WhenSouth Parkdebuted on Comedy Central in 1997,Trey ParkerandMatt Stone’s animated series was a crudely drawn show, but if you accepted the amateurish appearance of the characters and their surroundings, what you found was a well-crafted and rather timely satire. Sure,South Parkmight be about the insanity and stupidity of a small town in Colorado, with most of the focus being on a foursome of fourth graders, but there was a lot more going on thanEric Cartman’s racist rageand Kenny’s weekly deaths.
Unlike other TV shows, which take months to produce,South Parkcan create a new episode every week. This allowed them to take a hilarious look at whatever had happened in politics or pop culture the week before.Combine them withThe Daily Show with Jon Stewartand the pair made Comedy Central must-see TV for many years. Now, starting on July 9, South Park is coming back for a 27th season, but as shown by the just-released trailer,Parker and Stone might be changing up their format with a bigger, ongoing season arc.
‘South Park’ Season 27’s Trailer Includes Nods To Several Real Life Events
It has been over two years since a season ofSouth Park, with the 26th airing in February and March 2023. Parker and Stone have helped keep fans content with several specials on Paramount+ since 2021, but this summer it makes its return as we know it: a weekly half-hour series. A few days ago, South Park Studios released an 80-second teaser trailer and there is so, so much to unpack.
South Parklooks to be as timely as everwith the scenes shown. The trailer opens with dark images and music, with the words “The acclaimed drama returns”. We then see Randy Marsh asking his daughter, Shelley Marsh, if she’s been taking ketamine. The trailer moves on to a montage of Kenny, Cartman, Kyle, and Stan walking down the sidewalk as their neighborhood’s homes burn, tugboats full of celebrating Frenchmen use ropes to pull down the Statue of Liberty, passenger jets crash into each other in the sky, and a jetpack wearingP. Diddyflies through space with the boys. For some reason, Butters is working in air traffic control, freaking out that he’s going to get fired as more planes explode behind him. We see Canadians marching on the warfield, Kyle in bed sprouting wings, presumably from the bird flu, and Randy leaving his house, telling his wife, “I’m just gonna do some ketamine and fuck around with the government a little.”
It’s easy to see all the references to real life. Taking ketamine is a reference toElon Musk, who is known to take the stuff, and Randy’s line at the end is about Musk’s controversial work with DOGE. The boys walking past burning homes alludes to the California wildfires. P. Diddy’s cameo comes ashe has been in the news for sex trafficking and prostitution charges. Kyle literally turning into a bird is a play on the bird flu pandemic. Scenes of planes exploding in the sky are sadly looking back at a series of plane crashes over the last few months, includingthe tragedy that killed 67 airline passengers at Reagan International Airport back in January. The Canadians are shown at war because they are angry about PresidentDonald Trumpwanting to make them a state.There is nothing but chaos happening in the teaser, so just what isSouth Parkplanning?
‘South Park’ Can Make a New Episode in Just Six Days
It’s very rare to get a trailer for aSouth Parkseason that’s not an hour-long special, because the show is known forhow fast it can put out an episode. Rather than going in with some planned all-encompassing arc, Stone and Parker often seem to wing it, building episodes around whatever is going on in society. Sure,South Parkstill has more traditional episodes that can be created anytime, with the boys getting into hijinks, but they are also known for being able to quickly punch at celebrities and politicians. They haven’t been afraid to take timely jabs at Presidents (Mr. Garrison turned into Donald Trump for way too long), celebrities in the news likeBen AffleckandJennifer Lopez, controversies around Scientology, disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and on and on. No other series can do this, but just how canSouth Parkbe so timely when it takes months to makea single episode ofThe SimpsonsorFamily Guy?
In a 2022 interview with theTelevision Academy, Trey Parker and Matt Stone spoke about how farSouth Parkhas come in its ability to quickly produce an episode. When it was first created, the crude animation was done with construction paper moved bit by bit for each shot, giving an episode a jerky-looking quality of movement. Now it’s all done on computers with the same crude-looking animation. Parker said, “They had the ability to do it, but we had to be like, ‘No, do this in ten minutes.’ Part of the joke was how crappy it looked. It still has this kind of ‘crappy’ look to it, but now there is really good art.” Stone stressed that the episodes still look handmade, but he gave an example of just how far technology has come. “A shot that used to take a day to render now takes one or two seconds.”
Did ‘South Park’ Really Rip Off an Internet Video for One of Its Episodes?
And they paid the price for it.
South Parkbecame so well known for how fast they could produce an episode that the production even became the topic of a documentary, 2011’s6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park. The 42-minute documentary took audiences behind-the-scenes for the making of the Season 15 premiere in April 2011 to show howthe team gathers in Los Angeles to write, record, and voice an episode in less than one week. This ability has ledSouth Parkto become one of the most important shows ever created. It’s already a fun time when it’s just the boys getting into trouble, but when it expands to hold up a mirror to our times, it becomes something so much more than a foul-mouthed cartoon.
Hopefully, ‘South Park’ Doesn’t Have Every Episode Completed Already
South Parkis returning to TV at the perfect time.We need Cartman, Kenny, Kyle, Stan, Butters, and the town of South Park, Colorado now more than ever. No matter what side of the political aisle you fall on, you have to admit that the world we are living in is one of high anxiety.South Parkhas been able to make fun of both the left and the right, giving us a reason to laugh when world events were nearly unbearable.
That we’re getting a trailer for Season 27 though is a curious choice. Is this all for the July 9 premiere, or are these scenes that will be carried through an entire season’s worth of material?South Parkhas done multi-episode arcs many times before, but never for a plot so spot-on with current events. If they’re breaking their six-day formula and all the episodes are already complete or roughly thought out, that’s a very risky move. July 9 is already three months from now, and who knows what wild things will be happening? We may have already moved on from the bird flu, wildfires, and plane crashes as if they were events that feel like years ago. The news happens at such a rapid pace anymore that even six days is now pushing it for timeliness. So, let’s hope that they are still producing episodes on a weekly basis.We needSouth Park’s satire to help keep us saneduring some nerve-racking times.
South Park
Follows the misadventures of four irreverent grade-schoolers in the quiet, dysfunctional town of South Park, Colorado.
