South Park: The Streaming Wars Bring Back The Show’s Worst Joke

screenrant.com:

The latest feature-length special South Park: The Streaming Warsbrings back one of the show’s most regrettable jokes, leaving a bad aftertaste once the closing credits roll. For the most part, South Park: The Streaming Wars is an effective satire that pokes fun at subjects ranging from the preponderance of streaming services to the issue of water rights, to the role that big business plays in global warming.

Much like South Park season 25 got political satire right with its perceptive parody of the media’s Ukraine/Russia conflict coverage, South Park: The Streaming Wars effectively mocks its topical themes. However, the special’s Cartman-centric subplot brings back a regrettably transphobic streak of humor thatSouth Park has repeatedly indulged in recent years. The special’s commentary on elective surgeries was gratuitous, ill-informed, and unfunny, as well as propagating harmful myths about trans and non-binary people.

Related: Every Time South Park Referenced Stephen King

Cartman’s claim that “it’s 2022, they do surgery like this on kids now” regarding breast implants for an eight-year-old initially appeared to be a case of South Park’s most morally dubious character being his usual self. However, while South Park's long-running Tegridy Farms plot dominated most of the special’s story, the ending confirmed that Cartman successfully received breast implant surgery because, as his mother states, the doctors feared he would “cancel” them if they refused to perform the procedure. While South Park is clearly not intended to depict reality, the show’s heightened satire is intended to reflect real cultural norms. ManBearPig working with rich businessmen to control the water supply reflects how big business exacerbates climate