Although this week’s episode of South Park was light on the Trump roast, the long-running Comedy Central show didn’t let up on his administration.
In Wednesday’s Season 28 episode ‘Turkey Trot’, Saudi Arabia sponsors the town’s titular Thanksgiving race as all of South Park sets their sights on the $5,000 prize, and Pete Hegseth sets his sights on the local police department in attempt to get Peter Thiel out of jail at the president’s request.
Although the chief of police kicks Hegseth out on his ass, quite literally, the secretary of defense decides to get back at the “woke local police force” with some content, which catches Trump’s attention.
“And Hegseth, don’t just make a bunch of content. Go out and actually do something,” Trump tells him in a phone call. “God, he’s such a douchebag.”
Meanwhile, Cartman is convinced he’s an expert at “race science,” deciding the only person who can help their team cross the finish line is Tolkien Black.
After trying to convince Cartman he’s not a good runner just because he’s Black, Tolkien drops out of the Turkey Trot due to political reasons, as he couldn’t get around Saudi Arabia’s sponsorship. Cartman tries to reason that Americans are just “embracing Saudi Arabia’s desire to change.”
“You want Saudi Arabia to just go back to cutting people up and paying Kevin Hart? Is that what you want?” he asks Tolkien.
As Hegseth realizes the Saudis are in town, he instructs his troops to descend on the town and “get as much content as we possibly can.” Kristi Noem even shows up with Homeland Security, as the two fight for clout.
The chaos is set to a parody of Kenny Loggins’ 1986 single ‘Danger Zone’, with a chorus that goes, “Pete Hegseth‘s a f*cking douche.”
After South Park police break up Hegseth’s raid, the secretary of defense ends up in jail with Thiel.
AI couldn’t make the November 12 episode of South Park. This week, the animated comedy took on Sora, OpenAI’s video-creation tool, and somehow managed to work in a new twist in the Donald Trump and Satan romance: a love triangle. J.D. Vance is pulling Trump away from his partner, despite Satan’s butt pregnancy.
The episode begins with Butters using Sora to make revenge videos of his ex-girlfriend, Red McArthur, getting “pissed on by Santa.” Red retaliates by making a video of Butters having sex with Totoro (from My Neighbor Totoro) and playing the video at school assembly. Detective Harris, who doesn’t fully understand “Sora,” comes looking for Totoro, who he believes is actually molesting kids. But the South Park Elementary children continue to make gross videos of each other, leading Detective Harris down wackier and wackier paths, attempting to find his animated foes.
Meanwhile, Cartman is being held in a hotel room by Peter Thiel, who kidnapped him during the “Six-Seven” episode because he believed Cartman was possessed (why else would he be laughing so hard at that meme?) and could help stop Satan’s butt baby, a.k.a. the Anti-Christ. Thiel is sending AI videos to Cartman’s mom in which Cartman tells her that everything is okay and he’s doing well, which she takes at face value.
Co-conspirator Vance is also hard at work at the White House and tells Trump to get rid of his own baby because he won’t actually want to deal with it. Trump agrees. In the heat of the moment, Vance and Trump consummate their relationship on Trump’s bed with Satan in a NSF-anywhere scene.
In South Park, the detective brings the kids to court to try to catch the animated predators. He then traces the IP address on the videos “Cartman” sent his mother and goes to arrest Thiel. There, on Thiel’s laptop, he finds security footage of Vance and Trump hooking up and leaks it. Satan chooses to believe Trump when he says that the sex tape is just AI. But when Trump leaves their bed, he goes to make out with Vance. What will Satan do?
As if Donald Trump didn’t have enough on his plate this week with the recent Epstein emails release, South Park is continuing to roast the POTUS in this week’s episode.
On Wednesday, audiences reacted in disgust to the Season 28 episode ‘Unholy Birth’, which took aim at Open AI’s Sora featured some an unfortunate homoerotic sex scene between Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
“South Park is definitely going to trigger another White House response tomorrow bc holy s***,” one person wrote on X.
“Thanks for the nightmares I’m gonna have tonight South Park,” another posted.
“Watching south park,” read another tweet. “I’m now traumatized.”
Meanwhile, the episode featured appearances from other cartoons, including Bluey, Totoro and Droopy Dog. “Even Bluey ain’t safe from south park,” one fan wrote.
South Park co-creator Matt Stone previously praised Paramount for “letting us do whatever we want, to their credit,” as Trey Parker said of their reason for continuing to rip Trump and his political cronies, “There’s no getting away from this. 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,” added Parker. “It’s pop culture.”
There will be no cliff divers entertaining guests at Casa Bonita on Halloween as the restaurant’s cast of performers initiates a three-day strike.
On Wednesday, the Actors’ Equity Association announced that Casa Bonita’s divers, magicians, roving actors and other unionized performers would picket outside the pink palace, at 6715 W. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood, following unsuccessful efforts to bargain their first contract. The strike is scheduled to take place on Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Casa Bonita serves thousands of diners each week and actors previously told The Denver Post there have been numerous incidents involving guests that had staff concerned for their safety.
