LOS ANGELES (CA)
Fatherly
October 4, 2018
By Patrick A. Coleman
South Park, which is two episodes into its 22nd season, is on a scorched earth campaign against those that aid or abet perpetrators of harm to children. The show’s premiere, which dealt with school shootings, was followed this week by an episode about the Catholic church’s long history of covering up (if not facilitating) sexual abuse. The episode features the perpetually maligned Butters befriending the town’s priest and delivers on South Park’s reputation for shock and controversy. But the most brutal aspect of the episode is not a constant flow of pedophile priest jokes — though that’s there — it was in which the local priest is portrayed as both a hero and a representative of a morally dubious enterprise.
The big spoiler here is that Butters is not molested by the priest. And the fact that this constitutes a spoiler is the most damning indictment of the Catholic Church possible. It’s unexpectedly transgressive and unexpectedly kind. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, fathers both, remain unpredictable two decades later.
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