Ever since it debuted on Comedy Central in 1997, “South Park” has satirized American society, skewering notable public figures, including movie stars, athletes, and politicians. Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the series has been on the air with five different U.S. presidents at the time of writing, beginning with Bill Clinton and continuing up to the present day with Donald Trump. The latter has been Parker and Stone’s primary source of ridicule for Season 27, kicking off with a highly-rated premiere that targeted both the 47th president and Paramount following the merger with Skydance, and the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” The White House fired back at the series for its mocking depiction of President Trump.
No stranger to political controversy, “South Park” has skewered other political figures beyond the Commander-in-Chief. One of the series’ most notable targets of mockery is former Vice President Al Gore, who is featured in Season 10 Episode 6, “ManBearPig,” in which Gore visits South Park Elementary to raise awareness against the episode’s titular imaginary monster, serving as an allegory for climate change. In personifying climate change as an imaginary monster, “ManBearPig” embodies climate change denial, with the creature later reappearing in the “Imaginationland” trilogy. However, Parker and Stone realized how poorly the episode aged, revisiting ManBearPig and Gore 12 years later in Season 22 with a two-episode arc.
South Park apologized for not taking climate change ‘cereal’
The Season 22 episodes, titled “Time to Get Cereal” and “Nobody Got Cereal?,” brought ManBearPig back into the spotlight. In the first episode, the creature begins wreaking havoc on Tegridy Farms, and shortly after ravages the broader South Park community. The emergence of ManBearPig provokes Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny to track down the very messenger they mocked in the past for spreading “ManBearPig awareness,” in the hopes of finding a means to stop it for good.
The original “ManBearPig” episode aired in 2006 as part of Season 10. At this time, President George W. Bush was midway through his second term, and his 2000 election opponent, Vice President Al Gore, was promoting his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” which aimed to educate people about global warming. The episode reflects climate change denial, mocking Gore’s activism as a cry for attention — a sentiment that Trey Parker and Matt Stone would unequivocally disown while still being able to skewer the former vice president.
Despite his mocking depiction on “South Park,” Al Gore addressed Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s two episodes during an appearance on “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah,” praising the Emmy-winning duo’s mea culpa. Gore felt that it was a “hell of a statement” for the series to acknowledge how poorly the original “ManBearPig” episode aged, given the modern evidence regarding climate change. Most recently, ManBearPig was featured in the two-part Paramount+ special event, “South Park: The Streaming Wars,” and even got to play a heroic role of sorts toward the end of the special.