Post-outrage TV: how South Park is surviving the era of controversy

South Park’s 22nd season opens its first episode, Dead Kids, with the sound of gun shots ringing throughout the show’s primary setting of an elementary school. The teachers and students carry on as if it’s completely normal because, in America, it is. It’s only Stan’s mum Sharon who is deeply horrified by it all, slowly losing her mind as everyone else in the town seems to hold the reoccurring massacres in the same regard as a failed maths test. “What’s up Stan’s mum’s ass?” asks a bemused Cartman.

This is, of course, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s satirical takedown of gun violence in the US, highlighting the absurd truth that school shootings have now become commonplace. But even for the famously controversial South Park this seems like a particularly daring subject to make light of. ‘How has this show not been cancelled?’ is the sort of question someone who’s never seen South Park might ask. And in fairness, it is genuinely quite surprising that it’s managing to survive in 2018, a time where making a joke about something horrible is now deemed nearly as bad as the horrible thing itself.

South Park season 22 has therefore had to change in order to ensure its survival in the outrage era. As the world - well, the world of Twitter at least – gets angrier and more reactionary, Parker and Stone have had to fine-tune their satire, making the takeaways of each episode more balanced than ever before. This is best exemplified in the episode The Problem With A Poo, in which the show addresses the controversy of the Simpsons character Apu, and more broadly the concept of cancel culture, which the season has brilliantly mocked by introducing its own #CancelSouthPark campaign.

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The episode sees the return of Christmas poo Mr Hankey, who is once again trying to spread a little festive cheer. However, it soon transpires that the Noël turd is incompatible with the modern world, causing outrage after he shares a series of offensive tweets, which he later blames on the sleeping drug Ambien – a clear parody of Rosanne Barr’s infamous firing from her own sitcom.

Meanwhile, the characters PC Principal and Vice Principal Strong Woman find themselves in a dilemma as they try to cover up Strong Woman’s pregnancy. The idea that a woman could become pregnant from sexual intercourse is a major problem for the pair of them, who don’t want anyone to assume anything about their gender roles. Eventually, she gives birth to five ‘PC babies’ who cry at anything they deem offensive.

While the episode may be attacking the ‘PC crybabies’ of the world, it also makes it abundantly clear that Mr Hankey is a relic. Kyle is the only one willing to defend the poo’s offensive behaviour, and he rightfully ends up getting smeared in the process. Both figuratively and literally. It’s the refusal to lean on either side of the argument that prevents the show from causing any real offence. Parker and Stone have always been agnostic in their satire, knowing what to mock but not necessarily what they should be advocating. But for this season in particular, they’ve made that uncertainty the entire point.

More than ever before, South Park is questioning its own place in society, abandoning its usual approach of ‘offend everyone to offend no one’ to instead become more existential. It’s not so much mocking contrasting schools of thought, but asking its audience to understand why it is so exhausting to live in such a climate. And, if it can be said about a programme that still features fart humour as a prominent comedy tool, that demonstrates just how much the show has matured.

This newfound level of maturity is perhaps responsible for the creators issuing a rare apology to Al Gore over the existence of ManBearPig – a naturally part man, part bear and part pig monster that is actually a satirical substitute for global warming. The latest episode, Nobody Got Cereal?, sees the disproportionate creature tear the town apart while its citizens fecklessly ask if it’s time to worry yet. Most of them don’t want to admit that ManBearPig (climate change) is the reason for the destruction, electing to ignore the issue altogether.

With this, the show once again demonstrates an emphasis on balanced satire. By mocking something as ridiculous as climate change deniers, the show is then free to take a swipe at more liberal sensibilities, safe in the knowledge that, as long as the characters (and creators) continue to ridicule their own behaviour, South Park will always be relevant.