South Park co-creator Trey Parker says season 21 of the Comedy Central series is getting back to stories about "ridiculous" kids and turning away from topical subjects like politics. South Park, of course, has been a comedy staple on Comedy Central since 1997, when Parker and co-creator Matt Stone skewered every person and subject imaginable through the point-of-view of a group of misfit juveniles — including Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny — in the tiny community of South Park, Colorado.

Thanks to the fearless writing and voice performances of Parker and Stone as several of the characters on the show, South Park has not only become a huge hit on TV and film (the series spawned the 1999 smash South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut) over the years, it has morphed into a pop culture phenomenon.

Not afraid to offended anybody on either side of the political aisle, South Park seemed to take a deliberate turn in season 20 last year when much of the story focused on the U.S. presidential election and its aftermath. The show freely lampooned Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and in Republican Donald Trump's place, fan favorite Mr. Garrison was elected to the presidency — finding himself, as a result, in many Trump-like circumstances.

Kyle, Cartman, Kenny, and Stan on South Park.

But in a new interview with the Los Angeles Times to tout his voice role in Despicable Me 3, Parker says is getting back to basics when season 21 gets underway August 23, and leaving political humor off the docket. Parker says:

"I want to get back to Cartman dressing up like a robot and [screwing] with Butters, because to me that’s the bread and butter of South Park: Kids being kids and being ridiculous and outrageous, but not ‘Did you see what Trump did last night."

Parker admits that the show could probably get "crazy ratings" by poking fun of Trump, but also noted, "I just don't care." Quite simply, Parker says, the approach the show took last season had "just gotten boring." He adds:

Randy South Park Oh Jeez

"We fell into the same trap that “Saturday Night Live” fell into, where it was like, “Dude, we’re just becoming CNN now. We’re becoming: ‘Tune in to see what we’re going to say about Trump.’ ” Matt and I hated it but we got stuck in it somehow."

For the time being, getting back to offending people by using the same methods that the show became famous for is clearly the best way to go. The subject of politics, after all, is not only dominating broadcast and network news, social media and talk shows, like Parker noted, it's also become a huge part of SNL. At some point fans are simply going to have enough of Alec Baldwin's impersonations of Trump, which might be one of the reasons the actor says he's scaling back on his appearances as the president this season.

NEXT: 15 Shocking Times South Park Went to Far

Source: Los Angeles Times