South Park reset the status quo in its titular town — and revives a character last seen 11 years ago — in season 24, episode 2, “South ParQ Vaccination Special.” The second story set during the pandemic, the special focuses on the town’s response to the COVID-19 vaccination roll-out while poking fun at various targets — be it the Qanon conspiracy theorists or the well-documented rise in divorce rates in America attributed to the pandemic. The special even includes a metafictional gag about the show’s creators, and it ends by returning a fan-favorite character who has been absent for more than a decade.
The South Park “Vaccination Special” is the second extended episode produced since the outbreak of COVID-19. South Park season 23 ended in December 2019, and the next season has been delayed for more than a year due to the pandemic [via NME]. The previous entry, “The Pandemic Special,” was a surprisingly earnest (for South Park) look a the emotional toll of the ongoing public health crisis on mental health. Reports have conflicted on whether or not these two specials constitute the first episodes of season 24 or if they are stand-alone specials.
“South ParQ Vaccination Special” continues some of the threads of the previous episode, but expands these ideas into new creative realms. While “The Pandemic Special” heavily suggested that Stan’s emotional breakdown was him voicing the creators’ feelings, “Vaccination Special” actually writes them into the plot, in the style of the iconic Merrie Melodies (Looney Tunes) short film Duck Amok, in which Daffy Duck is tormented by his (offscreen) animator. In the South Park special, Mr. Garrison finds himself transported by seemingly omnipotent powers, who reveal themselves by manipulating the character Mr. White through contemporary computer animation tools. Identifying these powers as the “Hollywood Elite,” Garrison begs them to make people like him again. His wish is granted — by returning his original affectation, Mr. Hat.
Mr. Hat (briefly, Mr. Twig) was a regular presence on South Park until he was replaced by Mr. Slave in the season 6 episode “The Death Camp of Tolerance,” which aired in 2002. Mr. Hat appeared twice more in the series, with his final appearance being in the banned South Park episode 200, which originally aired in 2010. Since then, Mr. Garrison had a tremendous (and arguably, problematic) character journey that involved accepting his homosexuality, becoming transgender, leading an atheism movement (with partner Richard Dawkins), reversing his sex-change operation, and eventually becoming a stand-in for President Trump. Many have interpreted Mr. Garrison’s abandoning Mr. Hat as indicative of the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, moving away from the surrealism of early South Park to more topical satire.
South Park enters surreal territory with its meta gag in “South ParQ Vaccination Special,” suggesting that the show may be moving back to its surreal roots in a (self-deprecating) bid to be popular again. The “Hollywood Elite” are clearly Stone and Parker — an image of them from their 1998 movie BASEketball is included on Mr. White’s QAnon conspiracy wall. Unlike in Duck Amuck, when Mr. Garrison breaks the fourth wall to plead with the animators, he gets what he asks for — and his new companion, Mr. Service, is replaced with his old one, Mr. Hat. The episode ends with the adults of South Park celebrating in a montage that includes some of the show’s most memorable one-off characters, from Sexual Harassment Panda to the show’s take on Kanye West. The final moment even calls out Cartman’s favourite restaurant, Casa Bonita. Since season 18, Trey Parker (who has taken over all writing and directing responsibilities) has been experimenting with the show’s format, dealing with more directly political themes and even introducing episode-to-episode continuity. The special hints that changes are ahead for South Park — fans will have to watch to see if those changes include a return to the “classic” show format.
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