Top 20 Times South Park Pulled From Real Life
#20: Amazon Fulfillment Centers
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Thanks to companies like Amazon, we now live in a world where virtually anything we want can be delivered to our doorstep overnight. This does, however, come at a cost both financially and physically if you happen to work in a fulfillment center. In true “South Park” style, the show parodied the controversy of Amazon fulfillment centers by having an employee accidentally squashed into a small box. He survives, but then triggers a strike among warehouse workers, which has a domino effect on package deliveries in town. Over-the-top, of course, but it does speak to our reliance on such a large company for much of what we purchase these days.
#19: Football Team Names
Cartman and the boys want to launch a new startup, but can’t come up with a name. When a certain Washington football team trademark expires, Cartman suggests using it for their Kickstarter campaign, inciting anger in the team’s owner, Daniel Snyder. The episode throws Snyder under the bus by illustrating just how out of touch the owner is with modern culture. It’s a clever use of parody to the extreme, showing us just how unaware some can be. While the episode was relevant when it first aired in 2014, it only gained more prominence in 2020 when more people started to question the present-day “norms” we’re accustomed to.
#18: The Chewbacca Defense
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When Chef learns someone else has made a fortune off one of his songs, he winds up in court with the record label. At the trial, the label’s defense attorney, Johnnie Cochrane, tries to confuse the jury by bringing up the Wookie from “Star Wars,” who of course has nothing to do with the trial. The entire segment is a rip on the O. J. Simpson trial when Cochrane pulled a similar stunt trying to confuse the jury about a glove that had been found. Since then, the “Chewbacca defense” has become an actual term to describe strategies meant to confuse jurors, rather than clarify details.
#17: Cable Companies
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Here we find both the children and parents of the town being held hostage by the cable company’s ridiculous billing and scheduling practices. In an effort to keep their parents from harming each other, the kids want certain channels removed from the lineup. Instead of helping them, they’re endlessly mocked by the television provider for being stuck in their current predicament. The same also applies to the parents who can’t get a straight answer as to when the cable tech can come to the house to fix the issue. If you’ve ever tried to get support or schedule an appointment with your cable provider, this episode will remind you of how painful it can be. And this wouldn’t be the last time the show made fun of cable companies...
#16: Harvey Weinstein
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In your face or covered by allegory, “South Park” always finds a way to make their message clear. The latter is on full display in this Season 21 episode all about “witches.” It’s here we see one of Randy’s friends, Chip Duncan, attack the town and go after the children. Duncan repeatedly engages in questionable actions, while Randy tries to defend himself and others saying Duncan’s just a “bad witch.” If you peel back the onion of this episode, you find all kinds of references to the Harvey Weinstein scandal that occurred that same year. It’s a creatively genius way to talk about an uncomfortable subject, without actually discussing it at all.
#15: Who To Vote For
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Modern political structures tend to favor a two-party system, which usually results in people voting against someone, versus for someone. So, what do you do when neither candidate is appealing? “South Park” pits a literal “giant douche” and a “turd sandwich” against each other, forcing Stan to choose between the two. He opts not to vote and is subsequently evicted from the town. The episode aired in 2004 during the middle of the Bush vs. Kerry election. It illustrated how disenfranchised voters had become when none of their options met their political needs. Furthermore, it also shows us that despite the privilege of voting, often a single vote has very little impact on the overall election.
#14: Hurricane Katrina
Cartman and Stan inadvertently destroy a dam, which causes massive flooding in Beaverton. Local governments and media agencies report on the disaster, but offer no help to the struggling residents of the small town. They’re obsessed with pointing fingers and trying to blame someone for the flood, and eventually come up with global warming as their scapegoat. There was no beaver dam that caused the massive flooding from Hurricane Katrina, but there was plenty of obsession over blame, and a botched response to the needs of the victims. As a Beaverton resident puts it, “What a swift and speedy rescue.” That’s one sarcastic line that truly sums up the entire Katrina response.
#13: Michael Richards
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On November 17, 2006, “Seinfeld” actor Michael Richards was caught on camera using a highly offensive word. This incident helped inspire the creators of “South Park” to do an episode around Randy’s use of the same word. It’s an episode that cleverly shows how the use of a particular term, regardless of the context, can be devastating to those who are affected by it. But the icing on the cake comes at the end when Stan realizes that as a Caucasian child, he’ll never understand what Token feels when that word is used. It’s a flat-out confession that speaks to how some can’t ever really understand what it’s like to be on the other side.
#12: The Broadway Elite
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When Trey Parker and Matt Stone decided to make a Broadway show, they had no idea what they were getting into. Partnering with Robert Lopez, the three created a Tony-Award-winning musical that took the Broadway circuit by storm. This clearly bled into their work on “South Park” as much of the Broadway world is parodied in this Season 15 gem. For example, Randy’s antics as Spider-Man clearly take aim at “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark”, a failed Broadway show. But more importantly, it’s his entire take on the world of theatre that mirrors that of Parker and Stone. Given the uppity reputation of the theatre community, the show’s opposite portrayal of Broadway’s biggest producers is a welcome, funny sight.
#11: The Global Recession
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When Stan arrived at the U.S. Treasury Department, all he wanted was to return his Margaritaville to get his money back. Instead, he watched a headless chicken aimlessly wander around a giant game board until it landed on “bailout.” This was apparently the means by which the government determined how best to deal with the various fallouts of the Great Recession. Given how arbitrary bailouts and other government actions appeared at the time, the sheer absurdity of the chicken scene almost seems as plausible as any other explanation. Throw in some religious allegory about “the economy,”, and you’ve got a perfect send-off of the economic downturn that plagued so many in the late 2000s.
