South Park has long been notable for putting its own spin on current events, and unlike many other animated series, is often able to remain up to date with the news. With a recent pandemic special bringing the show its best ratings in seven years, Trey Parker and Matt Stone are now returning to COVID-19 with an hour-long vaccination episode and the teaser available above offers up an idea of what to expect when South Park makes its way back to Comedy Central this March 10th.
In the short clip, we see a vaccination center get overwhelmed with townsfolk, and some suitably tongue-in-cheek digs at the pretty routine nature of getting a shot, and the priority given to older people. I particularly enjoyed seeing vaccinations being presented as a hard-to-get-into club causing massive demand. How exactly South Park will squeeze an hour’s worth of material from the storyline is another question, although the spelling of the series’ title as South ParQ probably gives some clue as to what Stone and Parker have in mind.
The extended instalment does reflect how the long-running program has been forced to adjust its usually hectic production schedule, which typically takes just six days from writing to airing. We would normally have had season 24 by now, but pandemic-related problems meant that we got September’s one-off event and the forthcoming episode in March. Indeed, given the rich amount of conspiracies and the general craziness of 2020, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to satirize everyday reality.
The pandemic special did manage to squeeze in a lot of contemporary trends, so we’d expect that this latest outing for the series will deal with the recent election and its disturbing aftermath, as well as the many conspiracy theories that have gained unfortunate prominence in the last few months. Either way, we’re excited to get more South Park to dig into in a couple of weeks.