Posted in: Disney+, Hulu, National Geographic, TV | Tagged: david blaine, south park

South Park: David Blaine on "Super Best Friends," Being Parodied

David Blaine (David Blaine: Do Not Attempt) on being parodied by South Park and other television shows, as well as by films.

There's something to be said about the magic of pop culture relevance, and David Blaine has endured for over 25 years since emerging in the late 1990s in David Blaine: Street Magic. He's been parodied on several shows and films from South Park and the 2013 Warner Bros comedy The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. While promoting his upcoming six-part series David Blaine: Do Not Attempt (because even spelling it out to your audience sometimes doesn't have the desired effect), the street magician and illusionist spoke to Variety about why he "loved" his most popular parodies.

David Blaine Critiques His Parodies on South Park, Saturday Night Live, and 'The Incredible Burt Wonderstone'

When asked about what he thought about Jim Carrey's character of Steve Gray, who was described by director Don Scardino as "if David Blaine and Criss Angel had a child," Blaine said, "They asked me about it. I said. 'Well, don't do me exactly…' So they veered off a little bit and made it kind of a mix of people. But I love those spoofs, and they make me laugh." Carrey's Gray was the rival of Steve Carell's Burt Wonderstone, performing outrageous "stunts" like holding his bladder for an excruciating amount of time as a test of endurance and attempting to bore into his brain using a power drill as a show of discipline (Spoiler: he failed miserably).

Blaine was parodied on the South Park season five episode "Super Best Friends," which parodied the Hanna Barbara/DC collaboration 70s cartoon Super Friends but replaced the superheroes with religious figures of Jesus, Muhammad, Yahweh, Buddha, Joseph Smith, Laozi, Krishna, and the Comedy Central series' take on Aquaman, "Sea Man". The series version of Blaine was a cult leader as one of the several instances when South Park skewered Scientology. "The one thing I wondered about was 'South Park' because they would have me say 'twah' at the end of sentences," Blaine said. "So I asked them, 'Where did the 'twah' come from?' And [Matt Stone] told me, 'Oh, there's a guy I went to high school with that always said 'twah' and I had to use it, so I threw it in there.'"

For more, including his thoughts on a pre-SNL Mikey Day parody, endurance tests, and, of course, magic, you can check out the rest of the interview. David Blaine: Do Not Attempt is available on March 23rd on Disney+, Hulu, and National Geographic.

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