Over the weekend, when I should have been watching one of the Oscar-nominated movies, I ended up watching Half Time, the Jennifer Lopez documentary about her life/work in 2019-2020, when she was promoting Hustlers and preparing for the Super Bowl Halftime show. They used archival clips of talk shows and media around the original “Bennifer” relationship, and I was actually kind of appalled at just how f–king racist everyone was circa 2003-04. Talk show hosts were really calling her “the cleaning lady” and the South Park clips were especially nasty, misogynistic and racist.

Well, South Park is still a thing. In 2021, Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed a $900 million deal with ViacomCBS for six more seasons of South Park, plus original films for Paramount. Following that very rich deal, there were conversations about whether South Park was worth all that, and whether the show has declined in popularity and quality. There’s a ratings slump, for sure. So… after all that build-up, here’s the story: South Park satirized the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in an episode which aired last night.

Harry and Meghan were branded “dumb and stupid” as they were taken apart in the latest episode of South Parkpic.twitter.com/VrmmuR9h2k

— The Mirror (@DailyMirror) February 16, 2023

I cringed. God, I haven’t watched South Park in a long time, I guess I didn’t realize that Parker and Stone were still like this?? Obviously, the British media is salivating at the chance to claim that this South Park sh-t means “Americans hate Harry and Meghan!!” Y’all.

The British media views America as a monolith in which every American shares the same opinion about the Windsors or the Sussexes. I don’t doubt that South Park still does pretty well for a cable comedy – after all, ViacomCBS isn’t paying them $900 million for nothing. But it’s also true that the Sussexes are popular and people are interested in their story – the Netflix docuseries had amazing ratings, and Harry’s memoir is one of the biggest bestsellers of the past three years. Both things can be true – some people agree with the South Park send-up and many people are interested in the Sussexes’ story.

So the makers of South Park have lampooned Harry and Meghan mercilessly, much more so than the teaser hinted. A sign the Sussexes have really made it in the US or further evidence of a loss of support? https://t.co/RO1qbVOgoohttps://t.co/6a2vDsMpcf

— Richard Palmer (@RoyalReporter) February 16, 2023

Photos courtesy of 60 Minutes, The Late Show, Cover Images, AppleTV.