3 days ago
What does South Park's boundary-pushing comedy mean for politics?
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For 27 seasons, South Park has never held back when it comes to mocking those in power. Yet after nearly three decades on the air, its new season is arguably its most vicious. South Park 's latest episodes have brutally satirized the Trump administration, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and even the show's own network, Paramount.
South Park has received backlash from those it mocks, but it's also seeing record-breaking numbers of people tuning in to watch the show.
Today on Commotion, guest host Ali Hassan speaks with TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk and comedian Ashley Ray about how South Park pushes the limits of comedy and what it means for both art and politics.
We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.
WATCH | Today's episode on YouTube:
Ali: As recently as last fall, South Park 's co-creator said in Vanity Fair: "I don't know what more we could possibly say about Trump." So, Kathryn, what's changed?
Kathryn: A couple things have changed. Most notably, he was re-elected. I mean, it's a pretty big and monumental shift. And I think the other thing is that that election has forced a lot of people to realize that this administration does not seem to be operating in a lot of the same ways that the first Trump administration did. It is much more extreme, a lot of the guardrails that were in place that first time around have been removed. And so suddenly, there is this acceleration of a lot of things that people were hoping they would not actually have to deal with.
The other really important thing that has changed is that since that first statement that they were like, "I'm not sure what else to say about Trump," South Park and Paramount came to this really important deal — over a billion dollar deal — for all streaming rights to South Park and streaming rights to future episodes that they're going to promise to make. And then in almost the same week, Paramount fired Stephen Colbert and ended his late night show because they were trying — allegedly — to appease the Trump administration to get this merger [with Skydance] done. And so suddenly South Park, the creators find themselves in this place where they had just gotten all of this money from this corporate overlord, who is then making deals with this administration that is doing a lot of things that really bothers them.
Ali: Ashley, what would you say the South Park audience looks like now versus what they looked like 28 years ago when they started?
Ashley: I feel like I came of age at the right time for South Park. I was in middle school, which I think is still the show's main audience. But I was in middle school, Bush was in office, and it felt like the show that gave me a voice when I had issues with politics that I didn't understand as a kid. I was like, "This gets it, I am mad about this war, and here's a show that is saying this." And I think in its original formation, it was a little, "Let's speak truth to power and point out things that are ridiculous."
But as the culture shifted and things became more liberal and Obama got into office, South Park, I think, understood that their role was to then question that voice in authority. And to really become that voice of the contrarian of, "Hey, this is what people are afraid to talk about, afraid to say." I think with the rise of more liberal television shows on Comedy Central, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report getting popular, South Park said, "Hey, we can kind of be the other side of that, and we can stand up for the guys who are like, 'Well, why can't I say the R-word? Why can't I do this anymore?'" And point out how maybe sometimes these guys are just saying all this stuff because they want to smell their own farts and it's not so serious.
I think they became this show that the right wing embraced and thought was on their side. And the show was happy to cater to those shock-jock dudes. And now I think they realize they've created this audience that isn't really understanding what they intend to do, now that they want to take aim at Trump — it's not out of admiration. And I think this audience refuses to see that they are being made fun of because they see South Park as being on their side.
