'South Park' Mocks Climate Change Deniers

Last week, South Park made a rare apology to Al Gore for a decades-old mockery of his work regarding climate change. This week, show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker went even further, shifting the narrative to mock climate change deniers.

In Wednesday night's "Nobody Got Cereal?", the ravages of ManBearPig -- a monster that is quite literally part man, part bear, and part pig that serves as the show's stand in for climate change -- have begun to devastate the town of South Park. Early in the episode, the residents are gathered for a "When Should I Start to Worry?" symposium, though it is rapidly evident that it's well past the time to worry. It's revealed that many townspeople have already died, there are fires destroying roads and infrastructure, and even Satan himself has showed up -- and people haven't yet decided to worry or even admit that ManBearPig is real.

"All right everyone, I know a lot of people have died and a lot of roads have been destroyed by the fire, so I would like to thank you all for coming to tonight's symposium: When Should I Start to Worry?" the moderator of the symposium tells the group.

The episode directly follow's last week's "Time to Get Cereal" in which Stan, Eric, Kenny, and Kyle are all convinced that ManBearPig (read: climate change) is real and now have to convince people to act. Both episodes timing is spot-on, considering that California is fighting deadly wild fires at both end of the state with the Camp Fire in the northern part being the worst and deadliest in the state's history.

"Nobody Got Cereal" also turns a satirical, critical eye at how people react when faced with the reality that in order to even slow climate change people will have to make major changes. It's revealed that decades ago, the senior citizens of South Park made a deal with ManBearPig under the assumption that they'd be long dead before anything bad came from it. This leads the boys to attempt to bargain that, if ManBearPig leaves them alone, they will give up the ice cream and cars which were what the elders got in the first place. However, when ManBearPig (through a lawyer) demands they give up soy sauce and a video game -- Red Dead Redemption 2.

It's a no-go, as no one wants to part with the creature comfort of a video game. In the end, a deal is struck in which ManBearPig will return in five years' time, more destructive and terrifying than ever before, the message being that people would rather delay their own doom than make a relatively simple change to prevent it altogether.

This acknowledgement of the reality of climate change is just the latest issue South Park has taken on this season. Only six episodes into Season 22, the show has already taken on the Catholic Church, school shootings, Brett Kavanaugh, Roseanne Barr, Black Panther, and even The Simpsons. In the latter, the show took shots at its long time animated rival's controversy over the character Apu with the episode "The Problem with a Poo". That episode, which saw a racist Mr. Hankey driven out of South Park to Springfield where he and his racist ways are welcomed with open arms, closed with a black screen bearing the hashtag "#cancelthesimpsons".

New episodes of South Park air on Wednesday nights at 10 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.

What did you think about South Park's criticism of climate change deniers? Let us know in the comments.