The Simpsons' characters show enough durability to revive interest in both old and new episodes, while South Park has a thinner bench and often covers territory The Simpsons already explored. South Park's political satire can feel narrower compared with The Simpsons' warmer social ribbing, risking a slide into libertarian crankiness. Season 27 of South Park manages to get laughs aimed at the second Trump administration, despite the difficulty of turning an outsized, cruel presidency into a workable caricature. Jokes from 2020 feel recycled and harsher now, raising the bar for cathartic laughter; SNL impressions and late-night takes can feel defanged or wearying.
I'll admit it: I'm more of a Simpsons guy than a South Park guy. Nothing really against those South Park guys I've caught plenty of episodes over its astonishing near-30-year run, and loved the 1999 big-screen movie. But while I haven't always maintained clockwork viewership of The Simpsons, either, those characters have proved durable enough to revive my interest in episodes old and new.
And yet the 27th season of South Park has accomplished something vanishingly few of its peers, whether in animation or topical comedy, have been able to do: getting laughs taking shots at the second Trump administration. It's not that the White House is beyond reproach. Quite the opposite problem, much-documented: the Donald Trump cabal is so outsized in its stupidity and cruelty that it's hard to distend it into a funny caricature, even a bleak one.
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