Rightwing media mouthpieces and ICE get both barrels in South Park’s latest zeitgeist-capturing satire. You can feel Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s disdain in every frame
T
wo weeks ago, South Park kicked off its 27th season with one of its angriest, most politically daring episodes. The animated sitcom, long a magnet for controversy, incurred the wrath of the current US administration for its brutal and graphic send-up of Donald Trump as a petty, micro-penised dictator, as well as parent company Paramount’s cowardly capitulations to him.
Creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker received immediate backlash not only from online conservative fans (who make up a good portion of their audience) but the White House itself, which released a statement calling South Park hypocritical and irrelevant. That latter charge was especially poignant, given that Stone and Parker just inked a new deal with Paramount for five more seasons, plus streaming rights, to the tune of $1.5bn.
Tensions have only risen in the two weeks since the premiere aired. During that time, the show released several stills from the follow-up episode, which widens its sights from Trump to his media mouthpieces and foot soldiers. Figures from both groups – rightwing activist Charlie Kirk and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – boastfully shared these images on X, with the latter sarcastically thanking South Park for helping them in their recruiting efforts. (The show responded on X by asking DHS “Wait, so we ARE relevant? #eatabagofdicks”.)
