The animated comedy "South Park" is no stranger to taking on hot topics and pop culture figures in its streaming specials. After targeting cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence in recent years, the series now tackles weight-loss drugs.
What Happened: "South Park" has tackled many trending topics and its seventh streaming special will tackle one of the top items over the last year.
"South Park: The End of Obesity" premieres on May 24 in the U.S. and Canada and several other countries on May 25. The special will stream on Paramount+, a unit of Paramount Global (NASDAQ:PARA)(NASDAQ:PARAA).
The special will see the fictional town of South Park obsessed with weight loss drugs. One of the show's main characters Eric Cartman gets denied for weight-loss drugs and recruits his friends Kyle, Stan, Kenny and Butters for help, as reported by Variety.
Cartman uses the weight-loss drugs and gets skinny in the streaming special.
The series, which first debuted on Comedy Central in 1997, has released six streaming exclusives on Paramount+ previously, including ones that targeted the COVID-19 pandemic, streaming and artificial intelligence.
Show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed a deal with Paramount in 2021 for six more seasons and 14 movies.
Why It's Important: The parody special could put weight-loss drugs in a negative light, as the series has done when covering cryptocurrency and AI.
Oprah Winfrey released a special that put weight-loss drugs in the spotlight and showed how they can help celebrities and others lose weight, but can also include side effects and may need to be balanced out with other lifestyle changes.
Top weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic from Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) have helped the stock gain over the last year. Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) has also seen shares gain with its weight-loss drug Mounjaro.
Roundhill Investments also recently released the Roundhill GLP-1 & Weight Loss ETF (NASDAQ:OZEM), which holds a basket of stocks exposed to the growing sector of weight loss drugs.
Known for his foul mouth, it will be interesting to see what Cartman has to say about getting the weight-loss drug treatment.
PARA Price Action: Paramount shares trade at $11.79 at market close Thursday versus a 52-week trading range of $10.12 to $17.50. Paramount stock is down 18% over the last year.
Photo: "South Park: The End of Obesity" via IMDb