If you need to snip out the part where South Park calls you out for rigging your debate videos, are you really “owning” those college kids?
That’s the sly jab South Park threw at Ben Shapiro, conservative pundit and debate-video star, whose viral YouTube clips show him “crushing” blue-haired undergrads with pre-rehearsed zingers on free speech and trans rights. In the 2010s, a whole industry of slickly edited, bias-heavy political content exploded, with Shapiro as a leading voice, his rapid-fire style and boyish grin dominating the scene.
In the latest South Park episode, “Nut Job,” Trey Parker and Matt Stone skewer the shady economics and editing tricks of Shapiro’s debate empire. Predictably, Shapiro and his crew tried to spin the episode’s biting satire as a pat on the back, claiming Parker and Stone were chuckling with him, not at him.
Case in point: Shapiro’s reaction video to “Nut Job” conveniently skipped the line where Cartman, channeling Shapiro’s debate shtick, brags about rigging his videos. “I’m killing it!” Cartman crows to Stan’s mom. “My arguments are airtight, these college girls are clueless, so I shred them. Plus, I cut out anyone who fights back well.” Guess which bit didn’t make Shapiro’s highlight reel?
In “Nut Job,” Cartman’s fuming because South Park Elementary’s new right-wing provocateur, Kyle, is stealing his thunder with a podcast peddling supplements and slinging insults at classmates for clout. Cartman, the OG troll, calls out the conservative debate scene for copying his vibe. Not one to lose, he gets a terrible buzzcut, launches his own edited debate channel, and dreams of snagging the Ben Shapiro Young Debater Award. But the grift-driven media machine picks Kyle, the slicker sellout, over Cartman’s raw chaos.
Shapiro, who South Park suggests built his brand by mimicking Cartman’s venom for profit, spent days telling his fans the show was cheering him on. He argued South Park wouldn’t bother copying his campus free-speech rants word-for-word if they didn’t think he was right. But, like his viral debate clips, his claim only holds up if you skip the part where he’s called out.
Picture Ted Cruz claiming South Park endorses his beard-growing phase. Sounds absurd, right? Same vibe.