South Park
The 27th season of the animated television show South Park premiered on Wednesday night. The show has always been, uh, edgy. I don't watch it regulary, but the new season opener has gotten so much attention that I streamed it last night.
The backdrop to the episode is that media company Paramount aims to sell itself to a company named Skydance for an enormous pile of cash. The Federal Communications Commission must approve the sale, and does what Donald Trump tells it to. Steven Colbert, host of the Late Night television program, has criticized Trump personally, and Trump's policies. Just prior to the FCC approval for the purchase, Paramount announced it was cancelling Colbert's show. It also agreed to pay large sums to settle lawsuits filed by the President personally against the network for earlier content.
South Park absolutely skewers Paramount and insults the President in the new episode. I'm shocked by how topical and timely the episode is: I'd expect it to take weeks to make a TV show, but this episode is very much up to date.
Besides the hundreds of millions in lawsuit settlements, Paramount had only recently signed a $1.6 billion deal for exclusive distribution rights to the South Park show.
Spoilers, for those of you who've been in a cave for the last few days:
The principal of the South Park elementary school abandons his woke ways and embraces fundamentalist Christianity. Jesus shows up at school in person. The population of South Park objects to religion in the classroom. Trump sues 'em. Trump is shown in bed with Satan, repeatedly; his penis is very small. It has a speaking role.
Edgy? Maybe a ways past that. But, certainly, satire, protected speech.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone, South Park's creators, have put Paramount in a delightfully painful position: Cancel the show, clearly bowing to Trump, but losing the large sum paid for distribution rights? Support it, angering the administration?
Parker and Stone appeared at Comic-Con in San Diego yesterday. The Guardian covers the panel they were on, including this delightful excerpt:
Stone added that the team decided to put eyes on the penis, which would make it a character: “If we put eyes on the penis, we won’t blur it. That was a whole conversation with grown-up people for four fucking days.”
The article is funny, and worth your while. I enjoyed the show. And, yeah, I streamed it on my Paramount subscription.