PHOENIX, ARIZONA – DECEMBER 22: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump looks on during Turning Point … More
A Colorado professor said it was “funny as hell” the way South Park went after President Donald Trump in its Season 27 premiere episode, yet he’s frustrated that more comedians on the left aren’t taking the same approach.
South Park, of course, is set in the fictionalized Colorado city of South Park, which follows four elementary school friends: Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny.
In the new episode, called Sermon on the ‘Mount, series creators and voice stars Trey Parker and Matt Stone skewered the president by, among other things, giving him small genitalia both in South Park-style animation and through a live-action AI deepfake.
The episode also showed a South Park-animated version of Trump in bed with Satan and in some not-so-flattering “White House portraits,” plus it also refers to “Epstein’s list.”
The debut of the South Park Season 27 episode came only hours after Paramount Global announced a deal it made with Parker and Stone to bring South Park and 50 new episodes to its Paramount+ streaming platform, as well as the first 26 seasons of the Comedy Central series. The deal, which is for five years, was reported by several outlets to be worth $1.5 billion and comes just as Skydance finalizes its acquisition of Paramount Global.
Given the classic animated Comedy Central series’ history where everyone is subject to ridicule, Parker and Stone also took aim not only at Trump, but Paramount Global in its Season 27 premiere episode on Thursday.
The episode not only called out the company’s $16 million lawsuit settlement with Trump over a 60 Minutes segment, but it also skewered the company’s decision to cancel its late-night talk show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Colorado State University Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies Nick Marx told Wired in an article published Thursday that he was refreshed by the way South Park went after Trump following the methods the ousted talk show host and others have used criticize the president.
“It’s f—ing funny as hell that they seek to sexually humiliate Trump,” Marx told Wired, noting how Parker and Stone were going after the president’s “vanity and insecurity.”
However, now that Parker and Stone went there with Trump, Marx told Wired that he’s frustrated by how more comedians aren’t doing the same.
“I think that is the card to play … and I am frustrated that more of the comedians that I love on the left haven’t leaned into that really harsh attack of him,” Marx told Wired.
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – JULY 24: (L-R) Matt Stone and Trey Parker speak onstage at Comedy Central … More
Trey Parker Briefly Addressed The White House Criticism At San Diego Comic Con
While media outlets lauded the South Park Season 27 premiere episode, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers slammed it in a statement to media outlets on Friday.
“This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention,” Rogers said in the statement (via Variety). “President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
In his reaction by the White House during a San Diego Comic Con panel on Friday (via Deadline), Parker simply responded in a not-so-sincere manner, saying, “We’re terribly sorry.”
In addition, Parker and Stone assured viewers that, in spite of the release of a promotional reel for Season 27 earlier this year, fans will still get topical episodes of South Park and none of them are pre-packaged.
“You seriously think we made a bunch of shows ahead of time and baked them for later? We’re not doing any of that,” Parker exclaimed, to which Stone quipped, “No politics. None of that s—.”
South Park Season 27 is new on Comedy Central on cable and streaming on Paramount+.
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