The bargaining unit of 57 people has been engaged in negotiations since April, according to the Actors’ Equity Association, and last month, it filed an unfair labor practices charge after performers’ hours were cut to accommodate a Halloween pop-up event.
Now, the union says management failed to deliver responses to key proposals that would move toward a contract. A representative of Casa Bonita could not immediately be reached for comment.
“Casa management came to the table today offering an additional 11 cents over their last unfair wage offer, and very little for future layoff protections,” said lead negotiator Andrea Hoeschen, assistant executive director and general counsel for Actors’ Equity Association, in a statement. “Despite that insult, the negotiating team responded with major compromises to try to get a deal. And then Casa Bonita walked away from the table without responding.”
South Park returned with a new episode on Wednesday, focused on online betting, Israel’s war on Gaza, and President Donald Trump’s attempts to abort a baby that’s due after he impregnated Satan. But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr seemed to take the most abuse during the episode, something that was to be expected after Carr tried to get Jimmy Kimmel Live! removed from ABC. Spoilers ahead.
South Park unexpectedly failed to deliver a new episode last week following the death of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk. And while creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said it was due to their own procrastination, there was speculation that it may have had something to do with Kirk’s death. South Park did an episode mocking Kirk’s style of debate on Aug. 6, a month before he was killed on Sept. 10, and that episode has been pulled from the rerun schedule.
But the comedy show didn’t address Kirk at all on Wednesday, even if it touched on some of the downstream effects of his murder. The episode put Brendan Carr, this month’s great villain against free speech, through the ringer as he takes a tumble down some slippery stairs, explosively shits his pants, and is eventually hospitalized while making a Nazi salute.
The episode opens with the boys learning about prediction markets like Polymarket and how to make bets online. One of the bets available is whether Kyle’s mom will strike Gaza and destroy a Palestinian hospital, something that enrages Kyle, who objects to the anti-semitism inherent in the idea and tries to contact someone to get the bet taken down. Kyle tries to complain to the betting company, run by Donald Trump Jr., before he’s directed to a series of different agencies, also overseen by Donald Trump Jr.
Eventually, Kyle is told he needs to get in touch with the FCC, since the bet is “offensive” and the federal communications regulator apparently handles anything offensive these days. Meanwhile, Cartman realizes he can work all of Kyle’s outrage to his advantage, getting people to bet that Kyle’s mom will indeed order a strike on Gaza, while Cartman bets against it.
Trump, who’s largely been the focus of Season 27’s short five-episode run thus far, works hard to get Satan to have a miscarriage, spiking soup with an absurd amount of Plan B. Satan doesn’t want the soup, but Carr dives in, getting diarrhea so explosive that he zooms around the room before crashing out the window into the sky.
JD Vance returned as a character from the 1970s TV show Fantasy Island, seemingly sycophantic and trying to suggest gifts that President Trump can give to Satan’s child. Vance warns that one gift, a kitten, can be toxic for pregnant people, given that toxoplasmosis can cause miscarriages. This, of course, gives Trump the idea to outfit the White House attic with a bunch of cats and kitty litter, which can be released by a trap door onto Satan. Assuming Trump can get Satan to stand in the right place. Again, the FCC chair bears the brunt of Trump’s scheming, getting buried underneath the mountain of kitty litter and cat shit.
Cartman panics when he learns that Kyle’s mom is heading to the Middle East, worried that she may actually hit Gaza and his bet will be ruined. But Kyle’s mom didn’t travel to Israel to enact violence, just give Benjamin Netanyahu a piece of her mind.
Brendan Carr, battered and bruised, is visited by Vance in the hospital, where the vice president reveals himself to be more than just Trump’s lackey. Vance knows exactly what he’s doing by trying to get Satan to have a miscarriage. Because he knows that if Trump and Satan were to have a baby, it would be competition during Vance’s ascendancy to the presidency.
Viewers never learn what happens to Carr, but it seems like a safe bet that he’ll return in future episodes. And that’s consistent with his current trajectory in real life. The FCC chairman successfully campaigned to get Jimmy Kimmel pulled from the airwaves, but that was short-lived. Kimmel returned on Tuesday, and the New York Times reports that he’s still going to exert maximum pressure to get liberal voices purged from the airwaves.
President Trump, who also got Stephen Colbert cancelled, dropped the pretense Tuesday that the “controversy” around Kimmel had anything to do with Charlie Kirk’s death.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Trump continued.
Then Trump made it clear that he’s never going to stop.
“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution,” Trump wrote about Kimmel. “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”
On paper, South Park has been safe from cancellation, if only because Carr and the FCC only regulate the major broadcast stations, not cable. But Trump can apply pressure to private businesses in any number of ways. Disney is reportedly preparing for just that in the wake of Kimmel’s return.
The first gay couple ever to appear on American television dates back to 1975 — in Norman Lear’s groundbreaking and highly controversial sitcom Hot I Baltimore.
Back then, featuring an LGBTQ+ couple on national TV was considered horrifying, even shameful. Although it’s far more common nowadays to see LGBTQ+ characters represented in film and television, we still have a long way to go.
