Pop Culture

Donald Trump has had a whirlwind of opinions voiced about him throughout his campaign and has followed him to his current term as president. With his outlandish comments about sensitive subject matters and the image that he is racist, greedy, and incompetent to be President of the United States we have seen a field day for talk shows, comedy sketches, or anything entertainment wise you can think of. So, for this week's blog post I decided to look into how South Park depicted not only President Trump, but his former running mate in the previous election, Hillary Clinton. Both candidates during the election were given a negative annotation throughout the show and provided some hilarious humor for those that were opposed to the two candidates. This image obviously is not the kind of thing that Donald Trump wants to be said about him as he serves his first term in office. During his campaign Trump made sure to come off as a strong leader that would get things done. In South Park he is portrayed by Mr. Garrison who does not even want to be president in the first place. It finds the character putting on orange makeup and trying to prevent himself from becoming the president of the United States. Despite his efforts to not become president, Mr. Garrison finds himself leading the country.

We are as country extremely luck to be able to portray our political leaders in whatever light we want, good or bad. While some may see this as cruel and unwarranted to call a presidential candidate (now our president) a giant douche, that is what makes our country so great. We have this freedom to voice our opinions about what is going on with our current government. Unlike other countries such as Russia or North Korea, the United States prides itself on its journalistic freedoms. Going back to the show, it is no secret that South Park is bold and is not afraid to say what they feel. They have been a polarizing figure in T.V. for almost twenty years now and I don't see them stopping anytime soon. This portrayal of our president definitely upset thousands of Americans that think Trump is doing a great job as president and should not be portrayed in this negative light. However, there is nothing they can do about it besides write to comedy central, or boycott the channel or show altogether.

Comedic jabs will continue to be thrown at are president as we move in here in the coming years. The exaggerated image that South Park has painted of Trumps face is something that has been the butt end of jokes since he started his campaign. South Park portrays Trump as someone that is incompetent to do his job. They mock him for being someone that never wanted to run at all and is sort of puppet to other powerful leaders that tell him what to do. It is an honest depiction as we have seen the first few months of the presidency play out. Millions of Americans are scared of what lies ahead in the future and fear for the racial tension that is being exploited due to Trump winning the election. Satire towards the 45th president will continue whether he likes it or not, that I can guarantee.