South Park has been around since The '90s, running into the 2020s, yet Trey Parker and Matt Stone have covered a plethora of issues that still hold up today:
- In general, the show's characterization of disabled people (such as Jimmy and Timmy)—portraying them as human beings who are just as flawed as those around them but have their strengths as well—has been especially well-received as time has gone on thanks to the Inspirationally Disadvantaged trope seen in many films with disabled main characters (mostly to win Oscars) starting to fall out of favor, with many seeing it as setting unrealistic expectations for disabled people and/or patronizing towards disabled people by portraying them as heroic just for being disabled.
- Season 1:
- When "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" was first released in 1997, homosexuality was widely ridiculed. However, with America becoming much more accepting towards gay people in the following decades, the episode's message that there's absolutely nothing wrong with being gay has aged like fine wine to say the least.
- "An Elephant Makes Love to a Pig" shows how bad the Double Standard regarding female on male abuse really is by showing the others making fun of Stan for getting beaten up by his sister. Starting around the 2010s, America has become much more sympathetic towards male victims of abuse in Stan's position. It's even more resonant (and frightening) in that Trey Parker created the episode because he also grew up with a Big Sister Bully.
- In "Pinkeye", the children all dress up as a popular Star Wars characters while anyone who dresses as something unique or less celebrated are treated like outcasts. Given how the Star Wars franchise would make a resurgence in the 2010s, "Pinkeye" can work as a commentary on how oversaturation prevents kids from developing individual tastes. And even in the years immediately following this episode's release, any kid going to school with any merchandise related to Jar Jar Binks could look forward to a whole lot of ridicule.
- "Mr. Hankey The Christmas Poo" shows how removing everything that can be considered remotely offensive by anyone would make things that used to be fun outright boring.
- The subplot of "Ike's Wee Wee" and the main plot of "My Future Self and Me" both take massive swipes at the "just say no" mindset: in the former, Mr. Mackey is stigmatized and mocked over losing a single marijuana leaf, and this trauma drives him to take drugs, while in the latter episode attacks the sensationalism of anti-drug messages. Since the 2010s, The War on Drugs and its negative effects on society have come under greater scrutiny, and many jurisdictions have begun rolling back the criminalization of drugs.
- The South Park movie, released in 1999, was just as relevant as it was in The New '20s, that it essentially got a scene-for-scene remake as a regular episode.
- "Sexual Harassment Panda" from the same season features nearly every one of South Park's townsfolk lying and claiming others of sexually harassing them just as an excuse to sue them for all they're worth. Without naming examples, given many real-life cases have controversially faced accusations of similar motives and have only increased greatly in the present day, the episode feels even more significant now than it did in 1999.
- Season 4:
- "Cartman Joins NAMBLA" has become a lot more relevant in the decades following the episode's original airing, even if the original NAMBLA barely exists anymore. Online grooming and its vicious skewering of groups that try to normalize pedophilia (with the current trend being trying to re-brand themselves as "minor-attracted persons") as simply being "different" are unfortunately worse today than in 2000.
- "Cherokee Hair Tampons", which is about Kyle nearly dying from kidney disease after his mother puts her faith into fraudulent all-natural medicine. This episode is a whole lot more relevant with the eventual rise in anti-vaccination movements and the death of Steve Jobs.
- "Chef Goes Nanners" became more relevant in The New '10s with its controversy surrounding demands of removing images, statues, and memorials dedicated to Confederate figures in the Southern U.S.
- In "Trapper Keeper", the class election subplot remains relevant thanks to America's escalation into extreme partisanship where candidates and their voters are primarily concerned about their own interests instead of the community as a whole. The fact that this is about a kindergarten class's election for class president was also depressingly accurate of how some voters behave, as exemplified by the explosive reactions from the losing parties in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
- "Helen Keller: The Musical" shows the fourth graders casting Timmy as the titular disabled lead, due to his ability to portray the character with minimal effort. The professionally-trained understudy, on the other hand, took far too many liberties with playing Helen Keller and ended up butchering her memory. Nowadays the casting of conventional actors as disabled or trans characters has become a heavily discussed topic due to these roles being among the few opportunities that actors who are trans or disabled can hope to attain. The film Music (2021) is a notorious example, with reviewers complaining that casting a neurotypical actress whose career could start from anywhere as a low-functioning autistic is both insulting and stifling to actors on the spectrum.
- Season 5's "Proper Condom Use", while already quite relevant in its display of how children shouldn't be forced to learn about sex when they're still so young and can easily get the wrong idea about sex if they're not properly lectured on the subject, has become even more relevant nowadays due to sex ed classes aimed at children (to warn them about the dangers of child molestation) becoming an extremely heated topic in general.
- Season 6's "Red Hot Catholic Love" mocks the then up and coming "new atheist" movement by portraying atheists as capable of being just as ignorant and intolerant as religious fanatics. The new atheist movement has been accused of racism and imperialism in the years since, especially Christopher Hitchens and his infamous support for the Iraq war.
- Season 10's "Smug Alert" lampoons people who own hybrid automobiles and think they're saving the world just by driving a different kind of vehicle. As electric vehicles supplanted hybrids as the prime example of "green" cars in The New '10s, the increased demand has led to a boom in mining of rare earth metals like lithium and nickel, which has environmental impacts of its own. Furthermore, electric vehicles still contribute to air pollution with particles from brake and tire wear and road erosion. These factors have led many environmentalists to argue that reducing automobile dependence is a better way to tackle the environmental impact of automobiles than simply replacing every gas-powered car on the road with "green" substitutes.
- Season 10's "Miss Teacher Bangs a Boy" calls out the Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male of many people's dismissive attitudes towards statutory rape when it is a woman - especially an attractive woman - abusing a young boy, specifically calling out the bullshit idea that the victim is somehow "lucky" for being abused. This trope has gotten more attention in the years since the episode came out, as more people are acknowledging that statutory rape is wrong regardless of the gender of the abuser or their victim.
