South Park Takes Aim at the “Woke” Disney Culture Wars

In its latest 48-minute episode, South Park opted to slam all sides of Disney’s “woke” culture wars, which have ensnared everyone from Florida governor Ron DeSantis to legions of fans eager to complain about political correctness.

Titled “Joining the Panderverse,” the episode details Eric Cartman’s worst nightmare—that he’ll be replaced by a woman of color. When Eric wakes from the bad dream, he declares, “They were taking all my favorite people and replacing them with diverse women complaining about the patriarchy!” later adding, “And the Disney stock just keeps going down and down!”

Cartman’s dreams become reality in the form of a multiverse occupied only by women of color is led by South Park Elementary’s “PC Principal,” who accuses the characters of bigotry when they say recasting South Park’s white male characters “doesn’t make any sense.” Says the administrator, “If you boys don’t think Eric [Cartman] can be a Black woman, then maybe the problem is you. You probably don’t like that Indiana Jones got replaced by a female either, huh? You probably have a problem with Black Spider-Man too”—referencing controversies that have cropped up around recent Disney titles like Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which notably didn’t replace Harrison Ford as Indy with Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The kids do, at least, support the latter film: “No! Miles Morales is sweet! That’s a whole constructed thing with its own character and narrative. This is just taking Cartman, same old Cartman, and putting a Black woman in it!”