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It turns out that South Park doesn’t take every opportunity to drag celebrities… Just most of them.
For ages, South Park has been a staple on TV. Not everyone loves it, but the show carved out a niche early on and is known for creating fodder for memes and jokes that drag on for years longer than the show's episodes have. The creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have gotten into plenty of trouble over the years, but by now, it's par for the course for them to make celebrities look like clowns.
Yet there's at least one person whose animated character appeared on the show but wasn't parodied as so many others before him. Does South Park really make fun of every celebrity?
Almost every celebrity who's ever been famous, or even near-famous, has been parodied on South Park.
From Dog the Bounty Hunter (who took the jokes pretty well) to Tom Cruise (who was one celeb that didn't take it so well and tried to get the show canceled), everyone's been dragged by South Park at one time or another.
Of course, some are criticized more than others. Just about everyone remembers the Kanye West skit that resulted in countless memes, and South Park's creators were accused of taking things way too far when they appeared to parody the late Steve Irwin's death.
South Park has also caught heat for parodying many religions and, some say, creating harmful narratives surrounding many subjects. Yet after so many years of controversy, the show is still on the air, and there are many fans—including celebrities—who support the show.
After all the drama they've been through in the media, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry weren't happy about being dragged on South Park. The episode, titled "The Worldwide Privacy Tour," mocked the pair, but it was arguably quite tame compared to other celebrity depictions on the series.
Still, the former Royals were reportedly upset at the depiction, though they don't seem to have given any formal statement.
It wasn't the first time the show made caricatures of the Royal family, though, and Meghan and Harry are hardly the only celebrities to be subject to a South Park cameo.
Amid conversations about whether South Park went too far with this particular animated fiasco came the surprising revelation that not every celebrity is absolutely torn up by the South Park writers. Some have an easy time of it, with no or few jokes lobbed their way.
Some celebrity appearances on South Park weren't much to write home about. Even Dog the Bounty Hunter wasn't dragged too terribly. But viewers noticed that at least one person appeared on the show without ever having a joke made about them: Brad Paisley.
In fact, Brad's character appeared on the show for some performance sequences; his animated self sings a duet with Eric Cartman and performs the national anthem, too.
In season 16, episode 7, Brad Paisley himself voiced the character as Cartman pursued love. In another episode, during season 22, one of Brad's songs is played on the show.
Unlike other celebrities, Brad had absolutely zero jokes made about him on the show, and the dropping of his song into another episode suggests that he's cool with the crew from South Park.
The only question for viewers is why didn't Brad Paisley get absolutely dragged on South Park just like every celebrity before him? The answer might be in how he approached the project.
Brad was said to have been invited to the South Park studio for a tour, and he wound up voicing some background characters. Namely, Brad offered character voices for season 15's episode 10, "Bass to Mouth."
It's unclear whether he recorded the season 16 episode at the same time, but it would appear so, based on how the project was recapped by The Boot.
Of the experience, Brad explained he was a big fan of the show, hinting that he didn't mind them making fun of anything or anyone.
I identify with people who have no fear in making fun of everything, so I've seen almost every episode. I think they're brilliant.
Paisley even promoted his appearance on the show on social media, telling his followers when to tune in to Comedy Central to see his cartoon self.
It could be that Brad's positivity about appearing in South Park helped him avoid becoming the butt of any jokes, though it's unclear whether he spent much time with Trey and Matt while recording his parts of the episode.
Even when characters appear in a scene together, the voice actors don't necessarily work together in the same studio, but because Brad Paisley stopped by South Park's studio long before the pandemic, it's possible he dropped in and met everyone at that time.
Lane is a writer who loves entertainment and media and watches as many movies as she reads books. She loves a good story, even if she has to write it herself.
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