Imlisanen Jamir
The world is completely unrecognizable from three of four years ago. We’re using words in everyday language that hadn’t even been invented just half a decade ago. Waking up from a long-term coma today would lead to one of the most jarring shifts ever witnessed in modern history.
I am referring mostly to the ongoing hot mess that affects every decision made on the planet these days but I’m also referring partially to how we can’t make it more than a few hours without hearing about crypto. The meteoric rise of interest in crypto and Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in recent years has permeated the furthest reaching corners of society.
It was only a matter of time until South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone put NFTs in their crosshairs and roasted it but when I didn’t anticipate is they’d lump NFTs and crypto in with the pandemic.
The second half of South Park: Post COVID: The Return of COVID, the second of a whopping 14 specials arriving on Paramount Plus in the coming years, took aim at the NFT craze, with creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker not so subtly hinting that they aren’t buying into the hype surrounding digital tokens.
The special arrives on the subject of NFTs via Victor Chaos, an adult version of Butters who scammed unwitting victims by convincing them to stake their savings and other assets on NFTs, making billions of dollars off of their misfortune in the process.
“It’s gone: my savings, my house. But I have this little green panda on a skateboard,” says one poor soul who fell victim to Butters’ scheme.
Butters, for his part, is still trying to scam even more people into investing in the digital tokens when Stan and Kyle come to him for help. “If you just believe in NFTs, then I believe in NFTs, then they believe in NFTs, and we make all kinds of fucking money,” he says as he attempts to pitch his childhood friends on the idea.
NFTs can be a confusing concept, so don’t feel bad if you’re struggling to wrap your head around the idea. They can essentially be thought of as a certificate of authenticity for digital artifacts ranging from images to videos, or even online news articles like this one.
While some NFTs are selling for monumental prices in the range of tens of millions of dollars, the craze has also drawn plenty of criticism from skeptics like Stone and Parker, who see the idea as a scam designed to dupe people into spending money on artifacts one can easily save to their computer with the click of a mouse.
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