These days, we’re lucky to have such a diverse array of incredible gay and lesbian couples gracing our screens, both big and small. Let’s take a look at some of the most fabulous same-sex pairings represented in the media over the years.
Jack and Ennis – Brokeback Mountain
Brokeback Mountain was one of the first same-sex romance films to make it to the mainstream media. Back when the movie was in production, A-list celebrities turned down the leading roles of Jack and Ennis right and left. Back then, the idea of a gay gay love story was so taboo in Hollywood that actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg were quick to say “no” because they were terrified that the world would think they were gay and their career would be over.
It looks like it was their loss, though, since the 2005 film was an Oscar-winning triumph. The roles were given to Jake Gyllenhall and Heath Ledger, respectively. Gyllenhall and Ledger play Wyoming cowboys caught up in a 20-year-long forbidden romance.
Despite their undying love for each other — Jack famously tells Ennis, “I wish I knew how to quit you!” — they’re held back by spousal duties and the restrictive social norms of the time.
Ronit and Esti – Disobedience
Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz play forbidden lovers in this gut wrenching 2018 film. Esti (McAdams) and Ronit (Weisz) seem to have all the odds stacked against them. Set in an Orthodox Jewish community, the highly religious standards make it just about impossible for the two to express their passions. But gloriously, they find a way.
In private, when no one’s watching, Esti and Ronit are able to act on their years of pent-up emotions.
Grab a box of tissues for this one. Disobedience is a total tear-jerker.
Carol and Therese – Carol
This 2015 film captures the sizzling love affair between Therese (Rooney Mara) and Carol (Cate Blanchette.) While the film is a stunning visual masterpiece, the snowy Manhattan backdrop and lush mid-century decor pale in comparison to Mara and Blanchette’s on-screen chemistry. In the film, our leading ladies Therese and Carol must keep their love affair a secret because Carol has a daughter and is going through a tough divorce. Their forbidden romance is constantly disrupted by Carol’s suspicious husband, a private detective, and … you guessed it … the constricting social norms of the 1950s.
Elio and Oliver – Call Me By Your Name
Call Me By Your Name is an exquisite love story that’s set “Somewhere in Northern Italy.” Based on the novel by Andre Aciman, the 2017 film put Timothee Chalamet on the map and launched him into the stratosphere.
What separates Call Me By Your Name from the other films listed is that there’s no bloodthirsty antagonist determined to tear Elio and Oliver apart. In fact, the only people preventing Elio and Oliver from living happily ever after are… Elio and Oliver.
Since there’s no evil force lurking in the corners, Call Me By Your Name unspools like a sun-dappled fantasy. Their romance is met with nothing but support from friends and family.
Due to the film’s lack of obstacles, a handful of critics have labeled this story unrealistic. It doesn’t have the many hurdles that same-sex love interests usually face, both in real life and in media portrayals.
Yet author Aciman says this is very much intentional. Quoting Aristotle, he said of Call Me By Your Name: “Art is not about what happens, but about what should, and ought to happen.”
Nicky Nicholls and Lorna Morello – Orange is The New Black
Orange is The New Black made waves — seismic waves — when it premiered on Netflix in 2013. The series is groundbreaking both for its diversity and its depiction of an array of lesbian relationships.
While Piper and Alex are Orange’s primary couple, many fans found themselves gravitating more towards the second-tier couple, Nicky Nicholls and Lorna Morello.
Played by Natasha Lyonne and Yael Stone, respectively, the frisson between these two is enough to set fire to Litchfield Prison. What starts out as a casual friend-with-benefits deal eventually grows into one of the most heartbreaking romances on television.
Blaine and Kurt – Glee
Kurt Hummel went through hell and back during the first handful of seasons on Glee. As the only openly gay kid in his closed-minded Ohio-based high school, he bore the brunt of constant torment from his peers.
Just when he was at his lowest point, Blaine (Darren Criss) waltzed in to flip Kurt’s life upside down once and for all. It was a heartwarming change of pace for Kurt, who had spent his whole life on the outside looking in.
Santana and Brittany – Glee
Initially, Santana and Brittany’s liaison was played off as a joke. But as the series evolved, so did their relationship. The pair went on to become one of the most popular couples on Glee.
Tweek and Craig – South Park
Tweek and Craig, South ParkComedy Central
When we hear the term South Park, the word “progressive” doesn’t immediately spring to mind. After all, the animated series is famous for its shock humor and toilet jokes. This makes it all the more amusing that the Mountain Town series has one of the hottest LGBTQ couples on TV.
The romance between Tweek and Craig was borne out of fan service. Ever since they appeared in a 1998 episode titled “Tweek and Craig,” some starry-eyed fans of the show had been “shipping” these fictional characters.
This did not go unnoticed by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who decided to respond by making Tweek and Craig a “canon” pair.
Cam and Mitchell – Modern Family
It’s safe to say that Modern Family wouldn’t be the same without Cam and Mitchell. Their comedic charm brings so much wit to the ABC sitcom, and many regard the pair as fan favorites. Despite having conflicting personalities, their differences only seem to strengthen their bond.
