South Park is notorious for its unflinching topical humor that lampoons everything and
everyone under the sun.
Season 26 was absolutely no different featuring many of the characters adapting to modern
changes of the world, whether that be through the use of toilets or disgruntled Canadian
royalty.
Season 26 sure brought us some great laughs, character moments and social commentary, but
which of the topics that the show went after this year proved to be the most hilarious?
I'm _________ with WickedBinge and this is South Park Season 26 Culture Wars: Funny to
Hilariously Brilliant.
South Park also made it a point to lampoon TikTok videos this year.
It's well known that Matt Stone and Trey Parker both have children and a lot of the humor
put in the show nowadays derives from the disconnect they feel with the current generation.
This year's season premiere featured Kyle and Tolkien making extremely bizarre and annoying
TikTok videos that parody current trends on the platform.
Stan, Cartman and Kenny are extremely baffled by these videos' popularity, undoubtedly being
the mouthpiece for Stone and Parker's thoughts on TikTok as a whole.
Since both of the show’s creators have young children, they are undoubtedly exposed to
TikTok videos on a regular basis and as usual, they use the format of their own show to poke
fun at whatever they see.
This satire of TikTok isn't exactly deep or poignant but it is funny and accurate which
is all it really needs to be at the end of the day.
South Park has never held back from taking jabs at other forms of media and this season
aired their disdain with the current entertainment industry.
This was first touched upon when Cupid Ye convinced everyone that Kyle controls Hollywood
because he's Jewish.
This causes everyone to either pitch their ideas to him or complain to him about the
state of the industry.
The end credits of this episode even reference this by claiming everything was written and
directed by Matt Stone, unlike most episodes which credit Trey Parker.
The show further beats down on the film industry in the episode Deep Learning.
In this episode, Mr. Garrison comments how replacing the writers in Hollywood with AI
programs wouldn't make the film industry feel any more or less robotic than it already is.
It’s very clear that South Park’s creative team is airing their grievances with the lack
of creativity and new ideas which mirror the sentiments of many people nowadays.
As hinted at before, one of the subjects South Park covered this year was the AI technology
perpetuated by ChatGPT.
In the episode Deep Learning, Stan, Cartman, Butters and Clyde begin to see the benefits
of ChatGPT and use it for various reasons.
This includes responding to their girlfriends' texts as well as writing incredibly detailed
and informative essays for school.
Mr. Garrison also gets in on the trend by using the program to grade school work.
Everyone has a different point where they draw the line with Cartman not wanting to
get girls involved and Garrison claiming anyone who uses it for texting is a scumbag.
Stan uses the program to write an ending for the episode when he can't think of a creative
solution, obviously commenting how this type of technology could bleed into Hollywood.
The credits for the episode even claim it was written by Trey Parker and ChatGPT.
South Park sure are using their credits for gags a lot this season which is welcome because
it's very funny.
South Park this season once again went after members of British royalty, particularly Prince
Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex... er, Canada.
In this episode, the prince and his wife talk about their continued desire to be out of
the spotlight despite the fact they are putting themselves in the public eye by doing interviews
and book tours.
The South Park kids' reactions to this are a strong "who cares" until the prince and
his wife move in across the street from Kyle and shove their presences in his face.
This is undoubtedly how the South Park creators feel as Americans running a topical TV show
who constantly get news of the British Royal family shoved in their face whether they like
it or not.
Near the end of the episode, the Prince of Canada learns his lesson but the Princess
of Canada doesn’t as she’s revealed to be a completely hallow shell on the inside.
As usual, this show holds no punches when tackling celebrity culture.
One of the more unexpected targets of South Park this year were none other than toilet
paper companies.
The episode Japanese Toilet sees Randy embark on a campaign to raise awareness about his
sweet new toilet that has a bidet.
Once he gives a speech on how cool Japanese toilets are and how wasteful toilet paper
is, he is shot and almost killed by an unknown assassin.
Jimmy tells Stan that the toilet paper companies have too much to lose if Americans switch
to Japanese toilets and that he and his family are in danger.
The episode points out how harmful toilet paper production is to the environment and
how there are better options, despite American society being stuck in their ways.
There also is an indication that American medical companies are also benefitting from
this dynamic, as Randy’s proctologist attempts to destroy the Japanese toilet when he finds
out Randy doesn’t have a problem with hemorrhoids anymore.
South Park has tackled many celebrity controversies in the past and season 26's premiere went
back to the well that is Kanye West, are as he's currently known, Ye.
Mr. West has appeared on South Park twice before in the episodes Fishsticks and The
Hobbit.
Despite this, the Gay Fish did not appear himself in this new episode, instead being
parodied through an allegorical reference with Cupid Ye.
Formerly known as Cupid Me, Cupid Ye is an antisemitic rapper angel who shoots people
with arrows that make the recipient antisemitic.
This change in the character's wardrobe, name and attitude are obviously in reference to
Kanye... er, Ye's recent remarks about being a self-proclaimed Nazi.
In the episode, Cartman eventually feeds Cupid Ye his medication to get him to calm down
which does cause the angel to turn back into Cupid Me.
This is a subtle suggestion that maybe Ye should get some help and medical attention,
which is actually kind of thoughtful in a snarky way.
We would expect no less from South Park.
One of the more significant issues South Park commented on this year was that of the newer
generation’s work ethic.
One episode this season sees Cartman getting a job with Butters at an ice cream shop only
to take advantage of him at every turn.
When Butters calls him out on this, Cartman blames his mental health on everything and
eventually opts to work at home and blame all of his problems on the business owner.
