When All They Can Do is Pander

South Park seems to be one of the last things that's genuinely allowed to be satirical and, as such, they're starting to get a lot more buzz. Everyone looks to the trusted name to lead us out of the media haze of mass sycophancy. For Matt Stone and Trey Parker, that old '90s tradition of spitting in the eye of convention still seems to be profitable. A couple days ago, they released a new special, "Joining the Panderverse". I liked this one a lot better than their Corona virus special.

How do you talk about the rot of corporate wokeness in Disney and mass media without throwing in with an obsessively contrary faction? South Park wisely takes the route of satirising human behaviour instead of a presumption about the underlying morality of any faction.

In the show's mythology, Kathleen Kennedy has increasingly relied on a magical object called the "Pander Stone" to churn out movies of diminishing quality, driven mad by racist hate mail (nearly all of which turns out to have been written by Eric Cartman).

Meanwhile, Cartman's been replaced by a black woman who insists she's the real Eric Cartman, while the familiar little white boy has been transported to a universe where everyone's been replaced by black, Latina, and trans women (and, in Kenny's case, one Asian woman). White voice actress April Stewart voices all four alternate versions of the four children, which tells us where Stone and Parker stand on woke corporate policy. Yet, the boys are forced to admit the black woman version of Cartman is as deserving of the name when her selfish actions nearly destroy the universe.

I also really enjoyed the B plot about handymen becoming billionaires because no-one has practical skills anymore. That's a joke that sorely needed to be told.

South Park is available on Paramount+.

X Sonnet #1784

A shadow cloud attends the bard abroad.
With walking fast, a hearty cake's a meal.
Provisions plopped above the dripping sod.
Increasing eggs increased the leopard's deal.
You slam the hatch but rubber pirates bounce.
And where'd you get a cannon blank for shot?
The wisdom reels behind the double ounce.
But lo, the lion's mates are what we got.
Persistent stars have changed the case of cakes.
For floating light, the bar was shiny clean.
Another hour left and Sally bakes.
For smarter dreams, a simple brain was keen.
A team of seven playing rattles arrive.
To herald snakes the players duly strive.