The White House has responded angrily after South Park returned to screens on Wednesday (23 July) following a two-year hiatus with an explosive premiere that depicted President Donald Trump in bed with series regular, Satan.
The episode of the scathing satirical cartoon, titled “Sermon on the Mount”, referenced the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount and the prospect of government censorship.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to Variety: “The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end – for years they have come after South Park for what they labeled as ‘offense’ content, but suddenly they are praising the show.
“Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows,” Rogers continued. “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. 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 the episode, antagonistic fourth-grader Cartman is depressed when he learns of the cancellation of his favourite radio show NPR, where “liberals b**** and whine about stuff”. His mother tells him that Trump cancelled the programme.
Cartman says: “The government can’t cancel the show, I mean, what show are they going to cancel next?” He’s later seen in the episode wearing a T-shirt that says, “Woke is dead.”
The residents of South Park come together when the children’s school principal brings Jesus into an assembly. The town’s parents riot.
Meanwhile, Trump is depicted in the White House, where he is criticised for rising tariffs in Canada, and he simply tells his opponents to “relax”. Trump is also depicted decorating the walls of the White House with nude portraits of himself.
Rather than portraying Trump in the South Park style, the show's creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone used photos of the president’s face on an animated body.
In another scene, Trump is depicted in bed with long-running character Satan, where the devil comments on the small size of his manhood. Satan then confronts Trump over rumours that his name appears on the “Epstein list”.
Trump later finds himself in crisis as his South Park supporters turn on him over Jesus entering the education system. He sues the people of South Park for $5bn.
By the end of the episode, the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert comes up, and Jesus pleads with the people of South Park to stop protesting against Trump and settle the lawsuit.
They negotiate the settlement to $3.5bn, but as part of the deal, the town must agree to produce “pro-Trump messaging” in their public service announcements. The episode ends with a series of NSFW deepfake adverts depicting an unclothed president crawling through a desert.
The premiere of the 27th season of the animated series comes as the show’s creators reached a landmark $1.5bn (£1.1bn) licensing deal with Paramount. The agreement allows South Park’s new season to debut as scheduled, for a run of 50 new episodes over five years, which will all debut on Paramount-owned Comedy Central. Part of the deal included a new streaming partnership, which will bring the South Park library to Paramount+ in the US.
The negotiation has happened amid a backdrop of a pending merger between Paramount and Skydance, which is set to assume control of Paramount in the coming weeks. The company is owned by David Ellison, the son of billionaire and Trump ally Larry Ellison.
It also comes weeks after Paramount settled a lawsuit brought by Trump alleging “election interference” due to the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, which aired on the Paramount-owned CBS.
Even though the network denied the president’s claims of “deceptive” editing and called the lawsuit “meritless”, Paramount paid Trump $16m (£11.8m) amid the pending merger, sparking accusations of bribery from Democratic lawmakers, free press organisations and CBS employees. Ellison has vowed that CBS would be “unbiased” under the new corporate leadership.
On 17 July, Paramount and CBS announced that they had cancelled Colbert’s late-night show, leading to further speculation that the demise of The Late Show may have been politically motivated, given Colbert’s outspoken criticism of Trump. However, Paramount has insisted that the cancellation was due solely to the dwindling ad revenues for late-night television and the high production costs of Colbert’s show.
