Over the past three decades, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have managed to infuriate partisans on both sides of the political divide on countless occasions. They enraged environmentalists in 2006 by dismissing climate change as a fiction no different than the mythical beast ManBearPig, pissed off the right by conceding their mistake and apologizing 12 years later in the episode Time to Get Cereal, and angered most everyone by comparing John Kerry and George W. Bush to a douche and a turd days before the 2004 election.
Over the past couple of months, however, they’ve aimed all their shots at the MAGA movement in a viciously funny storyline that paints Donald Trump as a narcissistic lunatic with a tiny penis, Vice President Vance as a subservient clone of Hervé Villechaize’s character on Fantasy Island, Attorney General Pam Bondi as such a kiss-ass that her face is literally coated in Trump’s fecal matter, and Homeland Security Secretary Pam Bondi as plastic surgery-scarred freak whose face literally falls off her head and scurries away. The storyline revolves around Trump impregnating Satan with a demon baby. (And yes, we see Trump’s tiny penis on several occasions. It’s funny every time.)
In a new interview with The New York Times, Parker and Stone explained whey they are leaning so heavily into the MAGA storyline. “It’s not that we got all political,” Parker said. “It’s that politics became pop culture.”
“Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey,” Stone added. “Oh, that’s where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we’re over there.”
This all started just weeks before Comedy Central’s parent company, Paramount, officially merged with Skydance Media as part of an $8 billion deal that required regulatory approval by the Trump administration. This led to big changeups at CBS, including the cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s late night show, and Bari Weiss taking over as the head of CBS News.
“We just had to show our independence somehow,” Stone said. “I know with the Colbert thing and all the Trump stuff, people think certain things, but they’re letting us do whatever we want, to their credit.”
From a ratings perspective, it’s been a huge success: They’ve doubled their numbers from 2023. It’s also generated more critical buzz for the show than they’ve enjoyed in years. “At precarious moments like this, certain things need to be said out loud, even if they’re being packaged with juvenile dick jokes,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall. “When so many of their peers are too scared to offer even a mealy-mouthed version of criticism, Parker, Stone, and South Park just went for it.”
But it doesn’t mean Parker and Stone have finally settled on one side of the political divide. “We’re just very down-the-middle guys,” Parker said. “Any extremists of any kind we make fun of. We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us.”