Later in the episode, Cartman starts his own business with Kenny and they hire employees
to work for them.
Most of these employees make the same ludicrous demands of working from home and taking frequent
mental health days off, causing Cartman to blame the pandemic for making everyone lazy.
It’s important to note that South Park doesn’t make this issue age specific; adults like
Darryl are shown to have the same lazy attitude and young Butters is portrayed as extremely
hard working.
In fact, the episode also briefly comments on how child labor laws are being changed
so that owners can find people who actually want to perform these tasks.
Considering Matt Stone and Trey Parker run both an animation studio and now a restaurant,
there’s no doubt they face many challenges in the process of hiring new employees all
of the time.
Speaking of which, the same episode also tackles many issues with running a business.
This point is definitely related to our last one but we feel there are enough differences
in these two issues to warrant another entry in this video.
Somewhat famously, Stone and Parker purchased the legendary Casa Bonita restaurant which
was featured as a main plot point in one of South Park’s most iconic episodes.
While the restaurant itself didn’t appear in the new season, the tribulations of starting
up a business was tackled allegorically in the fifth episode of this season.
Cartman has been living in a hot dog for the past little while but he, along with Kenny,
decide to turn it back into a business, leading them to have issues with finding employees
and bringing in a crowd.
Cartman and Kenny are obviously out of their element which may be referencing how the creators
feel going from working in animation to customer service.
This is interesting considering Parker and Stone usually use Stan and Kyle to represent
their own points of view.
Cartman eventually does get everything taken away from him while Butters is appointed as
the new owner, showing thankfully hard work does eventually pay off in the long run.
One topic South Park was almost obligated to tackle was Donald Trump campaigning for
a 2024 re-election.
One of the more polarizing decisions in the recent years of South Park was to make Mr.
Garrison a stand in for Donald Trump.
Stone and Parker even kind of regret this choice as they believed this was only going
to be a single season arc initially.
Once Donald Trump won the election, they were stuck with Garrison in his position, although
he reverted to his role as a teacher once Trump lost the re-election.
Since Donald Trump is making another go at office in 2024, Garrison slips back into his
rallying days in this season's finale.
He eventually returns to South Park and claims he wants to stay there, while his boyfriend
Rick claims they'll see what happens.
Stone and Parker obviously are keeping their bases covered this time after their infamous
mistake in predicting the outcome of the 2016 election.
The meta humor here is great and we find it pretty funny that the South Park creators'
concerns with the upcoming election seems to mostly be based on what direction they'll
have to take Mr. Garrison as a character.
One subject South Park covered in two different ways was spring break culture.
The season finale of South Park this season was all about celebrating spring break from
the perspectives of two people, those being Mr. Garrison and Randy.
Mr. Garrison uses spring break as an excuse to take his boyfriend Rick on a romantic getaway.
In actuality this is an excuse to go to South Carolina and start rallying again, knowing
their vacation spot is around existing MAGA stores.
Randy uses the same holiday to throw a wild party, mostly to engage Stan who simply wants
to play a game of Warhammer with Tolkien.
In both cases, spring break shows these characters embrace their darker side with Randy being
careless and destructive and Garrison being two faced and deceitful.
In both cases, the men's significant other brings them back to reality with Rick welcoming
Garrison home and Sharon cleaning up after Randy's mess.
Even so, we all know that these characters have these bad tendencies they slip back into
every once in a while, kind of like teens repeatedly going back to spring break.
Who knows when Randy and Garrison's wild sides will emerge again (probably not too long from
now).
While Randy's actions in the spring break episode were bad, he defends himself by stating
he was trying to conquer the public's notion of ”toxic” masculinity.
South Park has dabbled into gender politics many times before and this season is no exception.
Stan continuously ignores Randy's partying throughout the episode much to the latter's
dismay.
Randy believes this is due to current society making Stan feel ashamed of his inner urges
when it seems the kid simply wants to play a board game with his friend.
Not only does Randy continually fail to convince Stan of his point, he actually proves the
opposite with his destructive behavior, relying on Sharon to solve his problems.
The episode isn't really taking the hardline opposite or progressive opinion when it comes
to gender or masculinity; as much as its just taking a crack at the other extreme.
Speaking of which, we get to Andrew Tate.
While he isn’t a huge character in the episode, Randy enlists help from a man named Alonzo
Fineski while trying to help Stan experience spring break.
This man has a very similar appearance to Andrew Tate, including his beard, sunglasses
and cigar, as well as many of his viewpoints.
Still not convinced?
Well, later in the episode when the cops arrive at Randy’s house, they identify Alonzo as
a Romanian sex trafficker who they need to bring into custody.
This is an obvious homage to Andrew Tate’s current legal issues.
Though its important to note: Andrew Tate was just released as of the writing of this
script; and despite his original arrest, he was never officially charged with any crimes.
But regardless, the portrayal was so dead on that Andrew Tate commented on the episode,
stating that once he is proven innocent for his crimes he will help create the greatest
South Park episode of all time.
He also said it was nice to meet his hero Randy Marsh.
We actually do think this is possible…
in the sense that Tate would do something so big and outlandish that it makes for great
material for South Park in the future.
Much like Trump and Garrison, we’ll have to see if “Alonzo” makes any subsequent
appearances on South Park.
But let us know in the comment section what you think the funniest cultural issue South
Park tackled this year was, as well as what we should cover next.
Make sure to hit that notification bell and binge our other videos.
But most importantly, stay wicked.