Enough with the “both sides” stuff. The A-plot of the episode was designed to poke fun at “woke casting” while simultaneously making the whole argument look ridiculous, and it did this very well. I don’t think this was written to portray the attitudes of “both sides” of the casting argument, and it would have been way less funny if it did. In the course of poking fun at “woke casting” it seems to have bothered a lot of socially/politically progressive people in the same way “Buddha Box” and “Board Girls” did because they don’t think the issue is appropriate for satire, which is partially what makes it so funny in the first place.
South Park has always taken aim at the moral/social standards Americans take for granted, it’s just that whatever ‘political correctness’ means to people has become much more prominent as a moral/social standard in many parts of the country and in the public discourse than it was 20-25 years ago. It’s ok to make fun of the same way it was ok to have an episode where a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeds out her vagina, and Matt and Trey don’t (and shouldn’t) create content that “treats both sides equally” because 1) that wouldn’t be funny if it’s forced and 2) there are usually more than two sides to most social/political issues anyway.
“I’m a Little Bit Country” was really the exception to the rule in that it was explicitly built around making a “both sides” point, but in general the show is great because it doesn’t pull its punches on its principle targets by weighing it down with trying to develop a “both sides” approach.
Just focusing on the Tegridy Farms thing: I think it resonated with fans (like me) who are older millennials and have been fans of the show since the beginning when we were in middle school. We’re prematurely world-weary and the idea of just going “fuck it, weed farm” was funny, even at the expense of Randy’s (and the show’s) traditional angles. That being said, I think it wore out its welcome for everyone which is why they’ve dialed it back, but I think it’s still a way for Matt and Trey to get some distance from their own formula.