When it comes to getting celebrities and their fanbases riled up, South Park is a seasoned veteran, having skewered actors, musicians, authors, influencers and everyone in between. The Comedy Central mainstay kicked off its groundbreaking 26th season with a surprisingly reined-in take on Kanye West’s erratic and eccentric behavior, and followed it up by going all in on mocking Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s publicity tour and their unbalanced goal of promoting his bombshell-filled memoir (and other things) while also decrying the constant attention they’ve drawn since distancing themselves from the rest of the royals. Rumors quickly sprouted pointing to the couple’s alleged displeasure with the ep, to the point where even lawsuit talks were bandied about. But are they legit?
As it happens, the lawsuit rumors seem to be about as authentic and genuine as South Park’s plotlines. Which isn’t to say that Harry and Meghan were overtly pumped about how they were depicted in the episode or anything. Just that they’re not putting any effort into a potentially useless lawsuit. According to People, a spokesperson for the royal couple shared the following statement:
It's all frankly nonsense. Totally baseless, boring reports.
On the one hand, this isn’t so surprising, considering South Park made a point of never directly referring to them as Prince Harry or Meghan Markle, despite the TV hit often depicting other celebs while using their real names. Despite the plethora of context clues and references made throughout making it clearer than crystal who the butts of the jokes were, it’d still likely be an uphill battle for the couple’s legal team to take on South Park with any direct threats.
It sounds like that isn’t something to worry about for Trey Parker and Matt Stone, though. Any ill will they may have toward South Park will be kept limited to inward thoughts and emotions, at least until the point where someone asks about the parody during an interview.
South Park possibly saved itself from any legal backlash by keeping its scathing parody focused on the antithetical hypocrisy of using a globe-spanning press tour to preach the importance of privacy. As opposed to, say, delivering an episode that blew open Prince Harry’s stories about losing his virginity, or his allegedly strained relationship with brother William and his wife Kate Middleton. By keeping things
Even if South Park seems like it’ll avoid any kind of negative blowback over the episode “Worldwide Privacy Tour,” the same can’t be said for everyone who’s gone public with opinions about Harry and Meghan. UK TV personality Piers Morgan, who delighted the animated ep, came under fire back in December for a column in The Sun which he voiced his desire for Markle to be led naked through the streets and shamed, in reference to Game of Thrones’ notorious scene with Lena Heady’s Cersei. After thousands of complaints were logged, an investigation into the matter was opened in mid-February.
Two weeks in, and I can't wait to see who or what South Park takes on next, whether its Tom Brady or Pete Davidson or Megan Fox or Toy Story 5 or...(continues until passing out from exhaustion). Just be sure to watch every Wednesday night at 10:00 p.m. ET.
