So, South Park wants to get canceled

So, South Park wants to get canceled. How did they do this season?

In order to get “cancelled,” South Park decides to tackle some of the pressing issues that has been going on in recent months: school shootings, gun policy, ignorance, indifference, lack of accountability, arrogance, conformity, scooters, social hypocrisy, marijuana, cultural appropriation a la Brett Kavanaugh’s hearings, cultural censorship and Amazon.

Overall, South Park has been hitting the mark with its criticism of the issues mentioned above on a constant basis. Since the first episode, Dead Kids, the issue of school shootings should be the center of this season. But instead, the show went more abstract by showing the townspeople’s indifference and conformity to the point that a school shooting is nothing to weep about. This doesn’t mean that it’s ok to commit mass murders at public schools as Sharon was the last and true voice of reason until she falls victim to conformity and social hypocrisy.

Episode after episode, another type of social issue takes place as the continuity within the season remains consistent: the school shootings never end while the town of South Park remains indifferent. Beloved characters are getting the boot due to social change: Mr. Hankey gets investigated for making insensitive tweets and moves away to Fox’s Springfield, Al Gore “passes the torch” to the boys because he cannot fight the ignorance that clouds global warming anymore, and Satan dies in vain when he clashes with ManBearPig for the sake of waking humanity up for its sins of arrogance and greed. Social justice is criticized due to the result of PC Principal and Vice Principal Strong Woman’s affair; the PC Babies are forcing social change at an alarming rate while their parents try to hide their parentage for the sake of their respective reputations. And finally, Amazon shows up to dominate the local businesses with bad results: the workers go on strike, and nobody’s orders are getting shipped. Jeff Bezos (a Kanamit-looking person from The Twilight Zone’s enduring episode “To Serve Man”) will be getting help from the boys as they recruit the creatures of “The Mall” that survived the Black Friday Trilogy; the final episode of the season is called “Bike Parade.”

Final thoughts

South Park is trying to live up to their hashtag #cancelsouthpark and got people’s attention regardless of opinions put forth by critics. They are taking a bold stance this season by addressing the relevant issues even though such a position was addressed several seasons ago. Trey and Matt are showing that South Park can adapt to ever-changing situations for better or worse; some episodes were great while a few were a bit dull in delivery. However, one can observe that the central theme of South Park’s 22nd season is social indifference: school shootings are getting common, dependency on technology is running rampant, political correctness is being called into question and entities that promote good may make things even worse than before.

So what will happen to South Park after Kanamit-Bezos receives help from the “Mall creatures?” Will the town’s ignorance finally be lifted by a bike parade? Will South Park be “canceled?” We will have to wait until Wednesday to find out.