South Park: A Leader in PSYOP Technology

 

For those of you that don’t know, South Park is a very popular cartoon comedy series. They first appeared on August 13, 1997 and are still going strong. You can watch free episodes at: https://southpark.cc.com/. On October 30, 2020 they unveiled a new projected dubbed “Sassy Justice”. You can watch it on YouTube at: https://bit.ly/3kZ59GK.

 

The project is a showcase for the creativity of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, but perhaps more importantly, it is an entertaining way to understand the implications of DeepFakes. Although at 0730 on 4 November 20, the Presidential Election is still in turmoil without them.

 

The NY Times interviewed the writers and you can read the article (which is also a photo source) at: https://nyti.ms/2TSB7bT

 

Here are a couple of quotes from the article taken from the South Park website  to give you a flavor for the project:

"Before the big scary thing of coronavirus showed up, everyone was so afraid of deepfakes," Stone said. "We just wanted to make fun of it because it makes it less scary."

As Parker said, "It really is this new form of animation for people like us, who like to construct things on a shot-by-shot level and have control over every single actor and voice. It's a perfect medium for us."

On how this project differs from South Park, Trey shared:

"I always hate watching myself. Even with 'South Park,' I have a perfect image of what it's going to look like in my head all the time. But on this, there were moments where we felt like kids in our basement again."

Peter Serafinowicz plays the host character in Sassy Justice as well as a few other characters. He explains how the deepfake technology enhances impersonations on a whole new level:

"I imagine myself looking like the person that I'm doing. Now that's become real. It's like wearing the most realistic mask possible. When it works, it's just startling. It's like magic."