Trey Parker and Matt Stone are detailing their decision to steer heavily into politics during the current season of South Park, which has been laser-focused on President Trump and his administration’s policies.
During an interview published over the weekend with The New York Times, the show’s creators were asked about the politics of season 28, which has helped generate the biggest ratings and most headlines for the Comedy Central series in decades.
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“It’s not that we got all political,” Parker explained. “It’s that politics became pop culture.”
Stone noted that speaking out against the Trump administration started to feel “taboo” — presumably referring to the administration targeting media outlets such as CBS’ 60 Minutes, as well as late night series with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! and CBS’ Late Night with Stephen Colbert.
“Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey,” Stone said. “Oh, that’s where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we’re over there … we just had to show our independence somehow.”
That said, it wasn’t the plan to make the season as political as it was. The duo originally planned to target Trump in the season premiere as a one-time thing (featuring a graphically nude Trump). But then it felt right to continue mining that vein for more comedy.
“We’re just very down-the-middle guys,” Parker said. “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.”
In the show’s most recent Halloween episode, the creators mocked their own focus on politics this season (as well as some of the backlash they’ve received). “How many weeks has it been now, dealing with one stupid thing after another?” Stan says to the show’s audience. “The truth is, I think a lot of people are afraid to admit it. Yeah, everyone knows South Park sucks now and it’s because all this political stuff is being totally bogged down in it. Remember when we used to do stuff, ever since all this political crap took over.”
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