South Park's billionaire creators taunt Trump with their bravest – or stupidest

Telegraph

5 days ago

The stage is set for a fresh conflict between Donald Trump and Hollywood following a vicious takedown of the President by the satirical cartoon South Park. In an episode aired Wednesday night in the US, South Park depicted the Commander-in-Chief in bed with Satan, mocked the size of his manhood and made numerous references to its parent company Paramount's controversial cancellation of late night chat show, The Late Show.
The Late Show's host, Stephen Colbert, is a vocal critic of Trump and has spoken out against a $16 million legal settlement between Paramount and the President. However, any hopes that the cash would smoothen the media giant's relationship with the White House were surely dashed by South Park, which airs on the company's Comedy Central network and its Paramount + streaming service. 'Trump, his penis is teeny-tiny, but his love for us is large' says the narrator. The audience is then invited to visit the website, HeTrumpedUS.com, where the clip can be watched again.
The instalment is an extraordinary act of audacity, irreverence and potentially career immolation by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It will certainly be received with horror at Paramount, which only this week announced a new $1.5 billion licensing agreement with the series. The deal will see 50 new episodes air on Comedy Central in the US, followed by a stream on Paramount+ in the US and globally. Or at least it did before Penis-gate.
South Park episodes are scripted and edited close to their broadcast date so as to keep the jokes timely. And 'timely' is one word for its Trump-baiting, which comes on the heels of Paramount calling time on Stephen Colbert. The official reason is that The Late Show – a holdover from the glory days of the American 'talk show' format – is bleeding cash for Paramount. (Which is certainly true; Colbert's show reportedly lost $40 million in 2024.)
But the decision has been interpreted in liberal circles as Paramount in essence bending the knee to Trump, who has the power to veto a proposed $8 billion merger between Paramount and Skydance and recently received that $16 million legal settlement from the former over a report on 60 Minutes, the American equivalent of Panorama.
That is certainly the view of Colbert, who told his audience that the 'gloves were off' for his remaining 10 months on air and who responded to a gloating Trump tweet by telling the President, 'Go f___ yourself'. The expletive was bleeped out – a concession to prurient viewers absent from the first episode of South Park's 27th season. Instead, and with all the subtlety of a head-butt on a 1970s football terrace, it takes shot after shot at Trump.
Colbert is an old fashioned Hollywood liberal –a long-running Trump bête noire. Parker and Stone are cut from less cliched cloth and South Park has from its beginning in 1997 displayed a rabid disregard for political correctness. In early interviews Parker and Stone would say that they love Jerry Springer, the king of daytime trash TV and hated Woody Allen. A 2007 episode, meanwhile, used the n-word 43 times in 22 minutes, leading to condemnation from America's Parents Television Council.
There was been controversy, too, around a storyline in which Eric Cartman bullied a Jewish student – with some in the Jewish community feeling South Park was critiquing of anti-Semitism and others accusing the series of turning prejudice into a punchline. And who could forget the many potshots at the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, including a 2023 episode depicting an attention-desperate Meghan and Harry brandishing a placard reading, 'Stop looking at us'?
That isn't to say Parker and Stone go easy on the Right. South Park has attacked Christian evangelicals and Republicans and is perceived as having a 'plague on both your houses' view. Or, as Stone said in 2005, 'I hate conservatives, but I really f______ hate liberals.'
Still, whatever their politics, the latest South Park confirms they are not fans of Trump. It begins with the Cartman character lamenting the end of his favourite radio show on NPR – the radio network Trump has described as a 'liberal disinformation machine'.
It begins with the Cartman character lamenting the end of his favourite radio show on NPR – the radio network Trump has described as a 'liberal disinformation machine'.
Cartman is stunned: 'The government can't cancel the show, I mean, what show are they going to cancel next?' he wonders. Later, we see Trump in bed with Satan, who mocks the size of the President's manhood, compares him to Saddam Hussein and brings up rumours that Trump is on the 'Epstein list' – a subject which led Trump to take a lawsuit against the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.
Next, an animated Jesus arrives at the school in South Park (the show's fictional, all-American setting). The parents protest his presence in the classroom, saying, 'We all know the woke stuff went too far, but the answer isn't going too far the other way,' says one. Jesus intervenes, telling them to be mindful of what they say.
'I didn't want to come back and be at the school, but I had to as part of a lawsuit and the agreement…You guys saw what happened to CBS! You really want to end up like Colbert? You guys gotta stop being stupid,' he whispers.
A frightened Jesus then goes on to warn the assembled citizens that Trump 'has the power to sue and take bribes and can do anything to anyone.' Trump catches wind of the discontent and sues the townsfolk for $5 million. They settle for $3.5 million and are forced to make a 'public service announcement' film praising Trump as he and his animated penis wander through the desert.
South Park has long taken a blunt-force approach to comedy and lacked the delicious wit of its contemporary, The Simpsons. And it is fair to say not everyone finds it funny. If anything it is arguably a tragedy that Stone and Parker – aged 54 and 55 respectively – are still cracking up over knob gags. A 2024 Screenrant review was on to something when it labelled their humour 'toothless and tired'.
Trump, after all, is not known for his sense of humour - especially when it comes to satire. Just a few days before the episode aired, the White House threatened to have the Loose Women-like chat show The View cancelled after one of its panellists unfavourably compared Trump to President Obama. Meanwhile, Colbert had been critical of CBS settling with Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with his Presidential rival Kamala Harris, which Trump claimed had been edited to depict him negatively.
All of which surely pales in comparison to the blitzkrieg strategy taken by South Park. With South Park creators Stone and Parker now among the wealthiest producers in Hollywood history, they're as well placed as anyone to stand up to Trump and his army of lawyers.
But if they are up for a fight, is Paramount prepared to gird its corporate loins with an $8 billion merger in the balance? All will be revealed because, while South Park has laid down the gauntlet with thump, the real drama is going to unfold in the real world over the following hours, days, and weeks. One of the show's recurring gags revolves around the death of the character Kenny and the catchphrase, 'Oh my god, they killed Kenny!' But have Trey and Stone killed South Park? As soon as Trump breaks his silence, the picture will be clearer.