"South Park" Returns w/ 'Pandemic Special' on Sept. 30th

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"South Park" Promo: Comedy Central Series Returns This Month with Hourlong ‘Pandemic Special’
by Greg Evans
September 15, 2020






The COVID-19 pandemic comes to "South Park" when Comedy Central’s long-running animated series returns Sept. 30 with a one-hour episode titled “The Pandemic Special.”

“The Pandemic Special” premieres at 8 p.m. ET/PT, with two encore airings at 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.

The supersized episode, as with all subsequent new episodes of the show’s 24th season, will be available on HBO Max 24 hours after the Comedy Central premiere.

https://deadline.com/video/south-par...-max-premiere/

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South Park reveals how tonight's "Pandemic Special" was made remotely

Tonight's first-ever hour-long episode of South Park also marks its first remotely produced episode. ALSO: South Park will make its debut across other ViacomCBS brands with the "Pandemic Special" simulcast on MTV and MTV2.

South Park's "Pandemic Special" breaks the fourth wall with an earnest plea for viewers to vote

"In late October 2004, South Park aired one of its most iconic episodes—a pre-election installment called “Douche and Turd,” which crystallized the show’s nihilism, political and otherwise," says Laura Bradley. "The douche and turd were an on-the-nose symbol for the idea that in any given election, both politicians tend to be equally unappealing. But on Wednesday night, the long-running animated show defied its central tenet—the one insisting that caring at all is the stupidest position to take in any argument. And it did so in a way that one might imagine could perplex its creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, in their younger years. South Park closed its super-sized pandemic special with a simple, (mostly) earnest message: Vote." ALSO: "Pandemic Special" ripped Trump, cops, Disney and more.

South Park's "Pandemic Special" was its most-watched episode in seven years

About 2.3 million watched the hour-long special on Comedy Central. With its simulcast on MTV and MTV2 and two encores, about 4.05 million watched the special.

With "The Pandemic Special," South Park quit being an equal-opportunity offender

Shortly before the 2004 presidential election, Matt Parker and Trey Stone said to "Stay home" and "Don't vote." "And," added Stone, "it's no big deal. If you don't want to vote, you don't have to. F*** that vote or die s***. I hate that." At the end of this week's "The Pandemic Special," Matt and Trey pleaded with viewers to vote. "The reliable ideology that forms the spine of South Park is that Parker and his co-creator Matt Stone aren't on anyone's side – politically, culturally or socially," says Melanie McFarland. "We used to describe the show as an equal opportunity offender, and maybe that's true in a sense. Where that label falls apart is in the show's recurring proof that it actually has a moral center of sorts; equal opportunity offenders don't tend to care about anyone or anything. Not so here. 'The Pandemic Special' won't be remembered as the finest hour of South Park, and I say this not as a pun but in acknowledgment that with Comedy Central running through its catalogue, you're more likely to turn on back-to-back repeat episodes that are sharper, more coherent and outrageous than Wednesday night's entry. At the same time, it's also very much evidence that the show's producers feel as stuck in the mire as everyone else – and they do care. Parker and his team deserve credit for using the hour as a catch-all to poke fun at the absurdity of living our lives through Zoom screens, the bizarre direction that the mask debate has taken, and the vile absurdity of pouring enough funds into our police departments to enable them to afford military-grade equipment while teachers are left to choose between employment and their safety. The overall message of this episode isn't one of the South Park team feeling above it all to the point of comfortably rolling their eyes at madness gripping America. Instead it reflects a kind of frazzled incredulity and disillusionment about where we find ourselves."

ALSO:

• "The Pandemic Special" made a strong case for South Park's inadequacies: "Like many of us who’ve had to take a hard look in the mirror of late, whether out of necessity or sheer boredom, South Park proves most effective at analyzing itself," says Ben Travers. "Why do we need a scripted comedy special about the pandemic? Well, people need a break. Reality is exhausting. But then shouldn’t the special not mention the pandemic? Shouldn’t it be something pure and genuine and uplifting? Maybe, but that’s not South Park’s style. It’s a topical show, and there’s no way it could ignore a topic that literally shut down the world."
• All the semen jokes leave a viewer unprepared for the most valid bid for poignancy Trey Parker and Matt Stone have cared to make in some time: "The script constantly questions the necessity of its own existence, making repeated declarations that no one gives a damn about a 'pandemic special' at such a dire juncture, a term used in context to refer to Randy’s 10% markdown on marijuana," says Charles Bramesco. "But it justifies itself by playing up the fact that this is a show about children, even if they have foul mouths decades beyond their years. Kids have been hit hard, forced to contend with psychological stressors that have done a number on plenty of grownups, only made worse by youth. Adults can mark time until everything resumes, but those grade-school summers are finite and precious."