode, entitled The China Problem, the show’s characters have flashbacks of Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford getting raped by Jewish director Spielberg and his fellow filmmaker George Lucas.

Actor JJeremy Piven has blamed his ill-received acceptance speech at last month’s 60th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on the event’s reality TV star hosts.

Piven picked up a third successive gong for his role in US TV hit Entourage at the ceremony, where he took the stage to thank his co-stars.

The star took aim at the hosts, including American Idol’s Ryan Seacrest, Project Runway’s Heidi Klum, slamming their lacklustre opening sequence after his own speech dried up.