In short
South Park’s newest episode “Battle of Curiosity” satirized prediction markets, particularly naming Polymarket and Kalshi as targets of its criticism whereas depicting youngsters turning into obsessive about betting on all the things.
Prediction market customers largely didn’t forecast their very own platforms being talked about, with solely 27% on Myriad and round 20% on Kalshi and Polymarket predicting they’d be named earlier than the episode aired.
Dastan CEO argues the missed predictions spotlight that prediction markets are “financialized shopper sentiment aggregation” reasonably than infallible fact sources, with customers probably anticipating generic parodies as a substitute of particular model mentions.
Satirical cartoon South Park hasn’t been pulling its punches this season, taking purpose at all the things from the Trump administration to its personal broadcasters.
Final night time’s episode, “Battle of Curiosity,” turned its gaze on prediction markets, with the kids of South Park rapidly turning into obsessive about the most recent fad.
“Folks could make any wager they need and customers take them up on it,” because the character Stan defined. When Cartman touts a market on whether or not Kyle’s mother would “strike Gaza and destroy a Palestinian hospital,” the irate Kyle takes his case up with FCC chair Brendan Carr.
Maybe unsurprisingly, prediction markets seized on the free publicity afforded by South Park, launching their very own markets on what is perhaps talked about throughout the episode—together with whether or not they themselves could be named.
Within the occasion, South Park singled out Polymarket and Kalshi because the targets of its scabrous criticism—however the majority of predictions throughout all platforms didn’t forecast whether or not main prediction markets could be named throughout the episode.
On Myriad, a prediction market launched by Decrypt’s mum or dad firm DASTAN, simply over 27% of predictions anticipated the episode to say it, Polymarket or Kalshi forward of broadcast.
Kalshi and Polymarket customers noticed the possibility of their respective platforms being talked about hovering round 20% instantly earlier than the episode aired.
That’s not essentially a shocking end result, DASTAN CEO Loxley Fernandes advised Decrypt, who argued that it’s “essentially incorrect” to think about prediction markets as “the brand new supply of fact.”
“Whereas prediction markets may help us root out fact or info in ways in which conventional reporting and polling can’t, we now have to keep in mind that prediction markets are merely a financialized type of shopper sentiment aggregation,” he defined.
As for why shopper sentiment was huge of the mark within the case of South Park, Fernandes identified that prediction market customers might have anticipated South Park to parody prediction markets generally, reasonably than naming particular corporations.
“Customers might have assumed that platforms like South Park Studios would make the most of satire and enchantment to humor by creating comical by-product names of prediction markets, as a substitute of simply saying Kalshi or Polymarket,” he mentioned, including that they may even have anticipated that “copyright or trademark infringement points” would forestall South Park from utilizing precise model names.
Looking back, maybe predictors ought to’ve been bolder of their assumptions. South Park has by no means shied away from satirizing well-known corporations previously, having beforehand skewered the likes of Apple, Disney and SpaceX.
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