“I’m Donald Trump and I’m going to read you a story”
South Park is known for its crude and cheap-looking animation – but now show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are working with some much more up-to-date technology.
Sassy Justice is their new web series with British comedian Peter Serafinowicz It uses deepfake technology to mock high profile US figures, and the second episode has just dropped.
Deepfakes are where machine learning and AI is used to replace someone else’s likeness – usually another, more recognisable face.
Sassy Justice takes the form of local TV news show, with various famous faces appearing through deepfake technology. The new episode sees Donald Trump read a Christmas story, which of course, ends up being about how he won the election.
Most of the male voice impressions are done by the great Peter Serafinowicz, who you’ll know from Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Amazon’s The Tick, Guardians of the Galaxy, Look Around You, and loads, loads more.
The first episode of Sassy Justice went online in October. The spoof news show is presented by ‘Fred Sassy,’ a deepfaked Donald Trump.
Other celebrities recreated in the show include Michael Caine, Julie Andrews, Al Gore, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Chris Wallace, Mark Zuckerberg.
Jared Kushner is voiced by Trey Parker’s daughter Betty.
Mark Zuckerberg is a salesman flogging kidney dialysis machines, while Al Gore is voiced by Trey Parker in the same voice that he used for the former Vice President’s appearances on South Park.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have produced 23 seasons and 308 episodes of South Park since the show debuted on Comedy Central back in 1997, and it has been renewed up until 2022.
In September, the networkl aired a double-length pandemic special of South Park. It has not been made clear if it was the first episode of the 24th season, or just a stand-alone special.