Patrick and David – Schitt’s Creek
Schitt’s Creek’s David and Patrick have the perfect relationship. From the beginning, it’s been nothing but smooth sailing for these two. Their lack of drama is quite refreshing for LGTBQ+ couples, who are mostly represented in the media through a tragic lens. And while there’s certainly a place for that, it’s nice to see a breezy gay couple getting on with their lives together.
One of the cutest moments in TV history was when Patrick proposed to David. Instead of a typical engagement ring, Patrick proposed with four rings — typical of what David usually wears.
They say, “To love them is to know them.” Based on Patrick’s four-ring proposal, he certainly knows David!
For close to 30 years, South Park has been a staple of animated comedy television. From absurdist toilet humor to satirical commentary on current events, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have given us laughs and laughs. For me, it made me think about the way we view humor to this day. As for video games? Early on, they were hit or miss (mostly miss) with several console and mobile games, but The Stick of Truth (2014) and The Fractured but Whole (2017) had been solid RPG-style games that continued the laughs. Can South Park: Snow Day! be yet another solid entry in the current generation of South Park games?
Snow Day! has you back in the shoes of the New Kid and takes place immediately after the last two South Park installments. A heavy blizzard ensues, with the kids getting the snow day Cartman wanted, and the kids’ imaginations run wild as you play through the game, with the New Kid again at the plot’s epicenter. The rules have changed since last time, so you’ll have to know and get used to them again.
For starters, South Park is always best in 2D, and the move to 3D took me aback. While previous games such as South Park (1998) and South Park Rally (2000) were also in 3D, these games were not well-received. The gameplay often harked back to those games which is why I immediately took a dislike to the transition to 3D. According to Stone himself, moving back to 3D allowed the development team more flexibility in how the game world was built. “Creating a game on a 2D plane is really, really hard when you think about what you have to work with,” he said. While the game uses Unreal Engine, the 3D assets look like something lifted from VRChat or Roblox—a telling sign from a game that has the backing of a powerful brand such as South Park.
You can customize the New Kid in any way you want, including giving the New Kid custom emotes. There are talent trees requiring Dark Matter (DM), which are used to purchase perks, and Toilet Paper (TP), which is used to purchase cards from Jimmy on each quest. You have to use TP at each level as it resets after each run. Don’t like the cards Jimmy gives you? You can bribe him with 75 TP to reshuffle the cards. You can also acquire cards from Henrietta, one of the Goth Kids, which give you pretty powerful non-conformist magic such as being granted 100 TP. DM can be found anywhere in a level, either on the ground, in treasure chests, or as enemy drops (harder enemies award more DM). Platinum Points (PP) can be used to purchase cosmetics for the New Kid.
BS cards can be incredibly useful. Some include granting invisibility or taking out large packs of enemies, but enemies can also get BS cards—one that was incredibly annoying was the inability to use melee weapons, as I relied heavily on them to get through the game. One particularly useful card lets you get more TP from enemies, which allows you in turn to bribe Jimmy to reshuffle the deck in case you want to get a card that suits your playstyle. You can also upgrade your weapons and powers as you see fit.
The humor that made me burst out laughing watching the show and the previous RPG installments is noticeably absent in this game. While I did crack a smile from time to time, nothing really had me bursting at the seams. Thankfully, the game was rather short compared to the other installments, but this was a huge dropped ball for an iconic comedy franchise and reminded me of the time when I saw Space Jam: A New Legacy in theaters—a classic franchise that failed to deliver on the potential it had.
While you can now play with friends, were the sacrifices of story, humor, and gameplay worth it? First, you can join any chapter or difficulty mode if the host made it public. You can also even adjust for spoilers—but in a game this short, would you really need to? While the idea of playing with friends in a South Park game can be fun, the switch to 3D (at least for me) doesn’t make it right, especially with my memories of playing the older console South Park games.
For a great and funny franchise like South Park, South Park: Snow Day! misses more than it hits. You’ll need to be a die-hard fan to really like the game. For those who have followed the show since the beginning, it gets even harder to stomach knowing that this game mimics the old console games. While it’s good for one run, it’s probably best to wash down the disappointment that this game brings with some classic South Park episodes.
Developer(s): Question LLC, Black Forest Games Publisher(s): THQ Nordic Platform: PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch
Words by Jose Alvarez Also published in GADGETS MAGAZINE April 2024 Issue
MEETING. IF YOU CAN’T MAKE THAT ONE IN THE NEAR FUTURE. ALLEGHENY COUNTY IS WELCOMING THE BIRTHS OF TWO BABY BUFFALO OVER THE WEEKEND AT SOUTH PARK. HEY, LOOK, PARK STAFF SAYS ONE WAS BORN ON FRIDAY, THE OTHER BORN YESTERDAY. FRIDAY’S BABY HAS BEEN NAMED REESE AFTER THE FOUNDER OF THE ALLEGHENY COUNTY PARK SYSTEM. IT IS NAMED AFTER JIM RODDY, WHO RECENTLY PASSED A HERD OF
Buffalo babies born in Pennsylvania park
Updated: 9:21 PM PDT Mar 18, 2024
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is welcoming the births of two baby buffalo over the weekend.The staff at South Park said one was born on Friday, and the other was born Sunday.Friday’s baby has been named Riis after the founder of the Allegheny County Parks system. Sunday’s baby is named Roddey, after former Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey, who recently died.The herd of buffalo has lived in South Park for nearly 100 years.
