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South Park Creators backing off Trump.. "Satire has become reality"

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Deleted member 126221

Unconfirmed Member
Going through old episodes these days, I kinda get what they mean. Cartman often acts like a carbon copy of Trump, without exageration. You've elected a real-life cartoon character, and actual cartoons can't compete with its insanity.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
Lets be real here. This is South Park they were fucking with any and everyone before whether it was portraying Mohammed or shitting on the Church of Scientology. They could have Trump getting raped in the background of every episode and it would not be out of place for the show what-so-ever. Its their show and their call but I would think this administration would be ripe for material and easy pickings but perhaps they're just not trying to give him and his shitbirds more press. That said, again, they could just have Trump eating a giant turd sandwich in the intro if they wanted to keep it more irreverent and it would be totally fitting for them and not involve digging any deeper into things.
 

rjinaz

Member
Human beings on Earth still watch South Park

Yes? Now tell me what you like so I can say that I would never watch it.

Seriously though, I will watch it as long as I can still get laughs. Last season was not great but the season before it may have been my favorite yet.
 

Syder

Member
Making a parody with Mr. Garrison was just stupid. They don't have the ability to carry a narrative over a season. They just don't.
Agreed. Last 2 or 3 seasons have been hot garbage.

Still looking forward to The Fractured But Whole because it won't have any of this trash.
 
There's nothing funny about what Trump is doing.

This is the same batshit insane attitudes I saw even HERE on GAF during the primary cycle, where people here were entertained by Trump. I thought it was insane, and perhaps no one could have known, but still.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
While I don't agree that anyone should "back off" for the lame reason listed, I personally have no desire to see more of the same. They lambasted Trump all through last season, and frankly, it wasn't particularly funny. More of that would be disappointing, at least to me.

At the same time, what a dumb fucking excuse.

And the season before that, too.
 
Not sure if serious? These are guys who have done shit that has got them death threats, I don't think this is cowardice.

I honestly think they're right, the Trump parody episodes should have been incredible but they were often being out done.

The fact that this is they're breaking point screams cowardice.
 
You don't need to make him the focal point of every episode to lampoon him for saying stupid shit all the time.

What happened to just making Cartman the avenue through which they expressed all the hateful shit people like Trump peddle?
 

Permanently A

Junior Member
I sort of understand where they are coming from. Its hard to make Trump's actions into comedy because everything he does sounds like a bad joke. "For every new regulation, we get rid of 2!" sounds like a mockery of a small government conservative, instead of an actual honest to God Executive Order.

Going through old episodes these days, I kinda get what they mean. Cartman often acts like a carbon copy of Trump, without exageration. You've elected a real-life cartoon character, and actual cartoons can't compete with its insanity.

Agree with this post.
 

Gorillaz

Member
The amount of material media could use just over the 2ish weeks he's been in office is already enough to eat off of for a long ass time. I can't see entertainment industry not jump on this. It's too perfect. It's pretty much a fast break with nobody guarding the basketball type shit.

Don't really buy this whole "low hanging fruit" they might be alluding too
 

Mutant

Member
The amount o material media could use just over the 2ish weeks he's been in office is already enough to eat off of for a long ass time. I can't see entertainment not jump on this. It's too perfect.

Don't really buy this whole "low hanging fruit" they might be alluding too

They usually love their low hanging fruits too.
 

Geeky

Member
Seems like a weird stance to take when they went all in on Trump(via Garrison) last season. Maybe they don't want to stay with current events or at least political events since they obviously thought that Hillary was going to win and that destroyed whatever story they had planned for the last two or three episodes of last season.

Whole story elements were dropped ('Member Berries, Jenner) and they were just treading water until the season ended.
 
Disappointing, but I can see why they'd do it from a production side of things. Last season became a mess by the end.

Soth Park's creators probably don't want to criticize Trump because they adore him and align with him ideologically.

The first Trump episode they did shows this isn't true. Initially, they didn't even think it was worth doing because like everyone else they thought Trump would fizzle out.
 
Soth Park's creators probably don't want to criticize Trump because they adore him and align with him ideologically.

I don't understand where you get that. I'm not a fan of how they wuss out of politics with the both sides thing, but they went balls deep on Trump last season.

At this point it'd turn the show into a weekly Trump satire. Their point is valid.
 

Calderc

Member
The fact that this is they're breaking point screams cowardice.

What are you talking about? It's not their breaking point. They aren't doing this because they're scared of Trump, or the repurcussions, they're doing it because they feel they can't make satirical comedy of something that already resembles satirical comedy.
 

13ruce

Banned
Trumps whole election already looked like a soutpark season in real life. Now it's going to last 4 more years.
 

DarkKyo

Member
Lol GAF overreacting about South Park as usual. Real confused at the "coward" remarks since nothing is off the table for them. They certainly aren't "afraid" of making fun of anything. As the SP show-runners, how can you even make fun of this situation? The point is that Trump being president is so absurd that nothing more can be said about how absurd it is.

Besides, they already "took on" Trump twice, once as the Canadian form of Trump during the primaries, and then as Garrison as a Trump stand-in. Neither was really that funny, so they're kind of right that the joke is reality itself and any representation fails to exceed the punchline we are living in.
 

jediyoshi

Member
This sounds like cowardice
Haha wow dumbasses.
Oh so this is what they consider off-limits. They can fuck right off.
I can't believe I was ever into this show. Cowardly fucks. Fuck them and that godawful pc principal meme.

The article quotes them as saying why it was difficult to satirize an already absurd event for that season. That's it. The concept of them "backing off" as a future direction is entirely on the article writer.

