South Park Pandemic Special Covered Disney/China, Police Shootings, and Trump

Since it launched, all the way back in 1997, South Park has had a remarkable run as a vehicle for telling hard satirical truths. Yes, it's crass. No, it's not for everyone. Their pandemic special Wednesday night did not disappoint. It had too many things going on in it to totally give it justice to in a summary. They accurately captured the times we're in -- the episode included everything from fights about masks to struggles of small businesses (besides weed, where business is booming for Randy Marsh) to police shootings to President Trump to Disney and China.

The scene that went the most viral on social media was when the police shot Token:

The context of what happened before this is that police replaced teachers in school. Cartman loved the era of closed school and isolation and not seeing anybody etc. When school resumed, he went crazy over having to be back, and to try to get out of it started coughing on Kyle. A fight spilled onto the floor and the police teachers opened fire.

The police said that Token was taken to the hospital "due to Covid" -- because they wouldn't have shot him had they not had to be there on account of Covid -- and locked the kids down into a police state:

Mr. Garrison was President Trump, who matter-of-factly explained why he was doing nothing about Covid:

Meanwhile, South Park continued to take shots at Disney and China:

There were other 'flashback' scenes in the episode involving Randy Marsh, Mickey Mouse, and grotesque beastiality that may or may not have triggered the pandemic.

Mickey Mouse has been a recurring character representing the entire Disney brand since an episode that poked fun at the Jonas Brothers in 2009. Last October, right around the same time Daryl Morey was tweeting in support of Hong Kong protestors, South Park mocked Disney and other corporate ties to China. One of the lines in the show had an executive saying, "You gotta lower your ideals of freedom if you wanna suck on the warm teat of China."

China banned South Park from their airwaves, and South Park issued the following statement: "Like the NBA, we welcome the Chinese censors into our homes and into our hearts. We too love money more than freedom and democracy. Xi doesn't look like Winnie the Pooh at all. Tune into our 300th episode this Wednesday at 10! Long live the great Communist Party of China. May the autumn's sorghum harvest be bountiful. We good now China?"

Last night's pandemic special and the whole South Park library are streaming on HBO Max.