The left and the right often rant about censorship and cancel culture these days, with both sides claiming to stand for openness and accusing their opponents of wanting to silence debate. At the same time, however, they strangely enough want to prevent their opponents from expressing their opinions in various ways but fails to see the irony in this.
One series that has managed to navigate the treacherous debate climate unscathed, despite dealing heavy blows to all sides, is South Park. Film and series creators are becoming increasingly cautious, while the makers of South Park seem to be doing the exact opposite. And while they often receive criticism from one side, they are usually loved again shortly afterwards when they turn their attention to someone else.
This current season, like so much else in the media, has been dominated by President Trump, and if you've been following the show, you know that it has been dishing out slaps worse than ever before, leading many to wonder how they can even continue as they do in this media climate. Now, one of the South Park creators, Trey Parker, comments on their approach in an interview with Variety:
"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."
Today, Trump's critics are celebrating this, but a few years ago, it was woke culture that was being mercilessly attacked, and the tone was different then, with the right side tending to cheer instead:
"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."
He is confident that South Park will survive the Trump administration, concluding that this is just a phase and that things will swing back again in the future:
"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."
What do you think about South Park and creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker's outspoken approach to criticising what they perceive as absurdities, regardless of political affiliation?