#10: Controversial Flags
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Chef wants to change the town flag because he perceives it as being offensive while Jimbo insists on keeping it to preserve South Park’s history. This mirrors the controversy around the use of the Confederate flag in the United States. Some view the flag as a symbol of prejudice in the south, while others perceive it to be a symbol of pride. The episode manages to provide an interesting perspective from Chef as he re-examines his own preconceptions about the town.
#9: TSA Security Scandals
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In the United States, a company by the name of the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA for short, is responsible for screenings at US-based airports. They faced some backlash from travelers when questionable actions were being taken against passengers. Always staying on the bleeding edge of news, “South Park” took aim and reframed the issues around bathroom use. The “Toilet Safety Administration” began doing screenings and other unnecessary inspections when Clyde’s mother died in a bathroom after he forgot to put the seat down. Nothing like throwing the real TSA under the bus over something men and women have been arguing about for years.
#8: Substance Addiction
Despite how serious the topic can be, we can’t help but smile at how creative this show can be when it comes to tackling heavy issues. The idea that Stan’s grandfather has unwittingly become a pawn in a drug operation run by senior citizens is pure gold. Stan gets caught in the middle when he unknowingly becomes a mule for his Grampa. The seniors complex he lives in has been pushing opioids to the outside world in exchange for collectible memorabilia. The addictions and deaths in the town mimic the current opioid crisis looming over much of the United States.
#7: Religious Films
Upon its release, “The Passion of the Christ” was a polarizing film, some viewing it as excessively violent, while others praising the depiction of Jesus’ journey. Following that, “South Park” took Stan and Kyle on distinctively different journeys with the movie. Kyle is horrified to learn of the Jews’ involvement with how Jesus was treated, whereas Stan and Kenny see the film as nothing more than one long act of violence they’d rather never have seen. With all the controversy around the original film, Stan’s speech at the end of the episode kind of says it all.
#6: Life vs. Death
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What would you want if you could only be kept alive through a machine? It’s a question that “South Park” asks when Kenny is hospitalized but in a vegetative state. Cartman has selfish reasons for wanting the plug to be pulled, while Kyle believes Kenny should be kept alive by whatever means necessary. A media frenzy and court case follow, which ultimately sees Kenny’s feeding tube removed and him joining the angels in heaven. The entire story was inspired by the Terri Schiavo case, which the episode mirrored very closely. Euthanasia is a sensitive subject, but “South Park” manages to find a way to sympathize with both sides.
#5: Trump Running for President
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The second episode of Season 19 saw Garrison become the animated analog for Donald Trump. Garrison gets the 2016 nomination and eventually does become president and stays so until finally leaving office in 2021. For all that time, we see a consistent reference to Trump’s actions through the character. Prior to winning the presidency, Garrison became obsessed with illegal Canadian immigrants, and the wall between the two countries. The character purposely spews inappropriate comments at women in an attempt to lose the election. Time and time again, we see Garrison act in a far more extreme version of what the real Trump shows the world.
#4: Marijuana
In 2010, marijuana had not yet been declared legal for recreational use in Colorado. One could obtain it with a prescription from your doctor, but otherwise, it was still considered illegal. This Season 14 episode focused on how easy it had become for citizens in Colorado to get such a prescription and how it could be misused. We see Randy purposely going to extreme measures to get a note from his doctor, just so he can legally get high. Since then, marijuana has been declared legal for recreational use in Colorado, as well as 18 other states, rendering much of the episode’s messaging no longer applicable. Regardless, we do love Randy’s new bouncing toy.
#3: Mass Surveillance Leaks
Over the years, countless television programs and movies have pushed this idea of “big brother” watching everything we do. The average citizen shrugged this off as a tale of conspiracy theories. However, in 2013, Edward Snowden leaked a large sum of documents from the National Security Agency showcasing several massive global surveillance programs. This gets the “South Park” treatment when Cartman begins to suspect Kyle is working for the NSA. Butters begins treating the DMV like a church and confessing all of his sins to them. Both Cartman and Butters have differing views on government surveillance, much like the average citizen. But in the end, it becomes more about how you choose to act, versus being paranoid about being watched.
#2: Gun Control
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Given the amount of gun-related incidents reported in the United States, you’d think this would be a topic television shows would steer clear of. Not “South Park.” In fact, they took it head-on and illustrated how normalized many people have become to it. With the boys in class, gunshots can clearly be heard, and everyone just keeps on going like nothing is wrong. It’s only Stan’s mom Sharon who seems to think that all the gun violence is a problem. It’s a perfect mirror of what many are experiencing in the real world today where shootings in the U.S. have become the norm.
#1: COVID-19
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “South Park” shifted their production to home offices, forcing the show to only produce two one-hour-long specials. The first one, airing in September of 2020, focused on how residents of “South Park” were dealing with the outbreak. Much like the real world, mask-wearing, social distancing, and arguments about the nature of the virus were all present in the episode. The show’s origin story for the virus may be pure fiction, but how the general population is dealing with COVID was all too real. This bled over into their second special in March of 2021, which focused on vaccine efforts. Both are a reflection of how people have been feeling in these trying times.
