Goin’ down to South Park …
Long-running animated series “South Park” is famous for pushing the envelope and often causing controversy with its jokes – but one writer thinks that they went too far.
Writer Pam Brady told Fox News Digital that her worst joke for the show “was based on an old frat joke.”
“One character said, ‘I don’t trust anything that bleeds for five days and doesn’t die,’” she recalled. “I remember it was just like the most misogynistic frat boy joke that I’d heard of at that point … but we’re reclaiming it.”
Brady was a producer on “South Park” from 1997 to 2008, including the 1999 movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.” She also worked with “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone on the 2004 movie “Team America: World Police.”
The joke she referred to is said in that movie, by the kids teacher, Mr. Garrison. The movie was nominated for an Oscar (for Best Original Song).
Brady never felt like “South Park” was “the old boys” network behind the scenes.
“I think there’s always improvement to be made,” she told the outlet.
“I mean, women are 51% of the population, so it should always be 50% [female in writers’ rooms]. But I’ve been really lucky, you know, ‘South Park’s’ writers’ room has always been 50-50, male-female … but the best part about Hollywood is that no one’s keeping women out.”
Brady, who also co-created the 2016 Netflix series “Lady Dynamite,” said that she has seen comedy culture change since “South Park” first premiered in 1997. The show currently has 26 seasons and over three hundred episodes.
“I do think you have to be more careful now, what you say. ‘South Park’ had an episode where they represented … I’m not going to say what it was, but it was just someone you wouldn’t want to represent on a show … and you could do it 20 years ago, but you can’t do it now,” Brady said.
The producer and writer added, “I’m sort of of two minds about it, because I think the idea of cancel culture and stuff you can’t say … I think times change and I think sometimes it’s good that you go, ‘oh, you shouldn’t do something that’s like, a racist phrase that your grandparents would use.’ And that’s sort of just evolving.”
She said she doesn’t think comedy has been “stifled,” but “you need to be smarter to make a joke” today.
Brady, who also co-created the upcoming Prime Video animated series “Number One Happy Family USA,” said that comedy is about, “knowing that someone is not attacking you.”
To earn “that [audience] trust, it’s changed,” she added.
“But I think that’s the fun of it … Nobody wants to feel bad and, you know, we don’t want to do stuff that just makes people feel bad.”
