Hours after South Park co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone signed a new five-year overall deal with Paramount Global, the long-running animated series took aim at the network’s dealings with Trump.
Wednesday’s Season 27 premiere showed the twice-impeached president crawling into bed with Satan after complaining about the size of his manhood in an official painting, as well as threatening to sue the titular town for $5 billion.
Fans on social media speculated it’s only a matter of time before Trump sues the show as well. “I give it 15 more minutes before Trump is demanding the cancellation of South Park lmfao,” wrote one viewer on X.
In the episode ‘Sermon on the ‘Mount’, the residents of South Park come together after the cancellation of a liberal radio show, with the town’s parents rioting. “The government can’t cancel the show, I mean, what show are they going to cancel next?” says Cartman.
At one point, Satan confronts Trump about rumors he’s on the Epstein list, a topic that sparked Trump’s lawsuit against Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones and owner Rupert Murdoch.
Donald Trump
Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
Following the Season 26 finale in March 2023, Stone and Parker explained to Vanity Fair why, in addition to “waiting for Paramount to figure all their sh** out,” they weren’t in a rush to return to production.
“We’ve tried to do South Park through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing to—it’s such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance,” said Stone.
Parker added, “Obviously, it’s f***ing important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun. I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Parker and Stone signed a new five-year overall deal with Paramount Global through their company Park County.
Additionally, South Park Digital Studios, the joint venture behind the animated hit co-owned by Paramount and Park County, has entered into an exclusive five-year license deal with Paramount+, reportedly worth $1.5 billion.
The pacts cover 50 new episodes over five seasons and all 26 previous seasons of South Park, which will continue on Comedy Central and be available on Paramount+.
Meanwhile, Paramount is under fire for canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on the heels of the company’s $16M settlement with Trump, which has been scrutinized as potential bribery by some lawmakers. Following Colbert’s ongoing jokes at the president’s expense, Trump has celebrated the talk show’s cancellation.
