Israeli asks ChatGPT to write 'South Park' episode on judicial reform crisis

Israel Youtuber Itai Gal gave the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT articles to update it on everything happening in Israel over the past few months and asked it to write a new episode of South Park making fun of it. 

The result was hilarious, poking fun at the current political crisis surrounding judicial reform.

Watch the two-and-a-half-minute video here:

AI-generated South Park episode about Israel's judicial reform

In the episode's plot, Eric Cartman arrives at the school cafeteria and finds out he can have just one chocolate pudding cup per lunch. He becomes furious and wants to do something about it, so Butters suggests he runs for student council president – he succeeds and ends up with full control over the school.

"He decides to completely overhaul the school system, just like a true dictator," the episode script says.

Cartman, seemingly a satire of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, carries out a coup of the school's management, finding a loophole in the school's bylaws and – in what the script explicitly states is an analogy of Israel – firing the principal and appointing his mother as a replacement. 

This is similar to what the Israeli government is trying to do with the judiciary – "The person who is supposed to be overseeing his actions is biased and lets him do whatever he wants."

Now having unchecked authority, Cartman proceeds to push a series of new petty and absurd policies that benefit only him, including giving his bike reserved parking and allowing himself to have extra chocolate pudding cups. However, these new policies lead to protests against him and his overhaul from other students in the school, whom he labels as "anarchists."

Later, Cartman orchestrates a scenario where fellow classmate and ally Butters is getting his hair done in the boy's bathroom during the protests. This ends up trapping Butters inside, with Cartman saves him, hugging his ally before saying how the two of them don't feel safe – a scenario specifically mentioned to be parodying Sara Netanyahu being trapped in a hair salon during protests and needing to be rescued.

Later, Cartman's other classmate and ally Kenny gives a speech on Cartman's behalf at a national convention but, as is typical of the character, his words are largely inaudible and he becomes the subject of ridicule when the word "grandmother" is misheard as the word "Grandmeizer" – a scenario that seems to parody Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich's much-ridiculed Engish speech while in the US. 

In the end, the ChatGPT-written script says protest leader Stan Marsh tries to run against Cartman but loses, with his classmates saying that despite all of Cartman's flaws, they feel they've known him the longest and would rather stick with who they know than go with someone new. The chocolate pudding cups are then gone from the cafeteria due to budget cuts allowing Cartman to have a private jet, which he is seen in while swimming in chocolate pudding.

AI used to write TV

Though unique as a means of writing a direct parody of the Israeli political crisis, this isn't the first time AI has been used to parody a TV series.

Back in December, a parody of Seinfeld called "Nothing, Forever" debuted on Twitch as an endless stream.

The script was made using the GPT-3 made by OpenAI, similar to the company's ChatGPT AI chatbot. Another company is behind making the voices of the characters.