South Park Rips On Disney, Kathleen Kennedy, AI, College In New Special ‘South Park: Joining The Panderverse’

For years, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been one of the few duos in Hollywood willing to call them as they see them. 

That trend continued with the series’ latest special South Park: Joining The Panderverse which put all kinds of stuff in the show’s crosshairs -- from Disney’s habit of pandering to audiences, the laziness of multiverses in movies, and even the ills of AI and the declining usefulness of a college education.

The long-running series has done a few of these specials in recent years which have covered topics like COVID and even the show itself being stuck in a legal battle between streaming platforms.

But Joining The Panderverse seemed to get the most attention before its release because it dared to call out the ridiculous of lazily flipping characters' races and genders in the name of pandering.

Let’s run through some of the key topics the special touched on, but a word of warning, there will be spoilers. So, if you haven’t checked it out yet, throw on Paramount+, sit there for 48 minutes, and then report back here post haste.

We’ll wait…

…

…alright, let’s do it.

The Panderverse Mocks Hollywood’s Obsession With Multiverses

Obviously, front and center in the special was the Panderverse. 

Cartman keeps having nightmares that everyone he knows is going to be replaced by racially diverse women. Ones with a habit of constantly talking about the ills of the patriarchy.

Now, why would that be a concern? It's not like that's Hollywood's favorite thing to do or anything.

His nightmares come to fruition when he swaps places with a Black, female version of himself from another universe.

Are you following? Because this entire plot was designed to do two things. The first was to point out the laziness of multiverse storylines that are a dime a dozen in Hollywood these days. The second was to call out the absurdity and laziness (again) of flipping characters’ race and gender.

It’s eventually revealed that the “Panderverse” was created by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. She did this using something called the “Panderstone” to create movies that would appeal to everyone by simply swapping out the genders and races of characters.

This inadvertently leads to an alternate universe version of Kennedy — which is essentially Cartman — swapping places with the real Kennedy. This version of her tries to change everything about this universe by demanding that everything be changed by telling everyone to “Put a chick in it and make her gay!”

Is that a little confusing? Yes, but isn’t every multiverse story? 

While a little dense, the story serves to tee up an opportunity to goof on one of the greatest multiverse offenders: Disney.

Disney CEO Bob Iger and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy were both lampooned in South Park: Joining The Panderverse. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

South Park Rips Disney, Kathleen Kennedy 

The episode touches on the continued decline of Disney and places the blame on its habit of pandering to audiences.

Toward the end of the special, Kennedy explains her rationale for this to Cartman. This was one instance where I thought the show may have missed the mark a little.

Kennedy says that she started pandering to audiences in a bid to fix the racism and sexism she saw in the world. This, she said, was a reaction to the hate mail she received for swapping characters' genders and races. Hate mail is jokingly attributed to Cartman.

The show argued that this recent trend in pandering is a feedback loop. One in which people complain about swapping characters’ races and genders leading to Hollywood feeling obligated to fight the criticism by doubling down.

And on it and it goes forever.

Well, there had to be a first instance of this brand of pandering for there to be criticism. It’s a chicken or the egg thing. The pandering had to come first for there to be criticism of it. So it couldn’t have started as a reaction to criticism.

It had to start as an attempted cash grab or a bid to push progressive ideologies. Take your pick.

The show places the blame on both sides of the argument: the people who pander and the people who loathe it. I get the argument, but it doesn’t seem like that argument holds too much water.

South Park: Joining The Panderverse poked fun at how technology and AI are making college grads useless. (Photo by JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado/Getty Images).

Technology And Cause Problems For College Graduates In New Special

It wasn’t all about Hollywood and pandering. The special also touched on how technology has caused people’s skills to atrophy and how college educations will become increasingly worthless with the rise of AI.

We've seen as of late, they don't make college-educated folks like they used to, and South Park was more than happy to pole fun at this.

The B-story involves Randy Marsh trying to fix an oven door. Because of a reliance on technology and 8-years of college spent studying geology, he calls a handyman to fix it. 

However, handymen are so in demand because nobody knows how to fix anything. This leads to them becoming exceedingly rich, while the college-educated end up looking for work outside of Home Depot, because they don't have any actual skills.

I thought this was the funnier of the two main stories, and even had the stronger social commentary. While everyone (for the most part) can agree on how ridiculous pander-casting is, the idea is that the only people who will be able to make money in the future are those with the ability to fix things.

While it wasn't the series' finest hour, it was certainly a well-done instance of a show willing to tackle issues most others would be too fearful to even brush up against.

But at this point, should we expect anything less than that from fellas behind South Park?

Follow on X: @Matt_Reigle