Graffiti in downtown Los Angeles inspired by South Park's new episode on Trump.
After a two-year break, the new season of South Park premiered on Wednesday, July 23, seven months into the Trump regime’s fascist onslaught and the developing resistance from millions of people in the U.S.—and creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone basically threw in on the side of the people, with an emperor-has-no-clothes (literally) episode titled, “Sermon on the Mount.” What makes the episode even more shocking to some is that in 2017 Parker said they would stop making Trump jokes because they were bored of them.
Rather than recount the whole episode here, let’s just say that Parker and Stone violate a great many taboos—political and otherwise—and ridicule a lot of people, institutions and beliefs that badly need ridicule… all in the service of going after Trump and, perhaps, getting inside his head. South Park has been in negotiations with Paramount (the same mega-corporation which cancelled CBS’s anti-Trump The Late Show with Stephen Colbert as they were getting approval from the Trump administration for a merger with Skydance Media). In line with South Park’s style, much of the humor is crass; but in this case they mainly hit the mark, and it’s a breath of fresh air. Worth noting, they take special aim at the capitulationist logic that is all too prevalent today, including but not limited to Paramount.
The South Park creators said they could not get their contract agreement because of interference of the merger and were forced to postpone the premiere episode of the new season for two weeks. The agreement for $1.5 billion was finally signed on July 21. In the week before Episode 1 dropped, the creators completely rewrote the episode.