It was announced this week that the hit satirical adult animated series South Park will be airing another hour-long special relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. This will be the second hour-long special developed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone that focuses on the crisis. The first special titled The Pandemic Special was released on September 30, 2020. South Park will air its second pandemic centered special titled South ParQ Vaccination Special on March 10 to start its 24th season.
2020 was the first year in which South Park did not release a season. However, The Pandemic Special was used as a way to air at least one project related to the series. The first special focuses on Stan’s (Trey Parker) dimwitted father Randy (also Parker) being horrified to discover that he is the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of admitting his mistake and coming clean, he attempts to cover it up by finding his own version of a vaccine and selfishly uses the situation as a way to make money on his marijuana farm. Meanwhile, the entire police department has lost their jobs (in a reference to the George Floyd protests) and has been hired as teachers for the elementary school. However, the cops soon use the opportunity to turn the quarantined school into a prison where they can assert their so-called dominance over the children. The episode ends with a glimpse of hope for the characters being absolutely crushed when the pangolin that is believed to have caused the spread of COVID and possibly hold the answers to ending the pandemic is killed by the President Garrison (who is used as a direct parody of Donald Trump), who wants to have the pandemic continue, so he can keep his idiotic racist agenda going.
The announcement for the South ParQ Vaccination Special was first made on the official Twitter page for South Park, which gives an ominous statement reading, “We will be herd.” The South ParQ Vaccination Special will air on March 10 on Comedy Central and MTV2.
