Since its premiere in 1997, "South Park" has remained true to its signature shocking, satirical humor, despite the resulting backlash and controversy over the years. Media attention and lawsuits are commonplace for creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who are able to keep each episode topical by implementing a rigorous one-week turn-around schedule for each episode. When it comes to social critiques and mockery, nothing is off-limits, especially hypersensitive topics, including religion, politics, and cultural events.
One way the show pushes boundaries on taboo subject matter is by depicting public figures in surreal, unflattering ways and satirical parodies of celebrities have become a celebrated motif for "South Park." Everyone from Martha Stewart and her unconventional Thanksgiving turkey recipe to Vice President Chaney and his hunting accident has been targeted with taunting and criticism. Some have even volunteered to lend their voices in guest-star appearances, such as Jay Leno and Cheech & Chong, but not everyone shares the same crude sense of humor. The Duke and Dutchess of Sussex are some of the latest victims in the long history of celebrity parodies in "South Park." Although Meghan Markle and Prince Harry aren't explicitly named in Season 26, Episode 2, "The Worldwide Privacy Tour," plenty of unsubtle resemblances make it clear who the two characters represent.
Celebrity Parodies and Reactions
By this point in their careers, Parker and Stone have become unfazed by entitled celebrities and their baseless threats of lawsuits. But in 2005, they almost met their match when they went toe to toe with Tom Cruise and the Scientology community. In this episode, Cruise shows up at Stan's house, believing he's the reincarnation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. When Stan admits to enjoying other movies over Cruise's, the actor locks himself in the boy's closet and refuses to come out. Ultimately, Stan tries to expose the church for being a scam, but the members respond in outrage, with the president of Scientology and Cruise threatening to sue the boy.
No one was ever sued, however, Cruise and the group made their disdain known. Cruise was alleged to have blocked the episode from reairing in March of 2006 by threatening not to participate in the promotion of Viacom's "Mission: Impossible III." Parker and Stone responded with an official statement: "Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for Earth has just begun!
Before Jennifer Lopez was ever parodied in "South Park," Parker and Stone were already on Lopez's radar for a stunt they pulled at the 72nd Academy Awards ceremony in 2000. One month before Parker and Stone hit the red carpet for their best original song nomination, Lopez made headlines with her green Versace dress at the 42nd Grammy Awards ceremony. Three years after stealing the spotlight from Lopez, the creative duo debuted Season 7, Episode 5, "Fat Butt and Pancake Head." In the episode, Lopez is depicted as an egotistical, rageful diva whose identity is stolen by Cartman's hand puppet posing as a younger, more desirable Lopez. Lopez's reaction to her unflattering, stereotyped depiction only helped some of Parker and Stone's points. During audio commentary for the episode, Parker recalled hearing from some friends that Lopez fired crew members on the set of one of her movies who referenced her "South Park" episode.
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It's a mystery as to what Barbra Streisand ever did to Parker and Stone to deserve such harsh treatment in her "South Park" episodes, but it's clear the creative duo have some unfavorable opinions of the singer. In 1998, Streisand was among the first celebrities "South Park" poked fun at. Season 1, Episode 12, "Mecha-Streisand," features a caricature of Streisand, who uses her tortuous singing to retrieve the Triangle of Zinthar found by the boys during a field trip. In a 1998 interview with Mirabella, the real-life Streisand expressed her grievances with the show's negativity and effects on children: "These youngsters are formulating their attitudes and maybe they come away feeling that any woman who dares to accomplish something is the incarnation of self-centeredness and greed. This, of course, didn't stop Parker and Stone from featuring Streisand again in Season 2, Episode 15, "Spooky Vision," where Streisand's face is repeated in all four corners of the screen. Photos of the singer were also used during scene transitions. Streisand's alter ego Mecha-Streisand returns once again in the famous two-parter, "200" and "201." In it, all 200 celebrities parodied in the show team up in a class action lawsuit against South Park.
