The trailer for the upcoming South Park special event on Paramount+ shows what Stan and Kyle will look like as adults post-COVID. The long-running potty-mouthed animated series South Park was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and began airing in 1997. It follows four young boys on their frequently transgressive adventures around a small town in Colorado. South Park has now run for 23 seasons, expanded to video games, soundtrack albums, and the 1999 movie musical South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the show is already greenlit to run until at least season 30.
Over the years, South Park has covered a wide variety of topical subjects. Some have been handled more successfully than others, but throughout its 309 episodes, the show has covered issues like AIDS, drugs, gay marriage, the war on terror, the rise of World of Warcraft, and much, much more. The show has already discussed the COVID-19 pandemic in a pair of specials, "The Pandemic Special" in September 2020 and "South ParQ Vaccination Special" in March 2021.
Today, Paramount+ revealed a first look at their upcoming event South Park: Post COVID, which is one of the 14 South Park projects they're developing. On Thanksgiving Day (November 25, 2021), the special will premiere in the U.S., the Nordics, Latin America, Australia, and Canada. The special will explore the future lives of the kids who grew up during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, seeing where Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny find themselves as adults. Check out the teaser below:
This teaser shows that even after 23 seasons of South Park, the creators are willing to experiment and push the show past its edges. Even though the show has plenty of material to explore in its main timeline, there is even more to plumb when it's taken to the future. This teaser has given audiences a glimpse of just a few of the grown-up characters who will be featured in the special (including Stan's father Randy), but it is certain that they will pack every minute with as many cameos as they can manage.
It will certainly be interesting to see if the show can retain its comic sensibility when the characters are actual adults. A major part of the dynamic of South Park is the fact that its leads are children, creating a juxtaposition with the filthy things they are saying and doing. So far, the teaser hasn't shown what the plot is going to be, but doubtless it will be something bombastic and controversial that will really test the mettle of these new iterations of the classic characters.
Source: Paramount+