Spoilers below for the Season 22 finale of South Park.
Anyone who thought Trey Parker and Matt Stone would wrap up South Park's latest season without turning a few more heads clearly isn't familiar with how the duo likes to run things. Case in point: the Season 22 finale, titled "Bike Parade," brought Santa Claus back to dispense joy and cheer...and also a big, uncensored C-bomb. Here was the episode's most headline-worthy line:
Good luck sucking Jeff Bezos' dick, you bunch of cunts.
Some viewers out there were probably more than a little shocked to hear that Comedy Central decided to loosen the reins as far as South Park censorship goes. Even with a button-pushing show like this, major expletives are generally bleeped out, so it is particularly noteworthy that South Park got away with saying the word "cunt" without obstruction.
Making that audible surprise all the more noteworthy is the fact that just prior to dropping that particular insult, Santa Claus had also let loose with an F-bomb that was not allowed to air as is. So the "fuck" got bleeped, but "dicks" and "cunts" were allowed, presumably without objections.
Check out the episode clip below, noting that the offending phrase occurs at the very end, just before Santa flies away.
Knowing just how chaotic and anarchic creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are in a general sense, it's perhaps possible that they crafted this portion of the episode without any oversight from network execs. South Park's rapid turnover from concept to completion would possibly allow for the duo to add last-minute elements to episodes that go unchecked by censors and other higher-ups at Comedy Central. Maybe the dialogue was different in an earlier cut.
On the other hand, maybe they turned the episode in exactly like that, and nobody gave a shit, because it's South Park. That seems as likely as anything else.
In the episode, South Park's Amazon factory shut down due to an employee strike, so there ween't any toys available for Christmas. That'd be where Santa came in, of course, although he didn't actually help out as intended, since his friend Mr. Hankey wasn't around anymore.
Santa got upset with the way that South Park's citizens treated fan-favorite poop Mr. Hankey, who was forced to leave the town earlier this season due to a series of offensive tweets he'd posted. (He was on Ambien at the time, of course.)
Not that Amazon shout-outs and Roseanne Barr references were the only ways that South Park reflected on noteworthy events in 2018 with its finale. The show's Donald Trump character also popped up after not previously appearing in Season 22. He was seen handcuffed by police near the episode's end.
With its 22nd season, South Park ripped into molestation scandals within the Catholic Church, the Simpsons' Apu controversy and much more. That's not so surprising, considering Season 22 started off with the "#CancelSouthPark" campaign.
South Park will return to Comedy Central with Season 23 at some point in 2019, so stay tuned for more updates on that. In the meantime, there are still plenty of fall TV shows and midseason premieres that are worthy of everyone's attention.
