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Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s decision to leave the royal life behind has gotten them more attention than ever before. Between Harry’s juicy memoir Spare and the couple’s Netflix docu-series, along with Meghan’s podcast ‘Archetypes’, they definitely haven’t gotten out of the spotlight. Given that South Park makes fun of famous people on a regular basis, it doesn’t come as a huge surprise that the animated series has poked fun at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Some celebrities hate their South Park parodies, and there has been a ton of press about episode 2 of season 26 called “The Worldwide Privacy Tour” because it alludes to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. What is the episode about, and has South Park talked about the rest of the royal family before?
What Does South Park Say About Prince Harry And Meghan Markle?
Whether South Park predicts the future or has something to say about the way that celebrities live their lives, the series is always attention-grabbing, and that was especially true of “The Worldwide Privacy Tour.” The episode tells the story of a royal couple in Canada, not England, who have been saying negative things about royal life.
It’s clear right away that the episode is alluding to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wanting to live a private life but also being interviewed by Oprah, releasing a documentary series on Netflix, and Harry sharing many details of his family, particularly his life with his brother William, in his memoir.
The show features characters called The Prince and “his wife” who ask the public to respect their desire to live out of the spotlight but also promote the memoir that he has just written.
The royal couple upset Kyle Broflovski, as they begin living next door to him and make a lot of noise with fireworks and drums. When he asks them to keep the noise down, they say that they want a private life and are irritated that he’s speaking to them.
The episode makes fun of Harry’s memoir, calling it WAAAGH, and features dialogue that alludes to the life that the couple has led so far. The Prince says “We just want to be normal people — all this attention is so hard” and a talk show host asks the Prince “Isn’t it true, sir, that your questionable wife has her own TV show and hangs out with celebrities and does fashion magazines?” which refers to Meghan’s years on the TV legal drama Suits.
After the South Park episode aired, a rumor that Meghan and Harry would sue came out. According to People, their spokesperson said “It’s all frankly nonsense. Totally baseless, boring reports.”
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone appeared on the Basic! podcast in February 2023 and talked about how they have had many controversial episodes in the past. They spoke about episode 12 of season 9 called “Trapped in the Closet” where Stan becomes a part of Scientology.
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They said, “Everyone knew Scientology was so litigious. People in Hollywood were scared of Scientology at the time because they would just sue you. I think that got us going. The Tom Cruise episode was really about getting sued. I mean, poking openly litigious people and seeing where the line is and what you can say. They picked a fight with us and we just went with it.”
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South Park Poked Fun At Prince William And Kate Middleton In “Royal Pudding”
This isn’t the first time that South Park has talked about the royal family. Episode 3 of season 15, “Royal Pudding,” is about Prince William and Kate Middleton, more specifically, their wedding, which took place in April 2011 and was a major TV event. People in North America woke up early so they wouldn’t miss it and it felt like something that couldn’t be missed.
This South Park episode is definitely much darker than the one about Harry and Meghan. The princess is kidnapped and thrown into a big cube and people take their own lives as a result. The storyline gets pretty far-fetched, with a monster and a Canadian character named Ugly Bob.
Ike Broflovski makes it his mission to get the princess back. The episode is called “Royal Pudding” because the wedding features a massive amount of butterscotch pudding.
Stone and Parker shared their thoughts on making South Park for 25 years with People, and Parker said that while he values Stone’s opinion, the two boldly move ahead with creative ideas. It definitely sounds like they are used to getting backlash at various times.
Parker said, “Just to be fearless, but not in a brave way. I recently looked at an interview we did in ’98, and we just don’t listen to anyone. It’s a good thing Matt and I have each other because I don’t care what anyone thinks. But if Matt says, ‘I don’t think this is good because of whatever,’ I obviously listen to him. It’s the fearlessness of your career.”
Parker added that they are definitely confident about the content that they are putting out into the world, telling People, ” “Never have we said, ‘Let’s not do this because it will be bad for the brand, it might be bad for our careers.’
South Park’s Episode About Queen Elizabeth II
The animated series also had an episode about Queen Elizabeth II back in season 11. “The Snuke” features the death of the Queen and also has a plotline involving Hillary Clinton.
People in England wanted the South Park episode banned, according to Mirror.co.uk, as they were unhappy that the series would do this to the Queen.
It’s easy to understand why people were upset, as the scene where the Queen dies on South Park is pretty gruesome, making this one of the more disturbing episodes. But this is par for the course with the animated series and fans have come to expect these types of scenes as South Park has never been shy about featuring storylines about famous people, whether they are royal or not.
