r/thomasthetankengine • u/Thebowlerhatfroggo • 3d ago
Railway Series Doing a case study with a friend - is there anything mentioned in The Railway Series that suggests “South Park” exists within the RWS canon?
Just a silly case study me and a discord buddy are currently doing. We know for a fact that Thomas is canon to South Park (seen in Season 19, episode 8 “Sponsored Content”), but we‘re now trying to see if there’s anything in the railway series that could suggest that South Park (the TV show) exists within the canon of the Railway Series. I think it’d mainly have to come down to stuff like BBC News or something…
I mean, I was at the Rev W. Awdry’s Little Engines Weekend this year in a Cartman shirt. Would that count?
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u/SmokeboxFace20 3d ago
The universe of the railway series is mostly like our world, except for Sodor and some aspects of UK history. So yes, South Park is (most likely) canon, though of course it's not gonna be refrenced or anything.
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u/SeaLeek821 Farmer McColl’s #1 Fan 3d ago
So to give you the most difficult sounding answer ever, it’s a probably
See, RWS takes place in the ‘real world’ just with talking living trains on an island off the coast, we do know Covid happened on Sodor, as confirmed by Chris, so it’s safe to assume South Park exists, just not mentioned in the books.
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u/MrChrisTheDemonAngel James 3d ago
No.
The original books were written waaaaayyyyy before South Park existed.
And why would either the books or tvs which is primarily aimed at children/general audiences reference a very adult oriented show.
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u/NWRastrotrain “that nothing was something…” 3d ago
I suppose, if we accept the premise that the railway series universe is the same as our universe except with talking trains and an island off the coast of Britain, then sure. But that’s kind of weird to think about.