Having spent much of the 20th season satirising Donald Trump, South Park co-creator Trey Parker has revealed to The Los Angeles Times that the animated series will be ditching the politics for its 21st season and going back to basics.
“We fell into the same trap that Saturday Night Live fell into, where it was like, ‘Dude, we’re just becoming CNN now. We’re becoming: ‘Tune in to see what we’re going to say about Trump,’” said Parker. “Matt and I hated it but we got stuck in it somehow. This season I want to get back to Cartman dressing up like a robot and [screwing] with Butters, because to me that’s the bread and butter of South Park: kids being kids and being ridiculous and outrageous but not ‘did you see what Trump did last night?’ Because I don’t give a … anymore. We probably could put up billboards — ‘Look what we’re going to do to Trump next week!’ — and get crazy ratings. But I just don’t care.”
Asked whether he and Stone have an end point in sight for the series, Parker responded that: “Every year in the middle of the season, we say, ‘OK, this is it.’ And we really thought that two seasons ago when we were doing all the PC Principal stuff. We were like, ‘This is it — we’re going to get run out of town with our middle finger up.’ Because we felt the culture changing, and I think it still is on that track. The witch hunt is coming. Our day is coming. One of these days, out of nowhere, we’ll do something and they’ll go, ‘How dare you!’ — and we’ll be done. But what people don’t realize is, we’ve thought this for 20 years. We’ve been ready for it. Our bags are packed in the car and we’re ready to go back to Colorado. And it’s cool, man.”
Season 21 of South Park will get underway on Wednesday, August 23rd.
Originally published July 9, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
