Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a tough time with Season 20 of “South Park” last year because they never expected Donald Trump to win the Presidential election. They built their entire serialised story arc around the assumption that Hillary Clinton would win and gender would be the hot-button issue, but then Trump won and they were completely unprepared – they had to change everything. They had to throw out an entire episode and make a completely new one.
So, to avoid making the same mistakes, they’re taking a different approach with Season 21 of “South Park,” where they’re planning to distance themselves from the Garrison/Trump storyline and probably ditch the serialised format they’ve cultivated over the last couple of seasons altogether and go back to the classic standalone format the show became a hit for.
They discussed their Season 21 plans on Bill Simmons’ live podcast.
Simmons made reference to ‘Saturday Night Live’
When discussing where “South Park” will go from here, Simmons referred to the success that “Saturday Night Live” has found by mocking the Trump administration on a weekly basis, but Parker held back, saying that while “SNL” is “doing better than ever” with its satirical handling of Trump’s Presidency, it’s making it a one-note show, with “every week” there being “a headline” speaking of “how “SNL” ripped on the Trump administration this week,” and he says that as a result, “SNL” has become “that show.”
They don’t want “South Park” to be “that show.” He found the Trump win to be “part of the bummer” for them because they “didn’t want to make it a big Trump thing,” because they don’t want to get bogged down in “just being a political show” because they like to “dabble” in and out of various arenas and topics, but the Trump thing didn’t allow that, so next season, their plan is to seek out more variety, or as Parker puts it, “Fart jokes.”
Simmons and Parker also noted how “South Park” parodies things, but it’s hard to parody or satirise Trump because he himself is already a parody.
Parker compared it to a “monkey running into the wall,” where it’s no fun for him to just “copy the monkey” without making fun of it, and you can’t make fun of the monkey, because “nothing’s funnier than the monkey just running himself into the wall.”
Season 21 premiere date yet to be confirmed
The premiere date for “South Park” Season 21 has yet to be confirmed, but it’s generally sometime in September, with ten episodes and a couple of dark weeks leading us into December, so the date is speculated to be around 13 September or 20 September. And don’t worry, the show isn’t going anywhere any time soon – Comedy Central has it renewed through to at least Season 23.