SOUTH PARK TOWNSHIP, Pa. —
Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, is welcoming the births of two baby buffalo over the weekend.
The staff at South Park said one was born on Friday, and the other was born Sunday.
Friday’s baby has been named Riis after the founder of the Allegheny County Parks system. Sunday’s baby is named Roddey, after former Allegheny County Executive Jim Roddey, who recently died.
HOUSTON – A family is asking for help trying to find the person who shot and killed a man in Houston’s South Park neighborhood.
The victim, Willie Earl Johnson, 56, was shot outside of his home at the corner of Glenhurst Drive and South Wayside Drive in South Park on Friday.
The Houston Police Department said they got a call around 8 p.m. from a neighbor after hearing a gunshot.
It’s only when firefighters arrived on the scene that they found Johnson’s body laying out near the driveway and sidewalk.
“The only thing we know right now is that a neighbor heard a gunshot called, and other folks were out there, HFD actually found the body,” said Lt. Willkens of the Houston Police Department.
On Sunday, his family spoke Only with KPRC 2 News, pleading for any clues that might help police capture whoever killed Willy.
“He was, a homebody, a father, a husband, a brother, a cousin, an uncle,” said Meka, his sister. “He’s always cheerful, like helping.”
“I’m sorry, dad. I love you. I always love you. I wish I was there with you when that happened. And I’m. You know, you’ll always be in my heart,” his daughter Myra added while fighting back tears.
Willy is the latest victim of a senseless shooting. His family said Willy lost one of his kids several years ago to gun violence.
This time, Willy was left to die alone outside his home.
“Nobody was there when we got there. They just left him there by himself. He was there on the ground, nobody seeing nothing,” Meka said.
That’s why they need any clues out there that might lead detectives to answers and closure for this family.
“Just call just. You ain’t gotta tell them who you is,” Meka said. “We ain’t saying you got a snitch or nothing like that, just say whodunit.”
You can submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers of Houston by calling 713-222-TIPS (8477) or through their website.
Copyright 2024 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.
Broadway’s “Book of Mormon” takes a mission trip to find comedy converts at D.C.’s National Theatre.
WTOP’s Jason Fraley previews ‘The Book of Mormon’ at National Theatre (Part 1)
Sam Nackman and Sam McLellan star in the North American tour of “The Book of Mormon.” (Courtesy Julieta Cervantes)
Sam Nackman and Sam McLellan star in the North American tour of “The Book of Mormon.” (Courtesy Julieta Cervantes)
From “South Park” to “Orgazmo” to “Team America: World Police,” few entertainment minds have brilliantly walked the line of raunchy lowbrow humor and highbrow social commentary better than Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Their most incredible feat just might have been winning nine Tony Awards, including Best Musical, for mixing poop jokes and religious freedom in “The Book of Mormon,” which hits the National Theatre in D.C. from March 5-17.
“It definitely is sort of ridiculous for them to have found so much success on the Broadway stage, but at the same time, it makes so much sense,” actor Sam McLellan told WTOP.
“Their comedy, while it can feel very lowbrow at moments, it’s actually very intelligent. They come from a perspective that’s very mature and understanding of cultural hot-button issues. They know how to toe the line — and cross it when necessary to make a point.”
McLellan plays self-centered Mormon missionary Elder Price, who leaves Utah with his fibbing sidekick Elder Cunningham (Sam Nackman) on a mission trip to Uganda to win converts to the religion of Joseph Smith.
There’s one problem: The deeply impoverished natives doubt God’s existence. When the idealistic Nabulungi (Berlande) dreams of moving to Sal Tlay Ka Siti (Salt Lake City), the missionaries finally have a chance to spread the word.
“The show is about a pair of mismatched missionaries, one of them super serious and dedicated, the other is really socially awkward but well meaning,” McLellan said.
“My Elder Cunningham is Sam Nackman. The dude is awesome. He’s so funny, he fits the role so perfectly. … When I met him, I was like, ‘This dude is real-life Elder Cunningham,’ but in the best way possible. He’s ridiculous, he’s hilarious, he just oozes comedy in every ounce of his being.”
After writing musical numbers for “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” (1999), Parker and Stone teamed with Oscar-winning songwriter Robert Lopez (“Frozen”) for a Tony-winning songbook that includes clever word plays (“Tomorrow is a Latter Day”), hilarious analogies (“Baptize Me” which equates baptism with losing one’s virginity) and dream sequences (“Spooky Mormon Hell” which weaves our deepest fears of Hitler, Genghis Khan and Jeffrey Dahmer).
“Numbers that really are huge for me are ‘You and Me (But Mostly Me)’ and ‘I Believe.’ Those numbers are not only funny as touted, they are just really masterclass songs,” McLellan said.
