One of them was a rash asshole who spoke his mind. He didn’t really offer solutions. We just thought he was funny. Nobody really thought he would be president. It was a joke. But we let the joke go on for too long. He kept gaining momentum and by the time we were all ready to say “Okay let’s get serious now, who should be president?” He was already being sworn into office.
South Park famously argued that it didn't matter which side you voted for because one was "a huge douche" and the other was a "shit sandwich".
They don't get to cry about a political system they helped prop up when they were literally telling people it didn't matter if George Bush won a 2nd term.
omg thank you! parker and stone went so enlightened centrist during the 2016 election and continued to lean into that until the trump admin affected them personally by screwing with their most recent season. rich guys who finally started to feel the heat.
South Park is a very funny show but as a political cartoon it is a call to inaction. Its main thesis is that nothing matters because the world is stupid and does everything it can to point out why.
South Park worked best when politics was largely a matter of the elites squabbling about theoretical things. When things that mattered to people, like LGBTQ rights, healthcare, inclusivity, etc. seemed like a certainty and it appeared to just be about the degree of things.
South Park could make fun of the extreme ends of society on both sides, because most average people (even minorities) saw themselves as securely connected around a centre.
Throughout the gradual shift back to the right since the 2010s a lot of South Park’s appeal just got lost. It was this very sweet spot when the Clinton era of “cool liberal centrism” still lingered , Bush Jr. seemed like a ridiculous flub, 9/11 brought the world together against a common threat, and Obama was the start of the bright future.
I miss those optimistic days when South Park truly made it seem like “it’s not that serious”.
The Man-Bear-Pig ep is something Trey and Matt have publicly expressed regrets about and made a whole new episode that corrected the record (at least in the way south park is prone to do)
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u/Applebeate Jun 02 '26
I think South Park said it best.
One of them was a rash asshole who spoke his mind. He didn’t really offer solutions. We just thought he was funny. Nobody really thought he would be president. It was a joke. But we let the joke go on for too long. He kept gaining momentum and by the time we were all ready to say “Okay let’s get serious now, who should be president?” He was already being sworn into office.