Following the success of last year’s The Pandemic Special, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone came back with the gang for the South ParQ Vaccination Special, and for sure, distributing a vaccine on this show reflected what’s going on out here in the so-called real world. It was chaos, while also skewering QAnon with the help of Butters. The organic-food-demanding QAnon Shaman was on hand, and South Park did what it does best: skewer absolutely everyone. The show doesn’t always hit the mark, but the creators have shown themselves to be surprisingly adept at hopping on current events as they happen. So yes, they also touched upon The Muppets, which were not cancelled (contrary to the belief of Don Jr.). Instead, the beloved show surfaced on Disney+, although right-wing feathers were ruffled over 18 episodes receiving content warnings for “negative depictions or mistreatment of people or cultures,” as with the episode where Johnny Cash sings in a barn where the Confederate flag is present. Well, South Park put its own spin on the controversy.
Of course, this is not the first time (and not even the tenth time) that Parker and Stone came for Disney. These guys come for everyone, including themselves with their own notorious South Park disclaimer (which already both makes use of and fun of standard legal riders found on nearly every Hollywood product):
“All characters and events in this show — even those based on real people — are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated… poorly. The following language contains coarse language and due to its content it should not be viewed by everyone.”
Here’s the updated South Park disclaimer as seen on the Vaccination Special:
“This program includes negative descriptions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and will still be wrong in the future. Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together. Like the The Muppets, this show should not be watched by anyone.”
Who knows if this disclaimer will stand, or if Parker and Stone will choose to revert to their previous cheeky words, but they’ve pretty much copy-pasted the first paragraph of the Disney+ disclaimer. And they did it without further interpretation, too, so it sure looks like they’re making fun of everyone, including themselves. At least we know who they’re roasting below, though…
South Park is shitting on the Qanon people pic.twitter.com/lOJkXUpI9W
— StarWarsOnly (@StarWarsOnly2) March 11, 2021