Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the animated series South Park, have announced they will reduce their focus on mocking the Trump administration in future episodes. The duo cited the difficulty of satirising a reality that already feels like comedy.
In an interview with ABC News Australia, Stone remarked, 'It feels like it’s going to be more difficult.' Parker added, 'They’re already going out and doing the comedy. It’s not something you can make fun of.' The previous two seasons heavily featured a character based on Donald Trump, with Mr Garrison's arc mirroring Trump's rise to the presidency.
The first episode of the most recent season achieved the highest premiere ratings in a decade, but reviews were mixed. Parker explained, 'We were really trying to make fun of what was going on, but we couldn’t keep up. What was actually happening was way funnier than anything we could come up with.'
Parker has previously described the 2016 election candidates as 'the giant douche and the turd sandwich'. Stone expressed ambivalence about the current political climate, saying, 'People say to us all the time, “Oh, you guys are getting all this good material,” like we’re happy about some of this stuff that’s happening. But I don’t know if that’s true. It doesn’t feel that way.'
