After 21 seasons, it has to be pretty tough to come up with new and interesting ideas to keep South Park afloat. Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have just figured out a pretty creative way to promote Season 22, which involves the cancellation of the wildly popular animated sitcom. Comedy Central released a brief trailer promoting Season 22, which features America at a crossroads and ends with the question: "What Will We Do Next?" The cancel South Park hashtag then pops up on the screen.

The cancel South Park hashtag has already gained momentum on social media with fans wondering what exactly is going on. Many fans of the show suggest that Matt Stone and Trey Parker are poking fun of rage culture, which could very well be the case. But, as with anything remotely controversial, the cancel South Park hashtag has gained a pretty decent sized crew that actually want Comedy Central to go ahead and really cancel the hit series. But, as with anything these days, the hate is free publicity, and it's promoting Season 22 quite well.

Social media users have gotten the cancel South Park hashtag trending, which was precisely the point. Matt Stone and Trey Parker may want to shut down the operation in the near future, but this is the perfect way to invite people who hate your show to promote that there's an upcoming season getting ready to premiere. It's the viral equivalent of the Primus Sucks bumper stickers that the band created in the early 90s in order to sell merchandise to people who really didn't like the band. Plus, the band provides the South Park theme song, so there could have been some inspiration taken from there.

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You can never accuse the South Park creative team of phoning it in. Just in case people aren't active on social media, Comedy Central has also purchased billboards in major cities across North America which simply contain the cancel South Park hashtag. Fans are sharing the billboards on social media as well, which is even more publicity for Season 22 from just about anybody who has two thumbs and an extra few seconds to spare.

Season 22 of South Park will premiere September 26th on Comedy Central. While the show isn't going away any time soon, it has gotten fans thinking about a life after South Park. Sure, there are tons of episodes to watch until the end of time, but the current events that the creative skewers have been an important component of the current television landscape. Just for fun, we've included some of the better social media posts revolving around the awesome promotional campaign for the series. Comedy Central created a bot that is responding to a lot of the tweets, saying thanks and giving the release date. You can watch the trailer for Season 22 of South Park below, thanks to the Comedy Central YouTube channel.

Topics: South Park

Kevin Burwick