Is Paramount+ Sneak-Dissing ‘South Park' By Putting It in the ‘Cringeworthy' Category?
According to industry insiders, Paramount Global is in advanced negotiations with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone over a settlement that would avoid a lawsuit between the parties and secure an extension to the lucrative overall South Park contract. After Parker and Stone publicly accused Paramount and its prospective new owners at Skydance Media of meddling in their negotiations with other streaming giants following the breakdown of the initial extension talks, the South Park creators seemed poised to go to war with Paramount and its partners on more fronts than just social media and strongly worded letters.
Then, over the weekend, Hollywood insider Matthew Belloni reported that Paramount was making major strides toward settling the dispute with Parker and Stone out of court while securing the future of South Park on its home platform. At the same time, however, Paramount+ listed the entirety of its South Park offerings in the 'Cringeworthy Comedies' category, as one fan of the show pointed out in the South Park subreddit.
Maybe Paramount+ is taking subtle shots at South Park after pulling the show from international streaming markets amidst the acrimonious contract dispute — or maybe they really can't get through South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut without wincing. Musicals aren't for everyone.
Seriously, South Park has had some pain-inducing moments over its 26 seasons and counting — Cartman's 'red rocket' method in the Season Five episode 'Proper Condom Use' jumps out as especially hard-to-watch — but South Park is hardly cringeworthy comedy in the way that the term typically describes shows like The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm. A 'cringe comedy' is generally accepted to mean a series that uses social awkwardness and the accidental transgression of social norms as the foundation for the humor, not one that features shockingly graphic depictions of dog masturbation by a sociopathic child.
Given the bad fit, the fact that every single South Park streaming special available on Paramount+ is headlining the cringeworthy comedy category is certainly suspicious. However, the simplest explanation is that the front-and-center placement is just the algorithmic consequence of subscriber streaming habits that no human being influenced on Paramount's end.
Or, alternatively, Paramount is intentionally featuring South Park in an ill-fitting and possibly insulting category because it's trying to milk every view it can out of its South Park content, just in case negotiations fall through and they lose the rest of the South Park library forever. But while that would certainly be a pathetic explanation for the puzzling category classification, it would only be the second most cringeworthy milking scheme in South Park history.
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