Thanks to Paramount for sending me a screener of “South Park: Joining the Panderverse,” a new movie from creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It’s just 47 minutes, but it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Parker and Stone lob satirical grenades at Hollywood film studios over their politically-correct casting. They particularly take aim at Disney, and their recent batch of live-action remakes, not to mention their destruction of “Star Wars.”
‘Panderverse’ focuses on the character of Eric Cartman, who "has a nightmare that all of his friends have been replaced by a diverse group of women who express their grievances about the patriarchy." He’s freaking out.
Clips of the TV special have been going viral online all weekend, the movie mocks Disney CEO Bob Iger, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the Disney Company's diversity casting.
The below clip is one of the funnier moments. Cartman describes to his psychiatrist a nightmare that he had about kids at his school being replaced, saying, "I wanna scream and I'm like, ‘Why are they replacing every single character with someone who is diverse? But then Kenny’s like, ‘It’s not our fault it's ‘cause of Kathleen Kennedy,' but then Kathleen Kennedy’s just like, ‘F--- it, make it more lame!’"
Cartman later describes how in his dream, "Disney stock just keeps going down and down and down and then Bob Iger is all like, ‘No! No! What’s going on with my stocks?'"
At some point in ‘Panderverse,’ Cartman is suddenly replaced by an adult Black woman, the kids complain, but the principal scolds them, saying, "If you boys don't think Eric can be a Black woman then maybe the problem is you," and asking, "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."
“South Park: Joining the Panderverse” is now available to stream on Paramount+