South Park: Creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone say they aren’t afraid of cancel culture

Cancel culture is very much alive and well in the entertainment industry and one false move can make anyone a target of it. Some of the cancel culture is swift and immediate while others are aimed at and manage to dodge it (I’d say this is currently true of Dave Chappelle who is at the center of controversy due to his comedy special yet he continues to thrive). A duo that could easily be in the sights of cancel culture is South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Their long-running animated series has pushed boundaries for years but has remained relatively unscathed because the show is actually wickedly intelligent. That being said, time has changed a lot with each passing year of South Park so what may have been ignored in the past, could make it a target of cancel culture junkies today. Are Trey Parker and Matt Stone afraid of this? No, not one bit!

During a new interview with “The Hollywood Reporter“, the South Park duo makes it clear that they are no more concerned about getting “canceled” now than they were when the series first premiered in the late 1990s. Matt Stone explained that they’ve been expecting to get canceled as soon as South Park started but, for whatever reason, it has never happened. Stone goes on to say that all of this just serves as inspiration for storylines that can be developed for the show in the future:

“We have been waiting to get canceled for 30 years. It changes who is involved with it. But we have been dealing with this s–t the whole time we have been making the show. And we can’t complain. Things have been going fine for us. It gives us fodder and gives us something to talk about.”

During the same interview, Stone also took time to address the recent controversy with Dave Chappelle over his new Netflix special The Closer. Following its debut, there were calls for Netflix to remove the special because of offensive jokes and claims that some of them expressed transphobic ideas. The streamer has chosen to stand behind Chappelle and Stone believes that most people in Hollywood are cheering Netflix on for making that decision:

“I think Netflix’s reputation in the Hollywood community went way, way up. That’s all I’m going to say. There are some people who do not agree. But the vast majority of creative people in Hollywood were happy with Netflix’s decision. That’s my feeling. I can’t prove that.”

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are honestly two of the best people to ask about this because they have been the brains behind a show that hasn’t been politically correct and has taken many chances, even if they could be viewed as offensive. Perhaps South Park has avoided cancel culture because it is an animated program made for adults but as we have learned in recent years, nothing is really safe from cancel culture so South Park should consider itself lucky for virtually avoiding it.

What are YOUR thoughts on cancel culture?