TV Review | South Park (S26.E2 The Worldwide Privacy Tour)

“In this week’s new episode, South Park royally roasts Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with hilarious results,” says Max Nocerino

South Park started Season 26 off strong with its parody of the mental breakdown and antisemitic epithets from Kanye West. And now they take aim at another pretentious celebrity in Episode 2. Or shall we say celebrities? Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. This royal couple shocked the world when they officially left the Royal family of England, giving up their titles and finding a new life in America. Prince Harry was very vocal about how his family “abused” his American-born biracial wife Meghan Markle. And has since written a “tell-all” book on just why he had to speak up against the “injustice”.

ROYAL ROASTING!

In South Park, it’s titled Waaaaa. What an appropriate title. Trey Parker is no stranger to directly lampooning famous people. But sometimes his parodies are clever substitutes that allow him more creative control and less flack from groups of people who may find the attack too encompassing and offensive. Therefore, the British Royal family is now Canadian. Trey has been making fun of Canadians for over two decades. And it’s a little safer to take aim at them because, well, nobody complains or talks about Canadians. Right?

Trey Parker nailed Prince Harry and Meghan Markle perfectly though. He presents the two as “victims” who just want their privacy. But in absurdist South Park fashion, they travel the world, holding up signs and chanting “We want our privacy. We want our privacy.” And then anyone who tells them to shut up is immediately interpreted by Harry as an attack on his wife.

MEGHAN MARKLE

Meghan is cartoonishly obnoxious. And several times Harry blurts out truths about her like how he wasn’t fully aware she was half-black and half-white. And how she may be too controlling. Trey just hit a full genius note and took everything the ex-royals have been saying and doing since 2018 and displayed it all for the world to see. All the way down to Harry’s private area being frozen from his trip to the Arctic. Harry and Meghan cannot take the abuse anymore and move to South Park, Colorado where they hope they can get privacy.

Harry plays the drums, lights fireworks at 10:30 pm, and even plays polo on his new lawn gaining the ire of his new neighbor, Kyle Broflovski. I love the satire on how Meghan and Harry are such hypocrites in trying to remain private. But in reality, they’re both seeking to announce their presence to any who would listen. They hilariously even move into their new house on a jet instead of a moving truck. And the plane rolls down the street like it couldn’t be more obvious that they are rich and privileged. That also comes up a lot too, as they know they are rich and privileged. But still claim how “terrible” their lives in England were.

DUKE AND DUCHESS OF CANADA

The B story nicely ties into Prince Harry and Meghan’s nonsense with Kyle trying to rebrand himself with encouragement from Butters. He goes to a branding company (with a name I can’t say here) that looks to completely repackage his image and personality. Yet all the computer-generated attributes have victimss squarely marked at the bottom. This is a clever dig at victim-blaming culture as many women in American society try to get male attention with their Instagrams and dating profiles. But will fall back on the fact that they are being victimized when things don’t go their way.

Kyle tries out his new brands but his friends are not interested. In fact, they are quickly sick of him constantly bailing on them and easily decide to play video games without him. They are also sick of hearing about the former Duke and Duchess of Canada. Kyle insists he doesn’t care about them. But feels the need to pick apart every little tidbit of their activities and bother his friends with the analysis. This is a direct reference to how Americans are constantly complaining about how much they hate the ex-royals. Yet if they don’t like them. Why are they still reading about them, watching their interviews, and reading Harry’s book? Surely if you truly didn’t care about something, you would shut up about it.

VERDICT

My god they trashed Meghan in this episode. It was just hysterical how foolish and gaudy they made her seem. At one point, Trey basically says she is garbage by having Harry open her mouth all the way like you would a garbage can. Certainly not subtle. The ex-royals were NOT on my prediction list for this season. But I am so glad that Trey Parker did this. Well done. Solid A.

UK fans can catch up with a host of specials on Paramount+.

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Max Nocerino

Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!