Author: Robert Skuch updated
south park Always a counter-culture show, one of the reasons I’m critical of the current episodes of Seasons 27 and 28 is that the show has become a hotbed of political commentary, just like every other late-night show. It’s not unique anymore; it’s preaching to the choir, and it’s just so, so boring. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are well aware of this, and they pulled back the curtain for the first time on the latest episode of Women in Hats, which criticized not only the Trump administration but their own creations as well.
Stan Marsh, ever the avatar of Parker, summed it up succinctly: “South Park sucks right now. It’s because it’s all political garbage. We’re totally caught up in it. Remember when we used to do it? It was just us guys? Ever since all this political bullshit took over, like what? Like what happened to us?”
People like me are now the subject of South Park satire
I’ve been saying for months that I miss the past south park Because the plot involving the boys and their misadventures has always been the best part of the show. I’ve been called a fascist for criticizing a show that’s critical of our current president, like you can’t criticize those two things for different reasons.
Let me be very clear here: criticizing a TV series that criticizes Donald Trump doesn’t mean you can’t criticize Donald Trump. These are two different things. The fact that needs to be spelled out is sad because it shows how bad we are at critical thinking.
Recent seasons have centered on long political arcs surrounding Trump, Satan, and serialized storylines, rather than the one-off mayhem that was the hallmark of its early years. This shift has left fans very divided.
However, it’s worth noting that I’m not the only one who has these thoughts about South Park. Based on fan ratings, The Woman in the Hat is currently ranked 286th on IMDb, with a rating of 7.3 stars as of this writing. Parker and Stone now seem to realize that they’ve painted themselves into a corner, as they did in Season 20 (when they counted on Hillary Clinton to win in 2016, only to hastily rewrite the entire storyline when she lost) and face a similar dilemma.
south park Commentators on YouTube have echoed the sentiment that the show has become too political, and creators like Blooms and Truff’s Stuff have now expertly analyzed in detail what exactly went wrong with the show. While I can’t say for sure whether Parker and Stone actually saw these glitches, I can confidently say that they were aware of this clear decline in the quality of their creations.
After spending quite a bit of time on Women in Hats turning the mirror on their critics (and themselves), I’m actually starting to think that seasons 27 and 28 are part of a long-term scam to have their cake and eat it too. They are still trying to go after the Trump administration, but are deliberately frustrating their own show in the process to make their point.
Paramount Similarities
No political satire involved south park Continuing to rant about Women in Hats because anyone can look it up on Wikipedia, I want to focus instead on the boys and their crusade to save their town from politics. Stan, who wants to save South Park, takes a page from the Season 16 episode “Butterballs” playbook and decides the best way to prove his point is to make people lose their money through an elaborate cryptocurrency scheme. Hopefully he won’t bite off more than he can chew and drop his pants on another street corner in San Diego.
That’s exactly what Parker and Stone did when they struck a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount+. They delayed production on Season 27 to avoid politics and focus on The Boys, and then after lengthy negotiations and legal battles, they felt the need to go all-in on politics.
During this period, other politically charged programs such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Paramount Global canceled or changed them, which only reinforces the idea that Parker and Stone need to say something in the name of free speech. Before the ink was even dry on the new contract, they decided to double down on their efforts to get tough on current events. south park Creators become more important than ever through the Sermon on the Mount.
south park More popular than ever and a lot of fun. But then it became monophonic and quickly became boring. With Season 27 ending after just five episodes, Season 28 marked a shift in style for the show, as the can of worms had already opened in the form of a season-long arc between Trump and his “butt babies” versus Satan. It seems to me that Stan’s current lamentation about South Park reflects Trey Parker’s current feelings about the show. But it makes sense when Stan says, “What’s wrong with trying to make some money while pointing out the problems in our town?”
and south park As a counterculture institution, I can understand why Parker and Stone feel a responsibility to use their platform to satirize the system they believe contributes to the deterioration of media friendliness in the United States. Feeling powerless to disengage from politics, they decided to do what they do best, which is lampoon themselves and fans who no longer enjoy the series as much as they once did.
I’ll leave you with a huge middle finger
I started to see the pieces falling into place. south parkHaving recently locked up one of the most lucrative deals in television history, it could be sabotaging itself to prove a point while also making a killing.
If this decline was intentional, it would redefine the backlash from failure to performance art. immediately south park Seeing ratings eventually drop among the new politically sensitive audience who only stayed for the Trump stuff, long-time fans like me also grew tired of the show as it took new directions and slowly drifted away from the series, potentially causing irreparable damage to Paramount’s bottom line.
I may be off base here, but this does seem to be by design. Parker and Stone took their $1.5 billion and alienated their core audience in the process, which is probably the most counterculture thing anyone can do, and they laughed all the way to the bank.
As for the rest of Season 28, I think I’ll stick with it. It’s great to see the boys at the same table figuring out how to save South Park, while also hearing Trey Parker use Stan to vent his dissatisfaction with the show’s creative direction.
I hope I’m right, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
south park Now streaming on Paramount+.
