Recapping South Park’s “The Problem With A Poo” Controversy: Day One

 

 

Still going strong after all these years.

So far so good…every episode of South Park Season 22 has been met with some sort of outcry with the subsequent response since the show’s premiere. For the first episode entitled “Dead Kids” social justice warriors were pissed because they felt that “Dead Kids” was in some way mocking the increase in school mass shootings. Week Two saw the religious right get bent out of shape about “A Boy And A Priest” whereby claiming, just like every other religious group to come after Comedy Central’s longest-running animated series, that South Park showcased the obvious skeletons in it’s closet to an age group that will now grow up questioning organized religion’s logic.

This week, South Park is at it again, releasing an episode entitled “The Problem with A Poo” which helped reopen the floodgates of conversation as to whether or not the character of “Apu” on The Simpsons is a stereotypical depiction of South Asian immigration in the United States while opponents argue that there is fact-based logic in the longtime depiction of the popular character from The Simpsons and as such constitutes mostly as free speech. With PC culture on the rise, some have questioned whether or not Apu should be retired or if he deserves to stay.

South Park decided to confront this with a similar crossroads. Despite the fact that the likes of Eric Cartman have been known to poke fun at stereotypes, it was Mr. Hankey that was seen as the racist social outcast of this little redneck mountain town being castoff and sent to live in Springfield followed by the #canceltheSimpsons promo shown at the end. Had Kanye West not had lunch with President Trump yesterday, this very well would have been the top trending tag on Twitter much in the same way the producers did it with #cancelSouthPark which had preceded the show’s 22nd season premiere. As a result of the ending, voices from both sides have weighed in on the reignited conversation. In short, the more liberal skewing internet press saw this as an opportunity to get some of those hard-fought “millennial dollars” by way of click-baits insinuating that the producers of South Park really did want The Simpsons canceled, however, it seems as though fans of both The Simpsons and South Park have noted that the ending was more of a slight at PC culture’s crybabies and an acknowledgment that the two shows are probably in very similar boats in terms of artistic expression and as such, once again, should stick together.

Director of The Problem with Apu Hari Kondabolu had deleted a Tweet thinking that the producers of South Park sided with him but quickly deleted after probably a second watch-through and instead replaced it with this one.

And quite frankly, that was the end of Hari’s take on South Park‘s ending. Al Jean retweeted a whole bunch of fans of both series who were able to understand the gag despite the fact that websites like IGN, AV Club, TV Guide, and Deadline didn’t quite grasp the bilateral message that was being sent.

.@TheSimpsons Please don’t cancel @SouthPark

— Al Jean (@AlJean) October 11, 2018

Despite what your take on the debate is, South Park continues to be the show that after 20+ seasons is still stoking the flames of whatever is the hot-button moment of the day is. Now it’s Kanye, maybe by the time the next episode of South Park premieres it will be something different, regardless, everyone is still watching and talking about the greatest adult animated series of all time, and Matt Stone and Trey Parker continue to strike the chords for further renewals.

South Park will return next Wednesday Night only on Comedy Central, check your local listings.