The twentieth 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 of ...

'' South Park'' 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 14, 2016, and ended on December 7, 2016, containing ten episodes. As with most seasons of the show, all episodes are written and directed by series co-creator and co-star

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. ...

. Like the previous two seasons, this season features an episode-to-episode continuity, but unlike the previous two, the continuity is more linear, as if the whole season is one story arc. This season featured recurring themes focusing on Internet trolls, nostalgia, and the

2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

. This season also had planned "dark weeks", weeks where no new episodes would air, which has been done since the 19th season. These were after episode three, episode six, and episode eight.

Marketing

To promote the season, Comedy Central had mobile billboards placed in key locations in seven cities around the United States. Each billboard featured an image from the series that bore a connection to the location in which it was placed.Parker, Ryan (September 27, 2016)
"'South Park' Irks White House, Scientology With Trolling Mobile Billboards"
. ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

''. *In

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, a billboard was placed in front of the headquarters of the Church of Scientology, which was parodied in the controversial 2005 episode "

Trapped in the Closet ''Trapped in the Closet'' is a musical film, musical soap opera series by American contemporary R&B, R&B singer, songwriter & producer R. Kelly, with 33 "chapters" released sporadically from 2005 to 2012. Written, produced, and directed by Kelly, ...

". *In

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, a billboard was placed in front of the Lincoln Memorial and the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

. It featured Barack and Michelle Obama, whose relationship was parodied in the 2008 episode " About Last Night..." *In

Lakewood, Colorado The City of Lakewood is the home rule municipality that is the most populous municipality in Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 155,984 at the 2020 U.S. Census making Lakewood the fifth most populous city in Col ...

, a billboard was placed in front of the city's

Casa Bonita Casa Bonita (Spanish for "pretty house") is a Mexican restaurant in Lakewood, Colorado, at the JCRS (Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society) Shopping Center, now known as the Lamar Station Plaza. It was originally part of a chain of Mexican-themed e ...

restaurant, which was a central plot point of the 2003 episode "

". *In

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

, a billboard was placed in front of the headquarters of the

LDS Church The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...

, which was parodied in the 2003 episode " All About Mormons". *In

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south ...

, a billboard was placed in front of the headquarters of

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

, which was parodied in the 2010 episode "

You Have 0 Friends "You Have 0 Friends" is the fourth episode of the 14th season of the American animated television series ''South Park'', and the 199th episode of the series overall. It first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on April 7, 2010. In the ...

". *In

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, a billboard was placed in front of the campaign headquarters of

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 P ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

, whose presidential campaigns were parodied in this season's premiere "

Member Berries "Member Berries" is the first episode in the twentieth season of the American animated television series ''South Park''. The 268th episode of the series overall, it premiered on Comedy Central in the United States on September 14, 2016. The epis ...

", and "

Where My Country Gone? "Where My Country Gone?" is the second episode of the nineteenth season of the animated television series ''South Park'', and the 259th episode overall, written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker. The episode premiered on Comedy Cent ...

" *In

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, a billboard was placed in front at the United States' border with Canada, whose culture and relationship with the United States has been parodied in the feature film '' South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'', and various episodes such as "

Royal Pudding "Royal Pudding" is the third episode of the fifteenth season of the American animated television series ''South Park'' and 212th episode of the series overall. "Royal Pudding" premiered in the United States on Comedy Central on May 11, 2011. In t ...

" and "Where My Country Gone?" All of the billboards included the caption "We've Been There." In some of the locations, personnel of the organizations were displeased to have the billboards outside their locations and asked the billboard operators to leave, including the Los Angeles and both Washington, D.C landmarks. Comedy Central's Chief Marketing Officer Walter Levitt stated, "That was all expected, and we completely understand why. We knew it was risky. We did this stunt because we thought it was a great way to remind ''South Park'' fans of all the amazing moments of the past 19 seasons and truly a perfect way to celebrate the 20th season."

Episodes

Reception

The season received mixed reviews from critics and fans. Jesse Schedeen with

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

rated the entire season an 8.4 out of 10, noting "Season 20 proved that ''South Park'' has lost none of its edge over the years, as the show targeted everything from

to the dangerous allure of nostalgia. Though the finale failed to properly tie everything together, ''South Park''s ability to adapt and course-correct to real-world developments served it well this year."

Home media

This season was released in its entirety on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

on June 13, 2017.

References

External links

Press release from South Park Studios for Season 20
{{South Park episodes, 20 2016 American television seasons 2016 United States presidential election in popular culture Works about cyberbullying Denmark in fiction Internet trolling Nostalgia television in the United States Parodies of Donald Trump in South Park