How Barbra Streisand Shocked ‘South Park’ Creator After He Mocked Her
South Park has mocked numerous celebrities, however, only so many of those celebrities have commented on their portrayal. Barbra Streisand was one of the celebrities who discussed the way the show mocked her. Here’s why Streisand thought the show’s parody of her was bad for the world — and how she shocked one of the show’s creators.
Why Barbra Streisand enjoys satire of herself — but not ‘South Park”s satire
South Park has portrayed celebrities in all sorts of bizarre ways. For example, they depicted Mel Gibson as a masochist who acts like Daffy Duck and Kim Kardashian as a hobbit who uses PhotoShop to appear beautiful. In an early episode called “MechaStreisand,” Streisand transforms into a mechanical dinosaur named “MechaStreisand.” Other celebrities like Leonard Maltin and Sidney Poitier turn into giant robots in an attempt to defeat MechaStreisand, who is ultimately defeated by a robot version of Robert Smith from The Cure. The episode is a parody of Japanese monster movies like Godzilla! King of the Monsters and Mothra.
The entire episode is, needless to say, very silly. However, Streisand felt the episode was very toxic for children.
“I wasn’t even aware of this show until I read in Time magazine that they had used me in a very negative way,” Streisand told Mirabella. “Let me say that I enjoy satire and parody and I loved the movie In & Out. It made me laugh. It wasn’t mean-spirited. But I wonder if shows like South Park and Beavis and Butt-head don’t add to the cynicism and negativity in our culture, especially in children. These youngsters are formulating their attitudes and maybe they come away feeling that any woman who dares to accomplish something is the incarnation of self-centeredness and greed. And that would be very unfortunate, especially for young girls.”
How ‘South Park’ responded
So how did South Park respond to Streisand? Predictably, they mercilessly mocked her. A later episode called “Spookyfish” was aired in Spooky Vision. What’s an episode aired in Spooky Vision like? It’s just a regular episode of the show but with images of Streisand’s face on the side. This is pretty typical of South Park’s style of humor. Streisand would continue to be a source of mockery for the show, such as in a later episode where religious figures like Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, and Joseph Smith try to defeat her.
How Barbra Streisand shocked one of the creators of the show
Spooky Vision was not the end of Streisand’s connection to South Park. The creators of South Park — Trey Parker and Matt Stone — wrote a musical titled The Book of Mormon. During an interview with Esquire, Stone revealed Streisand, a Broadway legend, decided to see this unique Broadway show. “And Barbra Streisand came last night,” Stone said. “The cast told me she was there, and I was like, ‘No f*cking way.'” The creators of South Park upset Streisand with one of their early jokes, however, Streisand ultimately managed to shock Stone with her presence alone.
