When South Park creators Trey Parker And Matt Stone locked in announced a five-year deal with Paramount worth $1.5 billion eleven hours before the premiere of season 27, the comedy duo were looking to establish their agency in an environment that would soon be upended by new parent company Skydance and CEO David Ellison. Result? A sharp debut aimed at President Donald Trump – whose approval was, ahem, paramount until the merger is completed. Since that first episode in late July, there has been a steady stream of colorful satirical articles from the US President and key White House officials, from Vice President J.D. Vance To DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
In a new interview with the magazine New York TimesStone explained the decision to ridicule the GOP leader: “We just needed to show our independence somehow.”
The writer added that while viewers may assume some level of censorship behind the scenes – especially in a hostile media environment where CBS Paramount canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (defended by senior management as a purely financially motivated decision whose time came after a host attacked its home network) is not so.
“I know with the Colbert thing and the whole Trump thing, people think certain things, but they let us do whatever we want, to their credit,” Stone said of the lack of resistance. (In turn, Colbert praised South Park for criticizing Trump by calling the show fake social advertising video of naked Trump is 'an important message of hope for our time'.)
Naturally, the White House was furious about this, with assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers telling Deadline after the premiere: “This show has been dead for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with boring ideas in a desperate attempt to get attention. President Trump has made more promises in just six months than any other president in the history of our country – and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak.”
Unfortunately for Trump and his administration, however, the constant stream of jokes has led to… rising ratings and a renaissance of sorts for a long-running animated show.
It's a winning formula that Parker and Stone will stick to for now.
“There’s no getting around it,” Parker told the magazine. Time. “It's like the government is always in your face, no matter where you look. Whether it's the real government or all these podcasters and TikTok and YouTube and everything and it's just political and political because it's more than political. It's pop culture.”
