Movies - TV
10 Times South Park Was Ahead of the Curve
By BJ COLANGELO
The Ring
“South Park” highlighted the manipulation tactics used by Disney before stars like Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus went public about the company’s nefarious ways of controlling the lives of their children stars. The episode is wholly in favor of The Jonas Brothers getting the f*** out of the House of Mouse, who have gone on record (now that they're allowed to) praising the episode.
Doubling Down
Barely a year into Trump’s presidency, this episode used Cartman’s girlfriend's blind allegiance as a way to open up a nuanced conversation about why his fan base continued to support him no matter how embarrassing and indefensible he became. Her behavior was directly inspired by Trump voters, who for fear of admitting they'd made a mistake, only doubled down on their support.
The Return of Chef
In this episode, Trey Parker and Matt Stone clearly blame Scientology for ruining their friend Issac Hayes (Chef,) who was forced to leave the series after an earlier aired episode mocked the organization. The episode debuted a full decade before the docu-series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” brought attention to Scientology’s practices and its oppressive cult-like behavior.
HUMANCENTiPAD
“HUMANCENTiPAD” satirizes the reports about tracking software being built into Apple products and the absurdly long user agreements that most tend to consent to without reading. Since the episode’s release, there have been significant issues with data brokers harvesting and selling our information through these long-winded terms of service.
The Passion of the Jew
Before Mel Gibson’s infamous antisemitic rant, “South Park” aired “The Passion of the Jew” which portrayed Gibson as a stark raving bigoted madman who intentionally put antisemitism on display in “The Passion of the Christ.” It wasn’t until Gibson’s 2006 arrest that the mainstream public began to understand how deeply bigoted his beliefs were.