Many of this year’s episodes of Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s long-running animated comedy hit “South Park” have been full-blown takedowns of current U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration.
The show has been criticising the MAGA movement and key people tied to it or Trump – from FCC chairman Brendan Carr to Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem.
In a new interview with The New York Times, Parker and Stone say part of the reason it has been such a focus is that politics has become so much a part of pop culture now in the age of social media, podcasts and short-form video that you can’t escape it.
Parker says this is true to the spirit of the show:
“It’s not that we got all political. It’s that politics became pop culture… there’s no getting away from [MAGA]. It’s like the government is just in your face everywhere you look.
Whether it’s the actual government or whether it is all the podcasters and the TikToks and the YouTubes and all of that, and it’s just all political and political because it’s more than political. It’s pop culture.
We’re just very down-the-middle guys. Any extremists of any kind we make fun of. We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us.
You know, next year will be different. If there’s one thing we know, it is that our show will be a lot longer than [Trump’s administration]. So, we just got to do this for now.”
Stone adds that the show has always sought out taboos when tackling topics: “Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey. Oh, that’s where the taboo is? Over there? Ok, then we’re over there.”
The show has also been criticising its owner Paramount and Stone says the studio has remained hands off for the moment: “I know with the Colbert thing and all the Trump stuff, people think certain things, but they’re letting us do whatever we want, to their credit.”
“South Park” is airing its current 28th season through December 10th.