Season 14, Episode 2, "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs," ridicules both HBO star Sarah Jessica Parker and reality stars, the Kardashians, however, the two parties reacted in vastly different ways. The episode begins with the boys writing a book with the intent to make it as offensive as possible. In the book, "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs," Parker is repeatedly mocked for her appearances, with a quote from the book calling her a "transvestite donkey witch." When a second book is released, a reader is inspired to go on a killing spree that's reminiscent of the claim that "The Catcher In The Rye" influenced John Lennon's death. Following the episode's airing, the Kardashian family responded positively to the episode (via Us Weekly), with Kim Kardashian writing in a blog, "Thanks Trey Parker and Matt Stone... we're honored!" However, despite being silenced on the show with no speaking lines, the real-life Parker had some thoughts of her own. In an interview with Stylist, the actor doesn't call out "South Park" by name, but it wasn't hard for fans to make the connection. "Proper film or theatre criticism is a part of what I do; I don't read them but I don't begrudge a critic an opinion.
“Mama” June Shannon and her daughter, Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, rose to fame in 2011 when the pair appeared in TLC's "Toddlers & Tiaras." Controversy has followed the family from the beginning, with many criticizing the exploitative nature of child beauty pageants and the family's unhealthy lifestyle. The episode doesn't hold back with its offensive depictions of Honey Boo Boo experiencing heart failure and needing a pig heart transplant. When Honey Boo Boo's show outperforms Cartman's, June encourages her daughter to wrestle Cartman in a pool of spaghetti. In an interview with TMZ, June made it clear she was not laughing along at the "trashy" portrayal. "Me being a big person, I didn't take offense ... that show is just not a show that I would want to be on in the first place," June expressed.
Tween sensation boy band, the Jonas Brothers, become key players in Kenny's sexual awakening in Season 13, Episode 1, "The Ring." After discovering his new girlfriend gets turned on by the sight of the trio, Kenny buys tickets for the two of them to see the band live in concert. During this time, the brothers were known for being outspoken about participating in religious purity culture - a popular phenomenon among Disney Channel stars of this era. In a Reddit AMA, Nick Jonas answered a question asking about his feelings toward the stunt, admitting to originally hating it but eventually warming up to the parody episode. "When it first came out I didn't think it was funny to be honest, but probably because I was actually living all of that in real time and so it just made it harder to come and live your life as a young person and have all that going on.
Many people remember the controversial 2006 episode featuring Steve Irwin that landed the creators in a big mess. But his first appearance in the show dates back to 1999 in the Season 2 episode, "Prehistoric Ice Man." In the episode, the boys are inspired by Irwin's wildlife adventures to hunt for crocodiles, only to find a man frozen in ice. Federal agents kidnap the man while Stan and Kyle devise a plan to set him free. They smuggle him on a train, but the agents show up to stop him - along with Irwin. At the end of the episode, "The Crocodile Hunter" dies after getting caught in a helicopter blade. In Season 10, Episode 11, "Hell on Earth 2006," Satan throws a Halloween costume party, where Irwin's character shows up, which aired just weeks after the figure's death. Satan insults Irwin, thinking it's an offensive Halloween costume, but Irwin reveals he's not actually dressed up at all. Although the joke is self-aware, the timing spawned outrage. Irwin's widow, Terri Irwin, spoke out, calling the episode "cruel." "Steve had as big a sense of humor as anyone, but this goes too far too soon," a friend of Irwin stated.
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Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins takes over Mrs. Garrison's class to teach the kids about the science of evolution in the Season 10 episodes, "Go God Go" and "Go God Go XII." Initially against the idea of evolution, Garrison is convinced by Dawkins after the two spark up a romantic relationship. Together, they campaign for worldwide atheism, with Dawkins' mantra being, "Logic and reason aren't enough: You also have to be a [expletive] to everyone who doesn't think like you." Cartman gets transported to the future of a Godless world on the brink of war and tries to warn his friends in the past. In the process, Dawkins discovers Garrison's gender reassignment procedure and leaves feeling repulsed. In a Reddit AMA, Dawkins gave his opinion on his portrayal, writing, "Satire is supposed to satirise. Depicting somebody as having a predilection for buggering a bald transvestite is not satire and not witty. The futuristic projection of wars between atheist factions is genuine satire and quite witty. I think it's important understand the difference.
Shows, movies, books, and songs from “simpler times” are often equipped with thorns. Then you have South Park. It’s one of the most overtly offensive shows ever made. It has targeted nearly every race, gender, political party, and agenda with the kind of venom that causes us to casually block and mute people on social media. Married…With Children twisted the standard family television drama by showcasing a broken family that reflected the modern home. Beavis and Butthead made heroes out of a generation of teenage dropouts. Ren and Stimpy advertised itself as a kids show but featured more sexual innuendo and toilet humor than most prime-time programs. Now, these weren’t the first controversial television shows by any means, but they were far raunchier than what had come before.
