South Park returned with its first regular season episode since 2019 — and no time was wasted mocking Matt Damon and his recent cryptocurrency commercial.
In Wednesday’s season 25 premiere “Pajama Day” on Comedy Central, the boys’ fourth-grade class loses its privilege to wear PJs to the school’s pajama day, sending the class into a spiral. And, naturally, the townspeople quickly get involved.
The episode features a running gag that skewers Matt Damon over an already ridiculed commercial he starred in for cryptocurrency. In the random spot, the Oscar winner compares being a crypto investor to an array of milestones in human achievement. “Fortune favors the brave,” Damon says in closing.
Famously taking aim at Damon in their classic 2004 film Team America (the puppet character can only say his name) and mocking crypto and NFTs in the recent South Park made-for-TV Paramount+ films, it was a slam dunk for creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to tee off on Damon’s commercial.
“What does Matt Damon say in the bitcoin commercial? Fortune favors the brave!” Cartman says while trying to rally the class to fight back against the school principal’s PJs decision. Clyde responds to Cartman with, “My dad said he listened to Matt Damon and lost all his money.” To which Cartman counters, “Yes, everyone did! But, they were brave in doing so!”
There are a few more shots at Damon over the commercial before the episode goes meta and notes that jokes about the commercial are already dated.
Like most shows, South Park was forced to take a hiatus from regular weekly episodes due to the pandemic. However, Parker, Stone and team were able to create a couple of hourlong specials and two made-for-TV films on Paramount+ amid the show’s weekly hiatus.