‘South Park’ Tears Into Harry & Meghan, Reigniting Old Discourse

South Park has resurrected the discourse sparked by Netflix’s Harry & Meghan and Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, after the latest episode of the Comedy Central animation tore into the royal couple.

Episode 2 of South Park’s 26th season, “The Worldwide Privacy Tour,” didn’t dare mention Harry and Meghan by name, but was packed with clear references to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

South Park sees an unnamed prince and princess appear on a talk show, holding placards that read: “We want our privacy,” and “Stop looking at us.” The prince goes on to promote his book, titled “Waaaagh,” and is criticized for complaining, despite being born into privilege and luxury.

A common criticism directed at the royal couple is that their stated desire for privacy contrasts with their eagerness to share intimate details about their lives (at this point, it seems obvious that the two want to be famous on their own terms, away from the leering lens of the British tabloids).

In conversations with a “branding manager”, the prince is described as, “Royal prince, millionaire, world traveler, victim.” His wife is given the tagline: “Sorority girl, actress, influencer, and victim.”

The satire is crude and heavy-handed, as South Park tends to be, essentially repeating the talking points of critics, verbatim. Harry and Meghan haters reacted with glee, posting the satirical clips on Twitter, and praising South Park.

Piers Morgan, who has been bitterly complaining about Meghan Markle for years, to the point where he walked off of the set of Good Morning Britain after being challenged on his aggressive comments, posted a South Park clip on Twitter with the caption:

“The South Park rinsing of Meghan & Harry is lethally brilliant… suspect this is how most Americans now feel about them.”

Harry and Meghan fans responded by posting an older South Park clip which satirizes Prince William and Princess Kate’s wedding, accompanied by the hashtag, #PrinceofPegging.

The clip in question, from the third episode of South Park’s 15th season, “Royal Pudding,” mercilessly mocked the royals with a gleefully vulgar scene depicting William tearing Kate’s arm out of her socket, and inserting it into his rectum, a bizarre parody of archaic royal traditions.

The scene was also a cheeky nod towards the “pegging” rumors that surround Prince William, originally sparked by an unverified tip posted on Instagram in 2022 by celebrity gossip account DeuxMoi, which suggested that an unnamed British royal was, allegedly, engaging in an extra-marital affair, inspired by a “love of pegging.”

The British public immediately assumed that Prince William was the unnamed royal, and the meme has been periodically making the rounds on Twitter ever since; at one point, even Irish airline Ryanair joined in, posting a photo of a chair with a raised armrest, captioned, “William, we saved you a seat.”

Royalists responded by urging other Twitter users to report the hashtag.

South Park, it seems, still has the ability to ignite controversy and culture war. But while the show usually attempts to lampoon “both sides,” the Harry and Meghan episode missed the chance to mock Meghan’s detractors, who often come across as incoherent, obsessive and hateful.

There’s a reason Harry and Meghan wanted to escape the UK; the British tabloids cultivated an incredibly aggressive campaign against Markle that criticized her for eating avocados, wearing black, and being barefoot in public, prompting popular British breakfast show This Morning to consult a “foot reader,” to analyse Markle’s personality through the shape of her toes.

Former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson wrote an unhinged opinion column for The Sun about Meghan Markle, in which he felt confident enough to write:

“I hate her on a cellular level … At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.”

Like The Simpsons, South Park has a history of mocking angry mobs who get worked up in a frenzy over nothing; this time, they missed a great opportunity to highlight the deranged depths of the British tabloids.