The Simpsons showrunner Matt Selman has clarified his stance on politics after previously saying it was “not our mission statement to respond to the crisis of the moment.”
Selman, who has served as a writer and producer on the animated sitcom since 1997 and became its main showrunner in 2021, made the comments while discussing the 38th season of the long-running Fox series, which premiered Sunday.
“What I should have said the first time was just ripped-from-the-headlines daily cataclysm humor is best left to shows like South Park that can do a fast turnaround, where it is up to us to address the deeper recurrent themes of the dystopia that we live in,” Selman told Entertainment Weekly. “So we’re not shying away from it, but when you’ve got South Park, who’s so brave and so funny and so topical, leading the charge, it frees us up to do more humor about how the world has gotten dumber and worse.”
In its recent seasons, South Park has become well known for its unflinching barbs at the Trump administration, even depicting the president in a relationship with satan.
Praising South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, Selman continued: “Here’s the headline: I’m not as brave as Matt and Trey. I will stand by that quote. They are brave. They are brave American heroes, and I am a coward. Quote me on that.”
In an interview with The New York Times last year, Stone and Parker explained why they decided to feature Trump so heavily in the last season.
“It’s not that we got all political,” said Parker. “It’s that politics became pop culture.”
Stone added that speaking out against the Trump administration had become “taboo.” He continued: “Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey. Oh, that’s where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we’re over there.”
As The Simpsons reaches its 38th season on air, its stars have begun to speculate about it ending in the near future.
Nancy Cartwright, who has voiced Bart Simpson since the show premiered in 1987, recently suggested that The Simpsons could come to an end after season 40.
Asked on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast whether she genuinely believes the long-running series will wrap up in just two seasons, Cartwright stood by her prediction, albeit with one important caveat: “Yeah… It’s my opinion.”
But Cartwright said that she is open to going beyond 40 seasons if the rest of the cast and team are willing.
“Yeah, if everyone is still alive, we’ll keep going then,” she joked. “Absolutely.”
Last year, Fox inked a deal for four additional seasons of The Simpsons. The 37th season finished airing in February, and the 38th edition is slated to premiere on Fox on September 27. The show hit its 800th episode earlier this year.
The animation is also getting its second feature film next year, nearly 20 years after 2007’s The Simpsons Movie.
