The newest South Park film on Paramount Plus, “The Streaming Wars,” performs like a protracted crypto roast, concentrating on celebrities who made fools of themselves hyping up cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Crypto-mining and NFT-minting are extremely energy intensive, belching out carbon emissions for the sake of enriching a handful of traders; South Park connects the dots, telling a narrative of an environmental disaster exacerbated by grasping con-artists.
The film exhibits South Park struggling by way of a crippling drought, which is making the city’s inhabitants much more unhinged; therefore, a waterpark-owning entrepreneur has a plan to interchange the city’s water provide with urine – what may go incorrect?
Beloved celebrities are quickly enlisted to push the propaganda marketing campaign, and persuade the townsfolk that urine is simply nearly as good as clear water. In fact, it’s instantly referencing the ridiculous crypto ads that so many celebrities related themselves with – Matt Damon’s notorious “Fortune Favors the Courageous” Superbowl ad offers the punchline, the mantra celebrities chant to themselves earlier than taking a sip of urine for the digicam.
Damon’s painfully self-serious advert, which frames the act of shopping for crypto as an adrenaline-fueled journey, has by no means been forgotten by the writers of South Park, who’ve mocked and referenced the advert several times.
But it surely’s not simply Damon who South Park topics to urine-infused humiliation – the film additionally skewers Gwyneth Paltrow, Larry David, Naomi Osaka, and Tom Brady, who’ve all voiced their help for crypto. Resse Witherspoon additionally makes an look, as she has turn out to be well-known for her weird tweets, which weaponize inclusive language to push crypto and NFTs on her followers.
Whereas South Park had loads of crypto-enthusiasts to select from, they missed two vital celebrities, Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon, who tried to promote their Bored Ape NFTs to a baffled viewers, who weren’t fairly positive whether or not to snort or obey the applause signal.
Nevertheless, South Park has already devoted numerous time to mocking NFTs, depicting grownup Butters as a delusional NFT promoter, who is taken into account so unhinged by the city that he’s locked away, after convincing a whole bunch of harmless folks into investing right into a nugatory asset, and falling into poverty.
As of late, many of the celebrities who agreed to advertise crypto and NFTs have backed down, as the following crypto crash actually emphasised how absurd the “Fortune Favors the Courageous” slogan was.
Probably, all of these inconsiderate celebrities had been paid with actual {dollars} to advertise cryptocurrency – maybe subsequent time they’ll suppose twice about pushing a glorified pyramid scheme onto the general public.
Fortunately for us, South Park by no means forgot; Matt Damon is rarely going to reside it down.