While there were certainly social reasons that these shows became so popular with audiences, you also have to consider that this was an era when networks like FOX, HBO, Nickelodeon, and MTV were trying to establish themselves in a rapidly expanding television market. Like any small upstart trying to get their name out there, these companies all realized they had to do something that nobody else in the market was doing. The result was a sort of shock television arms race that really started to heat up in the mid-nineties. Nearly every network had at least one show that was pushing the boundaries of television decency, while other already existing shows like Monday Night Raw changed their product to accommodate the lucrative audience that this more outlandish content attracted. So far as anyone could tell, we had reached a point where TV would never be able to go back to the way it was.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s 1992 student film Jesus vs. Frosty (a.k.a The Spirit of Christmas) was - for all intents and purposes - the first South Park episode. It may have gone completely unnoticed beyond its 1992 University of Colorado student screening, had the short not caught the attention of FOX executive Brian Graden who asked the pair to make a video Christmas card for him in the same style. The result was a short called Jesus vs. From there, Jesus Vs. Santa became one of the world’s first viral videos. Along with the bootleg copies of the VHS those initial eighty friends began to pass around, the video also made its way to the internet where its low-tech presentation and small file size proved to be an advantage. However, most of the studios that interviewed Parker and Stone didn’t want them to make a show like that resembled the short that made them famous. Everyone agreed it was brilliant, but the general consensus was that it would never be allowed on television.
So what was it about South Park that made it so much more dangerous than every other shock television show out there? Well, it was certainly as obscene as any other show - oftentimes much more obscene - but the big sticking point back then was that South Park starred children characters. Children who were involved in shocking storylines involving starving Ethiopian children and Christmas-themed feces that sang. By basing such an already controversial show around such young characters, Parker and Stone had finally found a line that people weren’t sure should be crossed. Corruption of youth had long been a sticking point with this kind of content, and South Park was a show that directly showcased incredibly young characters who were as corrupted as they could possibly be.
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While the first Spirit of Christmas short only vaguely resembled South Park as we know it today, the one aspect of the show that Stone and Parker established early was having a character end each episode with what they learned that day. This seemingly unimportant throwaway joke would evolve into the series’ longest-running tradition and greatest weapon. The chance to end each episode with a reflection on what the characters learned grounded South Park to the real world in a way that those who only knew it by reputation would have never suspected was possible. It also lent the show an element of morality that often superseded whatever madness occurred before. That one simple device revealed South Park’s true status as a modern-day political cartoon engineered by two men that were much cleverer than anyone had anticipated. Parker and Stone were college students just as interested in Broadway as they were bathroom humor, and their wide cultural scope allowed them to identify a variety of hot-button topics and turn them into premises. Their intellect combined with the quick turnaround time of the average South Park episode allowed the show to be relevant in a way that only the nightly news was.
Much like how the rise of the shock era can’t be attributed to one factor, the era’s fall isn’t due to any lone element. Some will point to the rise of reality television as the world’s new entertainment vice, while others suspect the final straw was the effect that 9/11 had on more risqué entertainment in the lucrative American market. Then you have people who say the era simply ran its course. That last one is the only one I have a problem with. The continued success and relevancy of South Park proves that.
To this day, every new episode of South Park comes with a sense of anticipation regarding just who is going to get it next and how bad. We often crave that shock element in our entertainment, and the reason that South Park outlasted them all is that it was the only program that never made us feel guilty for that desire. Through the voices of cursing children, it sat as down and talked to us about the most sensitive topics like we were adults. South Park will continue to survive changing social times no matter what they bring because it is, at its core, a show that cuts through whatever ideas we clothe the essential human experience in. This should come as no surprise.
It’s no secret that the two friends are strong supporters of free markets and free speech, neither of which are supported by the modern Left. And their episodes always hinted at their healthy distrust of the government. When Cartman, an extremely selfish boy, inherits a million dollars from his grandmother, he immediately uses the money to buy an amusement park. His plan? But without security, he can’t keep people from coming. In Goobacks, a portal suddenly opens allowing millions of time travelers to come to South Park. These immigrants are poor, and are coming through the portal in order to better their lives. However, many of the locals start saying that the time immigrants took their jobs. In this first appearance PC Principal, a frat boy with shades on, decides that the school is not politically correct enough. The episode focuses on society’s increasingly strict policing of language. Stan gives money to a bank but it is immediately lost because the bank decides to put it in a “money-market mutual fund” which goes belly up. When a famine devastates Ethiopia, the boys decide to donate to a charity.
