3d ago

South Park targets Paramount after signing $1.5bn deal and skewers Trump: ‘He can do anything to anyone’

www.theguardian.com

Show begins 27th season covering Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount and cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show, depicting Trump in bed with Satan

South Park has kicked off its 27th season with a blistering episode taking aim at Donald Trump and its newly minted parent company, Paramount, just one day after signing a $1.5bn deal with the network.

The premiere episode, “Sermon on the Mount,” sees Trump in bed with series regular Satan and covers topics including Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount, the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, wokeness, Trump’s attacks on Canada and more.

Unlike other characters, Trump is depicted as an actual photo of the US president on an animated body. There is also an extended scene featuring a hyper-realistic, deepfake video of Trump, completely naked, walking in a desert. There are repeated suggestions that Trump’s genitalia are small.

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3d ago

South Park targets Paramount after signing $1.5bn deal and skewers Trump: ‘He can do anything to anyone’

www.theguardian.com /tv-and-radio/2025/jul/24/south-park-trump-paramount

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70 comments

Fuck off, South Park. Trey and Matt are as responsible as anyone for the "both sides are flawed therefore both sides are equally bad" bullshit that gave a generation a pass to try to play off intellectual incuriosity and cynical laziness as some kind of principled position.
- This is the 3rd comment I've read about South Park being "both sides".
  No shit they are both sides. Everyone is fair game for them, no ones safe from satire or mocking. It's the whole point of the show.
  
  That said they were duped by the "both sides are flawed" rhetoric for longer than they should have been. A Gen X myopia.
  I forget which episode it was where they made it clear they understood they'd been duped, but it was after J6 as I recall.
  
  It rings hollow when one side is the usual shitty greedy politicians and the other is for fascism.
  
  So in your opinion; greedy shitty politicians should be free from criticism?
  
  Nope! They should be criticized without acting like they're just like the fascists.
  
  No shit they are both sides. Everyone is fair game for them, no ones safe from satire or mocking. It’s the whole point of the show.
  They pick who to mock and how thoroughly. I haven't watched the show in probably a decade, but up until this they were using Mr Garrison to portray "Trump".
  Theoretically, nobody's safe, but in practice anything left of GWB is portrayed as a whiny baby, a stupid hippy, or whatever.
  At least they seem to realize that "left wokeism" isn't the top threat in the country anymore, even if they were suckers for buying that it was in the first place.
  Edit: I don't know what to tell you guys, they even have characters in this episode that are like "just because wokeism went too far in one direction doesn't mean we should go too far in the other". They really do seem to believe that because liberals are annoying to them that they're just as bad as concentration camp Trump.
  
  they even have characters in this episode that are like "just because wokeism went too far in one direction doesn't mean we should go too far in the other".
  This sentiment drives me up the fucking wall... No, it didn't go too far. Shut the fuck up.
  
  in practice anything left of GWB is portrayed as a whiny baby, a stupid hippy, or whatever.
  Yeah, no shit... they're making fun... they aren't going to portray anyone in a good way. That's the point. Bring it on!
  Have you considered the way they portray anything right of GWB? If you just want to laugh at others but get mad when it makes fun of characters you relate to, that's a you problem.
  they even have characters in this episode that are like "just because wokeism went too far in one direction doesn't mean we should go too far in the other"
  Said by their stereotype redneck character that uses slurs every line... use your brain.
  
  Have you considered the way they portray anything right of GWB?
  Yeah, like the loggers clearing out the jungle. They portray them as heroes. Or the one where the tobacco companies are portrayed as heroes.
  It's not out and out libertarian propaganda because I think there's a lot more emphasis on the jokes. But it's pretty fucking close.
  
  like the loggers clearing out the jungle. They portray them as heroes. Or the one where the tobacco companies are portrayed as heroes.
  🤦 Watching lemmy users discover how a joke works in realtime. Amazing. Are you familiar with the concept of satire? It's a really tough one to grasp, apparently
  
  Nothing about their comment implies they didn't get the joke.
- Yes. "Everything is fair game" except for the narcissism of their own Libertarian party.
- "both sides are flawed". Clearly you don't watch South park.
  
  Giant douche vs turd sandwich?
  
  I need to rewatch the episode to be sure but is it not commenting on how American elections are voting against the worst of two bad options instead of voting for a good candidate? Not "both sides are the same"?
  
  I seem to remember it being a disappointing bothsiderist thing.
  
  I feel like I remember Stan giving a monologue specifically about having to pick between two bad choices though...
- Did you hate the Colbert Report for being too conservative too?
  
  Satire is just really confusing for some
  
  Who are the heroes? The people who watch this show
- It's not the neoliberals fault they sold FDR's party to billionaires! The only ones to blame here are people who make cartoons and pointed it out!
  Because no one would have ever noticed shit sucks unless a couple stoners made a fucking cartoon about it....
- Thanks for letting everyone know you've never watched South Park. Your comment can be ignored.
- This is how I know you have either never watched South Park, or that you entirely misunderstand the show.
  
  Trey and Matt were vocal libertarians for a long time and only recently realized it's a morally bankrupt political position.
  For example they mocked Gore for warning about global warming. There was no "both sides are to be mocked" in that episode. It was, "Gore is a complete idiot." That was season 10. 12 years later they realized their mistake and made an apology episode where they showed Gore was right all along.
  So yeah, good for them for finally coming around but the OP isn't wrong that they lead their libertarian mob towards the cliff.
  
  And their apology episode was very much 'we would have believed you if you weren't so annoying, geez, it's still your fault'
  
  Penn Jillette, who I respect for being a caring and thoughtful person, also took way too long to realize Libertarians were neither.
- God, you dumb
  
  Just because you can't understand it doesn't mean it's dumb.
  
  Do you think you have some kind of "gotcha" here or something?
  
  Got tired of trying to explain the logic to people who couldn't or wouldn't understand it. For the ones who can, this image is all it takes.

70 comments