“Bobby Lopez is a genius on those keys. He writes some of the most interesting and hilarious music that is an homage to some musical theater songs that people know really well. He balances spoofing classical musical theater as well as making it very unique.”
We won’t spoil the meaning of the “Hakuna Matata” spoof “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” but let’s just say it all builds to a jaw-dropping “play within a play.”
While “The King & I” saw the people of Siam stage a performance of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” “The Book of Mormon” has the Ugandan people stage a warped, alternate take on The Book of Mormon.
“It’s hilarious, it’s ridiculous, people scream, people laugh, people cry,” McLellan said.
“I get messages from people all the time after seeing the show just being like, ‘My cheeks hurt. I haven’t laughed that hard since I was a kid.’ It really is so funny. … There’s so many layers to the comedy of the production that aren’t even revealed until you’ve seen the show multiple times. It’s so dense, it’s so hilarious, every moment there’s something funny happening.”
Titled “Joining the Panderverse,” the episode details Eric Cartman’s worst nightmare—that he’ll be replaced by a woman of color. When Eric wakes from the bad dream, he declares, “They were taking all my favorite people and replacing them with diverse women who complain about the patriarchy!” later adding, “And Disney stock keeps going down and down!”
Cartman’s dreams become reality in the form of a multiverse occupied only by women of color is led by South Park Elementary’s “PC Principal,” who accuses the characters of bigotry when they say recasting South Park’s white male characters “doesn’t make any sense.” Says the administrator, “If you don’t think Eric Cartman can be a Black woman, then maybe the problem is you. You probably don’t like that Indiana Jones got replaced by a female either, huh? You probably have a problem with Black Spider-Man, too“—referencing controversies that have cropped up around recent Disney titles like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which notably didn’t replace Harrison Ford as Indy with Phoebe Waller–Bridge, and Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse. The kids do, at least, support the latter film: “No! Miles Morales is sweet! That’s a whole constructed thing with its own character and narrative. This is just taking the same old Cartman and putting a Black woman in it!”
At one point, the episode features a fictionalized version of Disney CEO Bob Iger, who tells his fellow executives to “pander harder” to frustrated audiences via the “panderstone” that the studio uses to remake the same stories over and over. This is where Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy enters the episode to repeat the same note over and over again: “Put a chick in it! Make her lame and gay!”
But before episode’s end, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone acknowledge the hatred that can spew from the anti-woke fans and commentators who place Kennedy directly in the crosshairs. Kennedy tells Cartman of the “hate mail” she’s received on the job, “ugly letters from racists who couldn’t stand that some of the panderstone’s rehashes had diverse women characters in the lead.” She admits that using the panderstone to “fight all bigotry in our society” was the wrong method. “All I ever wanted was to make great entertainment, but as as soon as you start getting piles of hate mail, endless messages calling you the c-word, you can’t think straight,” Kennedy says before apologizing to Cartman for being “so reckless with the things you love. It was just lazy.” To this, Cartman replies, “Well, I’m sorry I wrote all those letters…I guess just railing on woke stuff all the time is pretty lazy, too.”
For decades, Casa Bonita had been more than a restaurant to Colorado locals. Spanning over 52,000 square feet in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, the Mexican restaurant featured waterfalls, a pool, puppet shows, and faux gold and silver mines. While it originally opened in 1974 and is relatively well-known among Denver residents, the spot gained worldwide attention after being featured in a South Park episode in 2003.
In a story published this week, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone told the New York Times that after the episode aired, people would ask them all the time if such a wild establishment actually existed.
“Oh, that’s a place,” Parker told the outlet he would respond. “It’s crazy. It’s weird.”
So,after the iconic restaurant went bankrupt during the pandemic and news of the closure garnered widespread attention from Colorado residents who rallied to help salvage the institution (from gathering outside to starting a GoFundMe that raised nearly $69,000) — Parker and Stone ended up purchasing the restaurant in August 2021 for $3.1 million.
Now, nearly two years later,the restaurant is expected to reopen in the coming weeks after the duo funneled “upwards of $40 million dollars” into renovations, The Times reported.
“We could have rebuilt this twice as big, for half as much money, but we spent so much restoring it, like a piece of art,” Stone told the outlet.
The revamped Denver restaurant will feature a new executive chef, James Beard Award nominee, Dana Rodriguez, whose kitchen staff of nearly 110 will make everything from scratch — including 198 gallons of mole sauce fresh every night, green chile-braised brisket, enchiladas, and sopaipillas with honey to name a few.
The original renovation cost was estimated at $10 million, Stone and Parker told The Times, which then turned to $20 million, and eventually added up to what Stone said was “infinity dollars.”
Ahead of the opening, the team is still assessing prices for the restaurant. “What we’ve come to realize over the last couple of months is, now we have a lot of work to do to make it a sustainable business,” Parker told the outlet.
According to Variety, streaming platform HBO Max has argued in a new lawsuit that Paramount Global, via its streaming platform Paramount+, has violated a contract that gave the former exclusive streaming rights to “South Park.”
“Defendants engaged in a simple and obvious artifice of mischaracterizing the content to avoid obligations” of the contract, the suit says.