The "Starvin' Marvin" Controversy
Sally Struthers, wasn't happy with her recurring portrayal in "South Park," to say the least. At the time, the actress was known for her commercials as a spokeswoman for the Christian Children's Fund, where she would bring awareness to children suffering in developing countries while pleading to the viewers for their donations. In Season 1, Episode 8, "Starvin' Marvin," the boys donate money after seeing one of Struthers' commercials and end up with an Ethiopian child. When the charity comes to retrieve the child, they end up taking Cartman instead. In Ethiopia, Cartman discovers a gluttonous Struthers hoarding all the food for herself. Struthers appears again in Season 3, Episode 13, "Starvin' Marvin In Space," where she's depicted as a monstrous Jabba the Hutt.
The episode “Starvin’ Marvin in Space” is particularly effective at this. Featuring the return of Starvin’ Marvin, the Ethiopian boy the South Parkies “adopted” in the first season’s Thanksgiving special, this episode launches a critique of televangelism and Christian missionaries.
We first find Marvin back home, and starving, in Ethiopia. His village’s only “hope” comes in the form of a missionary who disciplines the villagers with Christianity and tells them that only by “reading the Bible and praying to God” will they be rewarded with food. When aliens land near Marvin’s village, he steals their spaceship to search for a new home for his people on the planet Markvar. The episode then cuts between Marvin’s attempts to save his people and Pat Robertson televangelizing on the “Christian Broadcasting Network,” milking his flock dry in order to expand his missionary work and save the “heathen” aliens. Included for good measure is Parker and Stone’s satire of Sally Struthers’ “Save the Children” campaign. Whereas in the original Starvin’ Marvin episode, she gorged herself on Twinkies financed by contributions to her foundation, now she has grown, literally, to Jabba the Hutt proportions off the fat of charity.
Another critique of consumer culture appears in “Chinpoko Mon,” where the South Park kids become mesmerized by the newest toy craze from Japan. The adults are, naturally, completely at a loss to fathom the toys, their appeal or their children’s interest. culture. The joke is that they don’t know how right they are. so obsessively markets its own culture worldwide. This is a controversy with which Parker and Stone are all too familiar, as South Park is repeatedly the object of much dominant cultural finger pointing. Yet what “Chinpoko Mon” and The Complete Third Season consistently demonstrate is that such fears are, if not entirely baseless, more self-serving for adult culture than concerned with children’s well-being.
Adding to the controversy, a recent Reddit thread highlighted a couple's decision to name their unborn son Marvin, inspired by the "Starvin' Marvin" character. The expectant mother wrote: "We couldn't decide on a name from the show that we both liked besides Marvin. AKA starvin Marvin from season one episode eight."
After sharing their choice with family, the woman's sister researched the character Starvin Marvin, a malnourished child from Ethiopia according to IMDB.The next morning, the woman woke up to numerous messages criticising their decision to name their baby after a character from such a controversial show.Commenters suggested that while there's nothing wrong with the name Marvin, the association with the show could potentially follow the child throughout his life.
Here’s a table summarizing the reactions of various celebrities and entities to their parodies in "South Park":
| Celebrity/Entity | Episode(s) | Reaction |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Cruise & Scientology | "Trapped in the Closet" | Allegedly blocked the episode from reairing; disdain known |
| Jennifer Lopez | "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" | Reportedly fired crew members who referenced the episode |
| Barbra Streisand | "Mecha-Streisand," "Spooky Vision," "200," "201" | Expressed grievances with the show's negativity |
| Kardashian Family | "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" | Responded positively, feeling honored |
| Sarah Jessica Parker | "The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs" | Implied criticism of the show without naming it directly |
| "Mama" June Shannon & Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson | Various episodes | Expressed not wanting to be on the show in the first place |
| Jonas Brothers | "The Ring" | Originally disliked the parody but eventually warmed up to it |
| Steve Irwin | "Prehistoric Ice Man," "Hell on Earth 2006" | Widow called the episode "cruel" |
| Richard Dawkins | "Go God Go," "Go God Go XII" | Mixed feelings; criticized some aspects while praising others |
| Sally Struthers | "Starvin' Marvin," "Starvin' Marvin in Space" | Unhappy with her portrayal |
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