In a Rare Move, South Park Admits It Was Wrong About Climate Change
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
In the months after Al Gore released his apolitical, urgent documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, which outlined the looming horrors of climate change, some audiences were quick to laugh him off as an alarmist. Back then, climate change was hardly a partisan worry, it was simply something many people on both sides chose to ignore. A few months after the documentary premiered at Sundance Film Festival, South Park aired its episode, "ManBearPig," in which a whiny, self-absorbed caricature of Gore leads the kids on a wild goose chase for what appears to be an imaginary beast.
The implications were clear then. Trey Parker and Matt Stone were unconvinced by Gore's warning.
Well, 12 years later, South Park has returned to say it was wrong. As fires rage across California—that the LA Fire Chief has admitted is the result of climate change—ManBearPig is back.
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Over the last two episodes, Parker and Stone have attempted to correct the mistake they made over a decade ago, as the boys beg Gore to help them fight the destruction of ManBearPig. While in 2006's South Park climate change was some silly myth, now it's a very real horror that most people still choose to ignore.
The boys are able to track down Gore who forces them to admit they were wrong before he helps them face a very real ManBearPig. While the episodes paint Gore in a more sympathetic light than it did 12 years ago, the guy is still insufferably smug, reveling in how right he was back in 2006.
In one scene in a Red Lobster, a man loudly critiques the shaky science surrounding ManBearPig as the beast itself tears people apart in the restaurant behind him.
South Park has never been one to say it was wrong. It's a show that will gladly stand by its depictions of everything from suicide to terrorist attacks and the prophet Muhammad. So, to admit it was wrong about its take on climate change 12 years ago is a surprising sign of maturity.
And South Park continued the apology into this week, as ManBearPig continues to ravage the small Colorado town. Most people in South Park are too busy playing Red Dead Redemption 2 to worry about the murder and destruction—and even the school shootings that continue to happen in the background. Others are busy attending group meetings that pose the question: Should I Start to Worry? One man says that he's pretty sure ManBearPig killed his family and destroyed his house. Should he start to worry?
Good question.
South Park depicted the prophet Muhammad? Do the producers have 24-hour protection?
However, what I really want to know is when South Park will admit that it made a mistake to "Blame Canada".
BLAME CANADA
Time's have changed
Our kids are getting worse
They won't obey their parents
They just want to fart and curse
Should we blame the government?
Or blame society?
Or should we blame the images on TV?
No, blame Canada, blame Canada
With all their beady little eyes
And flappin' heads so full of lies
Blame Canada, blame Canada
We need to form a full assault
It's Canada's fault
Don't blame me for my son Stan
He saw the darn cartoon
And now he's off to join the Klan
And my boy Eric once
Had my picture on his shelf
But now when I see him he tells me to fuck myself
Well, blame Canada, blame Canada
It seems that everything's gone wrong
Since Canada came along
Blame Canada, blame Canada
There not even a real country anyway
My son could've been a doctor or a lawyer it's true
Instead he burned up like a piggy on a barbecue
Should we blame the matches?
Should we blame the fire?
Or the doctors who allowed him to expire?
Heck no
Blame Canada, blame Canada
With all their hockey hubbabaloo
And that bitch Anne Murray too
Blame Canada, shame on Canada
The smut we must stop, the trash we must smash
Laughter and fun must all be undone
We must blame them and cause a fuss
Before someone thinks of blaming us
The Blame Canada episodes is one of their best!