Trump derangement syndrome claims another victim

Et tu, Brute? It is with profound sadness that I report the death of a once-cherished cultural touchstone: South Park. Cause of death: Trump derangement syndrome. The decline began a decade ago, around Season 19, with the introduction of PC Principal and a lurch into serialized storytelling.

Still, even in those uneven years, the show retained its anchoring instinct: Comedy came first and was never afflicted by ideology. That is what makes the creators’ recent justification so dispiriting. “It’s not that we got all political,” Trey Parker told the New York Times. “It’s that politics became pop culture.” This, apparently, explains why the past two seasons have fixated almost exclusively on President Donald Trump and his administration.