The twenty-third season of the American

animated sitcom An animated sitcom is a subgenre of the sitcom that is animated instead of live action and is generally made or created for adult audiences in most cases. '' SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''The Simpsons'', ''South Park'', and ''Family Guy'' are four o ...

series ''

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand their ...

'' premiered on

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programmin ...

on September 25, 2019, and concluded on December 11, 2019 after 10 episodes aired. This season contained the 300th episode of the long-running TV show; the milestone was reached on October 9, 2019, when the third episode of the season premiered. Like previous seasons, this season also had dark weeks (weeks during which no new episode would air), after episodes four and seven.

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. ...

and

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 intere ...

continued to write, direct, and edit every episode the week prior to air, as the duo has done since the series' debut. Similar to previous seasons, the season features continuing elements and a recurring storyline for the first six episodes while lampooning ICE detention centers, the 2019 film '' Joker'', media

censorship in China Censorship in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is implemented or mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is one of strictest censorship regimes in the world. The government censors content for mainly poli ...

, the anti-vaccine movement, plant based food, the Trump Administration,

transgender people in sports The participation of transgender people in competitive sports, a traditionally sex-segregated institution, is a controversial issue, particularly the inclusion of transgender women and girls in women's sports. Opponents argue that transgender ...

, and the competition between traditional

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

and media streaming.

Production

On July 8, 2015, two months prior to the season 19 premiere, Comedy Central announced they had renewed ''South Park'' for an additional 30 episodes over three seasons. This renewal was in addition to the two-year contract already in place with Parker and Stone, guaranteeing ''South Park'' would air until at least 2019. On September 12, 2019, the show was renewed for seasons 24 through 26 until 2022.

Main theme

This season had multiple changes to the traditional theme song from the show. For the first six episodes of the season, an overall story arc focusing on Randy Marsh's marijuana farm named Tegridy Farms was featured. During these episodes, the theme song's lyrics and graphics were changed to focus on Tegridy Farms and also featured vocals by Randy Marsh and

Towelie "Towelie" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the American animated sitcom ''South Park'', and the 73rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on August 8, 2001. In the episode, the boys ...

. In the episode " Board Girls", the regular theme was completely abandoned and replaced with a theme about the PC Babies, the

politically correct ''Political correctness'' (adjectivally: ''politically correct''; commonly abbreviated ''PC'') is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in socie ...

children of PC Principal and Vice Principal Strong Woman. In the "

Turd Burglars "Turd Burglars" is the eighth episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 305th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on November 27, 2019. Plot At ...

" episode, the theme returned to the show, but starring the women of South Park, in a fictional show titled "One for the Ladies". In the "

Basic Cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million U.S. households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. with Data by SNL Kagan shows that about 58 ...

" episode, the theme was abandoned again and replaced with a faux intro titled "The Scott Malkinson Show". The traditional theme song was put back in on the final episode " Christmas Snow".

Controversy

On October 7, 2019, ''South Park'' was reportedly banned from the Chinese Internet with videos, mentions, and discussion forums for the animated series being removed and shut down in response to episode 2 of the season, "

Band in China "Band in China" is the second episode of the twenty-third season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 299th episode overall of the series, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on October 2, 2019. The episod ...

". Later in the day ''South Park'' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone mockingly apologized.

Episodes

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the season holds a 50% approval rating based on 6 reviews.

Home media

The season was released in its entirety on DVD and Blu-ray on June 23, 2020.

References

{{South Park episodes, 23 2019 American television seasons