‘South Park’ Season 22 Promo Teases Show’s Cancellation

Comedy Central released a bizarre teaser for South Park season 22, calling for the most popular show in the network’s history to be cancelled.

In the 15-second teaser, a narrator tells viewers, “America has reached a crossroads. What will we do next?”

Then, “#cancelsouthpark” appears on the screen before reminding viewers that season 22 starts on Sept. 26.

The Twitter page has also gone all-in on the “Cancel South Park” campaign, including an emoji with the South Park sign crossed out. On Thursday, Comedy Central shared another 15-second spot, in which a narrator says, “We will be silent no longer. Our voices will be heard.”

They also retweeted fans and reminded them that the new season starts in less than two weeks.

“At least Matt and Trey are finally being honest and hope that they #cancelsouthpark so they can move on,” one fan wrote, referring to creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

“Thank you. Tune in Wednesdays starting September 26 #cancelsouthpark,” the South Park Twitter page replied.

It looks highly unlikely that South Park is really getting cancelled. Back in 2015, the show was renewed through season 23, assuring that South Park will become the longest-running cable primetime series in history. The order covered 30 episodes in total.

To prepare for the new season, Comedy Central announced an eight-day South Park marathon, starting on Wednesday, Sept. 19 at 9 a.m. ET and ending at 10 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Sept. 26. The only breaks will be for new episodes of Tosh.0, The Jim Jefferies Show and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. The network also plans to air The Office repeats after The Daily Show.

South Park also teamed up with Twitter for special emojis to go with #SouthPark, #SouthPark22, #Memberberries and #Cartman.

South Park launched in 1997 and has won five Emmys. This year, it was nominated for Outstanding Animated Program.

During a 2015 interview, Parker and Stone said the only way South Park would end is if they got cancelled. They are also not planning to write a big, showy finale for the show.

“I think it’s going to end with a fizzle, for sure,” Parker told IGN. “I think it’s just going to end with some dud, and we’re gonna go, ‘F– this, man,’ and walk away.”

“Some sort of whimper,” Stone chimed in. “Either drop the mic, get sued, get thrown off television — something like that.”

In a more recent interview with Junkee, Parker said South Park stays fresh for him because only he and Stone write every episode.

“We sort of view it as our band. And so every season is our new album, and we don’t want to get bored so we always try to do something a little different,” Parker said. “Each season, each album we want to make is just a little bit different, and expresses different things, and I think you can kind of watch us grow up — or down — over the last 20 years.”

South Park returns on Comedy Central on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 10 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: Comedy Central