''Sassy Justice'' is a

web series A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more prominent in the early 2000s. A single i ...

created by

Trey Parker Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone. ...

Matt Stone Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Trey Parker. Stone was interes ...

and

Peter Serafinowicz Peter Szymon Serafinowicz ( ; born 10 July 1972) is an English actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, best known for his roles as the title character in the 2016 live-action series of '' The Tick'', Pete in ''Shaun of the Dead'' (2004) an ...

that uses

deepfake Deepfakes (a portmanteau of "deep learning" and "fake") are synthetic media in which a person in an existing image or video is replaced with someone else's likeness. While the act of creating fake content is not new, deepfakes leverage powerful ...

technology to insert unrelated celebrities and politicians into the fictional world of a television reporter. The first episode was posted to

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

on October26, 2020.

Production and development

The series was created by the newly-formed Deep Voodoo studio, made up of over twenty computer graphics artists. The team was originally assembled for a film project that was interrupted due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, who made the video based on a series of impressions that Serafinowicz developed of a "sassy"

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

. The first video, which featured deepfakes of Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, went viral after airing on television and YouTube in 2020. The creators have a handful of shorter videos alongside a 15-minute first episode that may be turned into an ongoing series, film, or other type of project. Sassy Justice started filming for a second show in Cheyenne, Wyoming between August 23rd and August 27th 2021. Multiple filming locations were observed including locations in downtown, midtown, and north Cheyenne. A holiday special was released in December 2020.

Premise

The series follows reporter Fred Sassy of

Cheyenne, Wyoming Cheyenne ( or ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming, as well as the county seat of Laramie County, with 65,132 residents, per the 2020 US Census. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne metropolitan statistical ...

(played by

, whose face is superimposed with a

) who investigates the news itself, including the dangers posed by

media manipulation Media manipulation is a series of related techniques in which partisans create an image or argument that favors their particular interests. Such tactics may include the use of logical fallacies, manipulation, outright deception (disinformation) ...

and

fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...

Reception and impact

Mark Frauenfelder of ''

BoingBoing ''Boing Boing'' is a website, first established as a zine in 1988, later becoming a group blog. Common topics and themes include technology, futurism, science fiction, gadgets, intellectual property, Disney, and left-wing politics. It twice won ...

'' considers the first episode "terrific deepfake satire". In 2022, Parker and Stone received $20 million in funding for their deepfake studio Deep Voodoo based on this short.

Celebrities deepfaked

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...

as Louise "Lou" Xiang, a computer technician; she is actually played by

Sarah Alexander Sarah Alexander ('' née'' Smith; 3 January 1971) is an English actress. She has appeared in British series including ''Armstrong and Miller'', ''Smack the Pony'', ''Coupling'', '' The Worst Week of My Life'', ''Green Wing'', '' Marley's Ghost ...

Michael Caine Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...

as a fictionalized version of himself (episode 1, actually Serafinowicz) *

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

as a fictionalized version of himself (episode 1, actually Parker) *

Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...

as a fictionalized version of himself (episode 1, actually Betty Boogie Parker) *

as a fictionalized version of himself (episode 1) and Fred Sassy, local investigative reporter; both are in reality Serafinowicz *

Ivanka Trump Ivana Marie "Ivanka" Trump (; born October 30, 1981) is an American businesswoman and the first daughter of Donald Trump, 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. She was a senior advisor in his administration, and also was the ...

as a fictionalized version of herself (episode 1, actually Parker) *

Chris Wallace Christopher Wallace (born October 12, 1947) is an American broadcast journalist. He is known for his tough and wide-ranging interviews, for which he is often compared to his father, ''60 Minutes'' journalist Mike Wallace. Over his 50-year care ...

as a fictionalized version of himself (episode 1) *

Mark Zuckerberg Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...

as the Dialysis King of Cheyenne (actually Stone) *

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962), known professionally as Tom Cruise, is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Gol ...

as a fictionalized version of himself (episode 1, actually Parker)

References

External links