This is why fake news is proliferating, people just can't make it past the headline.
 

830920

Member
I get where they're coming from. What angle can you take if you're going to satirize Trump? The man is already a walking satire, and just pointing that out is kind of low hanging fruit.
 

Kirye

Member
Honestly that's fine. There's been way too much Trump parody on South Park, let them move on to other things going on.

Besides the entire world knows about Trump.
 
I remember listening to a Dollop episode and they were doing a little side conversation in the middle about how comedy isn't about punching down, it's punching up. The last season seemed to be exclusively about punching down, and it was really hard to watch.

I loved their first few seasons. Super offensive, but punching up and doing it well. Once you start targeting people who are already the recipients of extreme criticism, it just makes you look out of touch. I think that's why I fell off so hard. They went from episodes about condos in Aspen and the Vatican to episodes about... Well, PC Principal and Whole Foods.

The tone shift from general satire to what they have now was a bit... Jarring. It was hard to watch. Now the TweakXCraig episode was hilarious, but mostly everything else was just... Not fun or entertaining. It felt like 40 year olds trying to seem like college kids and appear edgy.
 

Orin GA

I wish I could hat you to death
Guys, they raped trumped to death, its not about cowardice. Donald trump makes his own material so there ain't no more point for making it the main focus of the show.

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ZeoVGM

Banned
It was better from Seasons 2-11 (probably right before the Family Guy episode) because it was an absurdist comedy with bits of satire in there because they had the ability to make a show reference something that literally just happened. But now that it's ONLY satire? It's horrible.

I mean, to be fair, the season before last was one of the best in the series.
 

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Posters are missing the forest for the trees here. Only thing I didn't like that Parker and Stone said was that they called this whole thing "comedy".

And it is obvious who didn't watch last season if you are parroting the both sides argument.
 
There's nothing funny about what Trump is doing.
That's why I'm glad their not going to be doing Trump going forward.

Once Trump won, South Park just got depressing. It's like a comedian making jokes about a tragedy moments after it happened.

The only real jokes they can do are about how MUCH of a joke it all is, and that just makes it all the more depressing, not something I particularly want from an irreverent comedy show.

I haven't even finished the last few episodes of the last season because I wasn't finding it funny, and my girlfirend legitamately can barely handle Trump being president as it is, without having it be center stage of EVERY episode of South Park. Hopefully they'll go back to the old format of South Park and do a new topic every episode instead of overarching stories that go on for longer than they're funny.
 

Bronx-Man

Banned
I remember listening to a Dollop episode and they were doing a little side conversation in the middle about how comedy isn't about punching down, it's punching up. The last season seemed to be exclusively about punching down, and it was really hard to watch.

I loved their first few seasons. Super offensive, but punching up and doing it well. Once you start targeting people who are already the recipients of extreme criticism, it just makes you look out of touch. I think that's why I fell off so hard. They went from episodes about condos in Aspen and the Vatican to episodes about... Well, PC Principal and Whole Foods.

The tone shift from general satire to what they have now was a bit... Jarring. It was hard to watch. Now the TweakXCraig episode was hilarious, but mostly everything else was just... Not fun or entertaining. It felt like 40 year olds trying to seem like college kids and appear edgy.
They got old. They used to be the young bucks with the hot takes everyone wanted to hear, now they're middle-aged millionaires ranting about safe spaces and shit.
 

Epcott

Member
Hmmm... If anything, you'd think this presidency would give them unlimited material for maximum laughs, no matter how ridiculous the circumstances.

After all, these are the guys where "Nothing is safe from satire"... not even Mohammad.
 

Cagey

Banned
Guys, they raped trumped to death, its not about cowardice. Donald trump makes his own material so there ain't no more point for making it the main focus of the show.
Exactly. Main focus. It would suffocate the show.

No need to continue the South Park is Breitbart sponsored animation drumbeat.
 

Ms.Galaxy

Member
This does bring up a good question. How do you satirize Trump? The man is clearly off his rocker and him and his entire administration act like fictional Saturday morning cartoon villains. Every day he becomes more and more of a parody of himself really, he always out-satirize parodies of himself.
 

Game-Biz

Member
Some embarrassing over-reactions in here.

Gotta say I agree. I mean, they're comedic writers talking about the challenges of parodying someone who is a real life parody himself. It's difficult to make that funny - not impossible - just not easy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like he's talking about a decision they had to make last season and is not necessarily saying that's going to be the approach they plan for any upcoming episodes. To me it sounds like they're going to find another angle to critic Trump, because having someone act like or parodying him isn't funny. At any rate, I hope I'm right and they can have a solid next season and give Trump hell.
 

Slaythe

Member
South Park is the Jontron of TV shows. Once entertaining, now pandering to "anti-PC" channer bullshit.

Come on now.

Jon Tron isn't "anti pc", he's a piece of shit.

Trey and Matt's morals are very clear.

They're not defending Trump, they say everything he is doing is already over the top, doing it in the show would be 1:1 so they'd rather do something else.
 

Bronx-Man

Banned
So we all just stopped satirizing Bush from 2000-2008 because he was too hard to parody, right? That's how this works?
 

Parahan

Member
This is very dissapoiting. I get it they had to drastically improvise last season with the "Oh Jeez" episode and the quality went to shit, but completely backing out is not the answer.

Political satire can be a powerful tool for protesting and educating the people, but obviously requires courage.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
The excuse is shit. 100%, it's their bullshit we are 3rd shit, but really more on the conservative side.

But at the same time, I can understand from a show perspective, because as bad as it sounds. It will dominate the entire season and it was shit last season.
 
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