‘South Park’ Returning With Second ‘Vaccination Special’ Amid Continued Pandemic

South Park fans have cause to rejoice, as it has been announced the show is returning with a [...]

By Stephen Andrew

South Park fans have cause to rejoice, as it has been announced the show is returning with a second pandemic special. This time around creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their team have put together a "Vaccination Special" episode, which comes amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The full title of the episode is "South ParQ The Vaccination Special," implying that there may be some lampooning of the Qanon conspiracy theorists. The new special debuts on Comedy Central on Wednesday, March 10 at 8 pm ET.

The first South Park "Pandemic Special" debuted in September and parodied school reopenings and other aspects of pandemic life. Stan's dad, Randy Marsh, used the quarantine orders to create a special strain of marijuana from his weed farm. He named it the "Pandemic Special," thus adding a second layer to the episode title. As for the new special, a synopsis of it reads, "The citizens of South ParQ are clamoring for the COVID-19 vaccine. A hilarious new militant group tries to stop the boys from getting their teacher vaccinated."

While the pandemic specials are holding fans over, for now, everyone can rest assured that South Park is coming back for full seasons. In 2019, it was announced that the series was renewed through 2022, and with the pandemic having impacted TV and film production across the board, it's possible that the agreement could be amended to last longer. That is merely speculation at this point and is not officially confirmed.

The show has always been unapologetic in its approach to satire, but during a past Hollywood Reporter interview, Parker and Stone explained the decision to do an episode that apologized to former Vice President Al Gore over an episode that mocked his urgency regarding global climate change by having their version of Gore on the search for a made-up creature named ManBearPig. "We just felt like, of all of our episodes, that one has not aged very well," Stone admits. "And we came up with a funny idea how to use ManBearPig as a parable."

He added, "I always felt like if we were going to rewrite that or comment on it or atone, whatever you want to call it, it's in kind. In other words, we didn't want to say in some interviews, 'Well, we don't feel so great about that episode.' It doesn't feel as good as 'F— that, we'll do a whole two-parter.' And it is not just atoning. We beat ourselves up pretty good." Parker then noted, "We could just do an entire season atoning. It's been f—ing 22 years. We're pretty different people now."

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