HBO Max is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in New York. The complaint says that HBO Max gained the exclusive rights to stream new episodes of “South Park” and its old “library” of past episodes after an “extremely competitive” bidding process.
But, in violation of that contract, the suit claims, Paramount+ made a deal with the show’s creators for spinoff movies and other spinoff media with MTV in an “illicit scheme.” The latter streamer also said it paid for a certain number of episodes and did not receive them.
“South Park” airs on Comedy Central (owned by Paramount) and is one of the longest-running TV shows ever, as Bloomberg noted. It follows the adventures of a group of four boys who run around making jokes in the eponymous Colorado small town.
HBO claims it paid “more than half a billion dollars” for the rights to stream it exclusively.
“Exclusivity was so important to Warner/HBO that when SPDS asked Warner/HBO whether it would consider sharing the rights to South Park with CBS All Access or another Paramount streamer, Warner/HBO rejected the proposition as a ‘non-starter,’” the lawsuit said.
SPDS is South Park Digital Studios, a media company that produces “South Park” as well as has done titles like “The Book of Mormon.”
“We believe these claims are without merit and look forward to demonstrating so through the legal process,” Paramount said, per Variety.
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is suing Paramount Global, saying its competitor aired new episodes of the popular animated comedy series “South Park” after Warner paid for exclusive rights.
Warner says it signed a contract in 2019 paying more than $500 million for the rights to existing and new episodes of the irreverent show, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in New York State Supreme Court.
HBO Max, Warner’s streaming platform, was scheduled to receive the first episodes of a new “South Park” season in 2020. But the company was informed the pandemic halted production, the lawsuit says.
In spite of Warner’s exclusive rights to the show until 2025, the company alleges South Park Digital Studios, which produces the shows and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, offered two pandemic-themed specials to Paramount, which aired them in September 2020 and March 2021.
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The lawsuit claims the pandemic specials should have been offered to Warner under the initial contract. The move, called “verbal trickery” in the lawsuit, drove the show’s fans to the competing Paramount platform. Nearly all South Park episodes premiere on Comedy Central, one of Paramount’s cable channels, the lawsuit says.
Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who launched the show in 1997 and oversee the franchise, were not named in the lawsuit.
Carolyn tours Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood
Gaining streaming rights to “South Park” is a competitive process because of the potentially lucrative market attracting more subscribers, advertisers and a loyal fan base that Warner’s lawsuit says consists mostly of young adults.
The 24-page court filing also cites a $900 million deal in 2021 between a Paramount subsidiary and South Park Digital Studios for exclusive content on the Paramount Plus streaming service, which launched the same year.
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Warner claims the deal was a deliberate “scheme” between Paramount, its subsidiary MTV Entertainment Studios and South Park Digital Studios to “divert as much of the new South Park content as possible to Paramount Plus in order to boost that nascent streaming platform.”
Warner paid $1,687,500 per episode and alleges it has not yet received all episodes covered by the contract, resulting in damages of more than $200 million.
Paramount Global did not immediately respond to emails from The Associated Press seeking comment on the lawsuit.
Despite what you may have heard, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex can take a joke. Per E! News, a spokesperson for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle has shut down reports that the pair were planning to sue the classic cartoon comedy South Park after a recent episode satirized the couple.
The episode that sparked rumors of a lawsuit is the second of South Park’s 26th season, titled “Worldwide Privacy Tour.” Airing February 15 on Comedy Central, “Worldwide Privacy Tour” follows a fictional “Prince of Canada” and his wife as they relocated to the fictional South Park, Colorado, after the Queen of Canada’s death. The cartoon Prince of Canada and his wife bear a striking resemblance to Harry and Meghan, with the cartoon prince sporting a red beard and his wife outfitted in a pink dress similar to one Meghan was heavily photographed wearing while attending a Trooping the Colour event in 2018. During the episode the Prince of Canada and his wife hold signs that say “we want our privacy” and “stop looking at us.”
After “Worldwide Privacy Tour” aired, the New York Post alleged that Markle was “upset and overwhelmed” by the episode, as well as “annoyed by South Park but refuses to watch it all.” Writing to Fox News, royal commentator Neil Sean suggested that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex may get litigious over the cartoon parody.
“Their legal team are casting an eye over the episode to see what is wrong, and what could be turned into something more sinister,” said Sean. “This appears to be their course of action rather than laughing it off, enjoying the moment and showing the world that they get the joke.”
That assessment, though, seems to be far from the truth. A representative for Prince Harry and Meghan shut down any rumors of a lawsuit Tuesday, in a statement given to E! News. “It’s all frankly nonsense,” said the representative. “Totally baseless, boring reports.”
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone,South Park has been Comedy Central’s tentpole since it premiered in 1997. The animated series has ruffled its fair share of famous feathers in the ensuing decades, including but not limited to those of Kanye West, Tom Cruise, and Barbra Streisand.South Park also begins every episode with a disclaimer saying that all its characters are fictional—even ones clearly based on real people. Given the US’s love of the First Amendment, perhaps it was shrewd for the recent British transplants to let the South Park parody slide.
