How QAnon Supporters Reacted to 'South Park' Brutally Mocking Them
Supporters of QAnon have suggested the South Park special mocking the movement is a positive thing, claiming it actually helped promote their beliefs and encouraged others to research further.
The hour-long episode South ParQ: Vaccination Special was broadcast on Wednesday night, and appeared to have been viewed by a large number of supporters of the radical conspiracy theory.
The episode references some of the key and more extreme beliefs of QAnon, including the existence of a satanic cabal of pedophiles containing leading Democratic figures and the Hollywood elite who drink children's blood.
The episode also shows QAnon supporters being heavily against the coronavirus vaccine, claiming that it is "just another way for the elites to control us."
Ahead of its broadcast, an official synopsis for the episode will be about a "hilarious new militant group" that tries to stop the show's child protagonists from getting their teacher vaccinated.
Elsewhere Mr. Garrison, one of South Park's main characters who for the past few years has played a pseudo-Donald Trump character, is seen returning to his previous job as an elementary school teacher because he is no longer president.
While the episode was being aired, a number of influential QAnon figures were sharing clips of it on social media and suggesting that rather than being a satirical mockery of the movement, South Park was exposing it to a wider audience.
"More the media talks about Q, the greater the Overton window enlarges," Pepe Lives Matter, a Telegram channel with more than 52,000 subscribers, wrote. "The Great Awakening is inevitable."
Another QAnon Telegram channel, GhostEzra—which has more than 234,000 subscribers—suggested: "Welcome to operation wakeup."
Other QAnon supporters made repeated reference to South Park being a "red pill" or "red pilling" its audience.
The term "red pill" is often used by conspiracy theorists online in relation to people seeing new and uncomfortable information that they were previously unaware of.
The term is a reference to the 1999 film The Matrix, where Keanu Reeves' character has a choice between taking a red pill and seeing the "real world" for what it is, or a blue pill that would see him continue living in the computer-generated "real world" world he currently exists in.
"Hands down one of the biggest red pill episodes of theirs that I've ever seen," one Telegram user wrote.
"People will say that they're mocking it but [South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone] have been red pilling for years. That was to show their audience for those that don't know to immediately search & read about it now."
Boris Kozuchowski wrote: "People will get curious and research for themselves, and then form their own opinions. Like they say all press is good press."
Debris Colaianni added: "Whether mocking or humor, how many of these low information viewers will now have heard all this stuff through a comedy show. Whether they believe it or not the seed is planted."
However, others weren't so sure that South Park, which is known for mocking a wide range of targets and celebrities, was painting QAnon in a positive light.
"It just ripped on Q followers and promoted the vaccine. Not exactly a red pill," wrote one QAnon supporter.
Richard Blandt asked on Telegram: "How does this in any way not reinforce the [mainstream media's] goal of making all Q followers seem bats**t? How did it in any way question any sort of narrative? It didn't."
Heather C said: "Are we sure they aren't trying to just make it into a joke so people don't take it seriously?"
Another QAnon supporter on Telegram, Samantha Kreinbringare, said: "Are the deepstate trying to make this idea look so crazy people won't believe it? Because watching that was really jarring—are they dropping red pills or making the scenario look so insane people who are still asleep laugh at the 'lunacy' of it and stay asleep?"
