X

South Park demands cancellation of South Park

Respect their authoritah. The 21-year-old show is leading a hashtag campaign against itself.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
Gael Cooper

Hashtag campaigns revolving around a TV show's life or death usually come from fans encouraging networks to save their favorite programs. But Comedy Central's South Park is no ordinary TV show. Its official Twitter feed is both promoting the return of the show and circulating the hashtag #cancelsouthpark.

On Wednesday, the show tweeted a short video declaring that "America has reached a crossroads," and asking, "What will we do next?" before sharing the hashtag.

Fans were as confused by the amusing campaign as Stan's dad Randy Marsh that one time he was monitoring a volcano and it suddenly started smoking. But the show chose to reply to disbelieving fans' reactions with a sunny "Totally!" or "That's awesome!" and kept repeating the hashtag. (The show also plugged the new season, because Cartman may be rude and stupid, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone are no dummies.)

South Park has been on the air since 1997, and hashtag or no hashtag, it's set to return to Comedy Central on Sept. 26. Don't forget to bring a towel.