South Park is the rare show that can effectively blend vulgar yet hilarious toilet humor with sharp satirical social commentary. Over the past few seasons, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have leaned more heavily on the latter with increasing emphasis on political humor. While this often elevates the quality of the show’s content, it can leave some fans who are just looking for a little lighthearted escapism disappointed.
As a result, South Park may very well steer clear of Donald Trump and politics in general in its upcoming 21st season. Here’s what Parker told the Los Angeles Times:
Yeah, and it’s also just gotten boring. We weren’t ever really that show. We would do an entire season and there would be one moment that played off something that had just happened and people would go, “ ‘South Park’ is the show that does that.” And that’s just not true. We’re not.
We did start to become that, though, especially the last season. We fell into the same trap that “Saturday Night Live” fell into, where it was like, “Dude, we’re just becoming CNN now. We’re becoming: ‘Tune in to see what we’re going to say about Trump.’ ” Matt and I hated it but we got stuck in it somehow.
This season I want to get back to Cartman dressing up like a robot and [screwing] with Butters, because to me that’s the bread and butter of “South Park”: kids being kids and being ridiculous and outrageous but not “did you see what Trump did last night?” Because I don’t give a … anymore.
We probably could put up billboards — “Look what we’re going to do to Trump next week!” — and get crazy ratings. But I just don’t care.
When something big happens in the country, it’s always nice to get the South Park guys’ take on it. “Snuke” and “About Last Night…” are some of the smartest and most hilarious political parodies in recent memory. But every now and then, fans just want a good ‘ol fashioned “Cartman Gets an Anal Probe.”
It’ll be refreshing to see Parker and Stone get back to their comedic roots.
South Park will return to Comedy Central with new episodes on August 23rd.
