Matt Stone

Plus 14 spinoff movies!

Like most, South Park had to readjust in the wake of 2016’s election, and decided to simplify. Now, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker reveal that Season 21 will do away with last year’s staples altogether, including a Trumped-up Garrison and those meme-able “Member Berries.”

It was only last week we learned that Ilana and Abbi’s Broad City return was delayed even further to September, and it seems the boys of South Park followed suit. The impressive twenty-first season will wait the better part of a month, premiering in September instead.

Whether or not the South Park brand of satire had lost any steam in Season 20, the most recent run of episodes hit a (figurative) wall when the 2016 Election swung against the result they’d written for. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have a few months to re-energize, but now hint they’ll skew less topical in Season 21, saying “what was actually happening was way funnier than anything we could come up with.”

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker had some understandable frustration with reworking Wednesday’s “The Very First Gentleman” into “Oh, Jeez” after the election; so much so, that they made history of their own in the process. The revamped episode apparently featured the series’ first uncensored F-bomb in the initial broadcast.

South Park may have been confident enough in its election predictions for 2008 and 2012 to use their quick turnaround on Wednesday’s episodes, but 2016 may be their biggest challenge yet. Following an early call for “The Very First Gentleman,” tonight’s South Park has been reworked into “Oh, Jeez” with a new clip.

Perhaps the only South Park trivia cited so often as its six-day turnaround might be the one time creators exceeded it, owing to a power outage at South Park Studios. As it turns out, last week’s 20th anniversary premiere very nearly added another footnote to the record, as malfunctioning audio delayed “Member Berries” right up to an hour before showtime.

It’s hard to believe South Park will kick off its 20th year as early as this Wednesday, and given the famous six-day turnaround, our first details only now arrive. South Park will “Member Berries” by rebooting the national anthem in this week’s season premiere, the first clip of which you can watch right now.

South Park long ago put to rest notions of an imminent end with a three-season renewal through 2019, but it bears thought if video games like The Stick of Truth or The Fractured But Whole represent an enduring step for the franchise. Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker wonder this as well, pointing to games as a potential “future of South Park,” noting they’ve still kicked around a few movie ideas.

The infamously-short lead time on new South Park episodes results in advance promos lacking footage until a few days out, but with only days to go until the Season 19 premiere, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have at least something to tide fans over. Check out the full “trailer” for South Park’s Wednesday premiere, and find out what subject the boys tackle in the premiere.