The creators behind the animated satire show South Park have raised $20 million for their deepfake and artificial intelligence studio, Deep Voodoo, per Variety.
Chris Hopkins / Stringer I Getty ImagesMatt Stone and Trey Parker at
It represents the group’s first outside funding, the outlet noted — the company was previously funneling capital from the entertainment company Park County, owned by the animated show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
South Park, the adult animated comedy series, has been running since 1997 and just finished its 25th season. The show has been renewed for projects that take it through to 2027. The creators said in 1998 they were in the business of making people go, “‘What the f[—] is this?’”
In 2020, Stone and Parker began work on what they hoped would be a full-length film related to deepfakes. But once the pandemic hit, the project turned into the much shorter — but very viral — satire video called “Sassy Justice with Fred Sassy,” which joked about figures including Mark Zuckerberg and then-President Donald Trump.
But it’s an expensive business. The 15-minute video cost the pair “millions” (including the initial investment that didn’t pan out because of the pandemic) and was “probably the single most expensive YouTube video ever made,” Parker told the outlet.
Still, the duo decided to continue their deepfake work after the YouTube video. Now, the company has raised a $20 million round, led by Connect Ventures, a collaboration between talent and media agency CAA and a venture capital firm, New Enterprise Associates (NEA).
“Connect Ventures is thrilled to lead the investment in Deep Voodoo, providing unique access to CAA and NEA’s resources and relationships,” said Michael Blank, leader of consumer investments at CAA, in a statement Tuesday.
Deepfakes are videos that imitate the appearance or face of another, and the technology has alarmed misinformation experts. The term appears to have been coined on Reddit.
“Deepfakes still might be poised to corrupt the basic ways we process reality—or what’s left of it,” The Atlantic wrote Tuesday.
Stone, meanwhile, said he hopes the technology will support artists.
“We stumbled upon this amazing technology and ended up recruiting the best deepfake artists in the world,” Stone said. “We are psyched to share their brilliance with the Hollywood creative community.”
In a case of real life not quite imitating art, a prosecutor who compared a defense attorney’s closing arguments to the Chewbacca Defense was able to win at trial. Although the prosecutor made an “improper remark” by invoking the defense from South Park, a federal appellate court ruled last week that he otherwise did not engage in prosecutorial misconduct. The case also appears to be the first time a federal court decision has alluded to the Chewbacca Defense.
Now synonymous with making absurd non sequiturs, the Chewbacca Defense dates back to the 1998 episode of South Park, “Chef Aid,” where a parody of legendary lawyer Johnnie Cochran defends his clients by talking about how Chewbacca, an 8-foot-tall Wookie, “lives on the planet Endor.” (Fact check: He does not.) Even though Cochran admits what he’s saying “does not make sense,” he’s still able to win over the jury (twice).
Chewbacca poses on May 15, 2018 during a photocall for the film “Solo : A Star Wars Story” at the … [+] 71st edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP) (Photo credit should read ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP via Getty Images)
AFP via Getty Images
But outside of South Park, the defense is not quite as successful. Unlike Chewbacca, the case that led to last week’s ruling didn’t begin on the planet Kashyyyk but in Jacksonville, Florida. Paul Berkins Moise owned and operated a tax-preparer business and was indicted on federal tax fraud charges.
During closing arguments, Moise’s defense team brought up the fact that the IRS agents who investigated him were told to revise their initial calculations about Moise’s income and expenses. His attorneys then argued that because the IRS agents’s “work was so bad,” their testimony and their revised calculations couldn’t be trusted.
In his rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Arnold Corsmeier said the IRS agents’ initial calculations had “nothing to do with this case.” Instead, Corsmeier argued that the defense was throwing out a red herring reminiscent of the Chewbacca Defense from South Park:
“And I don’t want to seem flip, but some of you may have seen it. I think it’s a South Park episode. And there’s a character on there who is—plays kind of a shyster attorney. And there’s a scene where he’s giving his closing, and he puts up a picture of a Wookie from Star Wars. And he said: That’s a Wookie. What does that have to do with this case? Nothing. That doesn’t make any sense. This case doesn’t make any sense.”
Moise’s defense objected and claimed the prosecution was implying he was a “shyster lawyer.” In response, the district court told the jury to “disregard those last couple of statements about the South Park episode.”
With those statements disregarded, a jury found Moise guilty on 14 counts of filing false returns on behalf of unknowing clients and three counts of filing false returns on his own behalf. Moise was ultimately sentenced to 35 months in prison and ordered to pay the U.S. government more than $77,000 in restitution.
Moise appealed and accused the government of prosecutorial misconduct. He argued that the prosecutor’s “shyster” comment “deprived him of a fair trial,” alleging that it “poisoned the minds of the jury and likely confirmed for some of them their prejudices against defense attorneys.”
The Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously disagreed. Although the court conceded that “the prosecutor made an improper remark,” the court saw “nothing in the record to suggest that Moise was prejudiced by the ‘shyster’ comment. It was a single, isolated remark in an eight-day trial, and we cannot say it permeated the entire trial.” Nor did the comment have “a prejudicial effect on Moise’s substantial rights.”
