The long-running hit series “South Park” entered its 20th season this month by hilariously spoofing the upcoming presidential election. After 19 seasons on the air, South Park has often satirized controversial topics in society, such as Scientology, politics, terrorism and the depiction of the Virgin Mary. As an entire South Park episode is produced in only six days, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone plan to continue conducting plots based around the election.
While South Park’s version of the election does include an animated version of Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump is noticeably left out. In his place is South Park’s own Mr. Garrison, a bigoted and psychologically unstable school teacher. The reason for including Garrison instead of Donald Trump was because Parker and Stone “didn’t want to give him [Donald] the satisfaction of being in our show.”
So what does South Park have to say about these two candidates? Well, in the words of Parker, Stone and the show itself, “It’s between a giant d—he and a turd sandwich.”
While I cannot find myself getting too interested in politics, or really even identify with a certain political party, the show’s portrayal of these two candidates is spot on. From all the information I have gathered and received about Trump and Clinton, it makes it personally impossible to get invested in either of them, and South Park largely plays around with the idea that both presidential candidates are generally regarded rather poorly.
In the show, Clinton is portrayed as emotionally manipulative, using stories from her own experiences to draw a crowd in, and as a candidate who has very little supporters that want to take her side. Likewise, Garrison is portrayed as a racist with completely ludicrous ideas, yet has many, many supporters.
In the most recent episode, “Member Berries,” Garrison notes that, although he is leading in the polls, he has no actual plan for becoming president and begins to panic. Although never stated upfront, this is an accurate representation of what I believe Trump is currently going through.
I think Trump’s entrance into candidacy was a big publicity stunt that he believed would not last because of how ridiculous and over-the-top he was acting, but is now finding himself leading in several polls and is beginning to panic. With all of his ridiculous plans, namely the wall, having no chances of ever happening, he does not really have any way to follow up on what he promised America.
That is what makes South Park so crucial and important to society, just like The Daily Show, it offers political insight in a very humorous light. Instead of taking a side or showing these two candidates in a black and white perspective, South Park pokes fun at both candidates and shows us all just how silly politicians can be at times.
No matter where this election goes, South Park will be there to satirize and maybe even shed some more insight into our current situation. I can safely say I am excited to see what their next move is considering how crazy things are going at the moment.
