South Park‘s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have suggested that speaking out on politics has become a “taboo” in the US at the moment.
The long-running animated comedy has been taking aim at the Trump administration in its recent episodes, notably the US president – including depicting him in a relationship with Satan and with a micro-penis.
Opening up about the show’s political drive at the moment, Parker told The New York Times (via Consequence): “It’s not that we got all political. It’s that politics became pop culture.”
Stone admitted they were drawn to the idea that speaking out against the Trump administration was “taboo”.
The pair admitted that their decision to parody Trump was motivated by their deal with Paramount being delayed by a merger between the company and Skydance that needed government approval.
“We just had to show our independence somehow,” Stone said, with the Trump focus meant to originally be a one-off.
“We basically start with a song and we don’t know where the album’s going to take us,” Parker added.
They further reflected that there is “no getting away” from MAGA, with Parker noting: “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.”
The show co-creator also said they are “down-the-middle guys” in terms of criticising both sides of the political spectrum. “Any extremists of any kind we make fun of,” Parker said. “We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us.”
Parker and Stone previously responded to the White House’s scathing reaction to the show, in which the administration said the series “hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention”.
At San Diego Comic-Con, Parker said: “We’re terribly sorry,” with a deadpan stare.
South Park recently took aim at itself in its Halloween episode, in which the character Stan declares: “South Park sucks now because of all of this political shit.” The episode then sees him create a cryptocurrency called South Park Sucks, while Trump holds a seance to rid the White House of a ghost, aka wife Melania.
