'South Park' Season 21 to Focus Less on Donald Trump and More on Fart Jokes, Abandons Serialized Format
"South Park" season 20 concluded in December 2016, and fans are now looking forward to the upcoming 21st season. But what can viewers expect from the show this time?
First of all, co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone tease that more "fart jokes" are in store for season 21. This much was revealed by the duo while speaking to Bill Simmons on his podcast (via Deadline). Fans can also expect the show to be less political overall, opting to steer the spotlight away from the parody of Donald Trump.
"If you have like a little monkey and it's running himself into the wall over and over and you're like, 'That's funny, but how am I gonna make fun of the monkey running himself into the wall?'" Parker explained.
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But that does not mean that "South Park" will stop making fun of the current political climate entirely. They may opt to feature an episode or two focusing on that specific topic, but it has been suggested that season 21 will not follow a serialized format anymore.
Recent seasons of "South Park" have been more serialized and followed a more linear storyline, whereas older seasons usually jumped from one topic to another per episode. The title of the season 20 finale episode alone, "The End of Serialization as We Know It," posits that "South Park" will go back to its old ways.
The 20th season also focused a lot on Donald Trump, as well as nostalgia and internet trolls. But Parker and Stone did not intend to make the season Trump-heavy. In fact, they wholeheartedly believed that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election. This resulted in them completely scrapping an episode titled "The First Gentleman"--which follows Bill Clinton holding the titular position--and writing "Oh Jeez" instead.
"That was part of the bummer for us about [last] season; we didn't want to make it a big Trump thing, and we kept thinking it was gonna go away and we didn't want to get caught up in just being a political show," Parker admitted. "We're not that show and we never were."
Thankfully, Parker and Stone have more opportunities to make the show however they want since "South Park" has been renewed through season 23. And while a premiere date for season 21 has yet to be announced, the recent seasons' release pattern puts it somewhere between the second and third week of September.
