The latest feature-length special South Park: The Streaming Wars brings back one of the show’s most regrettable jokes, leaving a bad aftertaste once the closing credits roll. For the most part, South Park: The Streaming Wars is an effective satire that pokes fun at subjects ranging from the preponderance of streaming services to the issue of water rights, to the role that big business plays in global warming.
Much like South Park season 25 got political satire right with its perceptive parody of the media’s Ukraine/Russia conflict coverage, South Park: The Streaming Wars effectively mocks its topical themes. However, the special’s Cartman-centric subplot brings back a regrettably transphobic streak of humor that South Park has repeatedly indulged in recent years. The special’s commentary on elective surgeries was gratuitous, ill-informed, and unfunny, as well as propagating harmful myths about trans and non-binary people.
Cartman’s claim that “it’s 2022, they do surgery like this on kids now” regarding breast implants for an eight-year-old initially appeared to be a case of South Park’s most morally dubious character being his usual self. However, while South Park's long-running Tegridy Farms plot dominated most of the special’s story, the ending confirmed that Cartman successfully received breast implant surgery because, as his mother states, the doctors feared he would “cancel” them if they refused to perform the procedure. While South Park is clearly not intended to depict reality, the show’s heightened satire is intended to reflect real cultural norms. ManBearPig working with rich businessmen to control the water supply reflects how big business exacerbates climate change for profit. Stan and Tolkien’s in-demand model-boat business reflects how the competition between streaming services creates a free-for-all wherein individual content creators often end up burnt out. As such, it’s not hard to guess what South Park is implying with Cartman’s storyline.
While South Park’s Ukraine/Russia satire worked because it mocked jingoistic nationalists braying for war from the sidelines, Cartman’s subplot in South Park: The Streaming Wars mocks people seeking life-altering surgery by depicting their struggle as non-existent. The legal minimum age for silicone implants is 18 in the United States, and any cosmetic surgery below the age of consent requires a parent or guardian’s approval. While not as egregious as the deeply transphobic “Board Girls,” (season 23, episode 7), the South Park gag is still propagating misinformation on a real, relevant issue by implying that it is too easy for trans and non-binary people to access surgery.
Like all of South Park’s jokes, the subplot exaggerates reality for the sake of comedy. However, the “reality” that South Park: The Streaming Wars implies does not exist and is often cited to deny trans and non-binary people necessary medical care. It is an extremely difficult and dangerous time to be a trans or gender non-conforming person in America, and South Park insisting that surgery is all too available to anyone who complains enough is a satirical dig that has no basis in observable reality. It is the coldest take in an otherwise largely solid special and proof that, with South Park: The Streaming Wars, the long-running series can indulge its worst impulses as much as its worthwhile political commentary.