They’ve depicted the president’s privates. They’ve shown him in flagrante with the devil. The makers of the foul-mouthed US cartoon have certainly thrown down the gauntlet …
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t hasn’t been a particularly great few weeks for Paramount. Thanks to its decision to pay Donald Trump $16m rather than fight a lawsuit that many predicted it would win – a move that happened just as they needed federal approval of an $8bn merger – all hell has broken loose.
Stephen Colbert (whose Late Show airs on Paramount-owned CBS) called the settlement a “big fat bribe”, precipitating the cancellation of his show. In response, Jon Stewart (whose Daily Show airs on Paramount-owned Comedy Central) aired a segment in which he and a gospel choir led the studio audience through a repeated chant of “fuck you” directed at his paymasters. And now, in what might just be the worst possible timing for both Paramount and Trump, South Park is back.
Considering that South Park has always been known for its unvarnished satire, and for an extraordinarily responsive production process that allows it to comment on events almost until the moment of broadcast, the first episode of its 27th season always had the potential to sting. And since that first episode – entitled Sermon on the ’Mount – is a scorching critique of both Paramount’s cowardice and Trump’s eagerness to ride roughshod over his own voters, sting it does. Trump himself is a character, as is his talking micropenis. Even for a show like South Park, which has often been defined by its anger, this may well go down as its most furious ever.
