South Park's 'Satanic' Takedown Of Donald Trump Goes Viral
American animated television series South Park has returned with one of its most provocative episodes to date, taking direct aim at Donald Trump and, by extension, its own network's parent company, Paramount Global. The season 27 premiere's depiction of Trump was reminiscent of the show's earlier Saddam Hussein portrayal.
The episode arrives at a time when Paramount is under scrutiny for its recent $16-million settlement with Trump, who sued the company over an edited interview on CBS's 60 Minutes. The settlement came just as the media giant was seeking regulatory approval for an $8 billion merger, a move critics have reportedly labelled a capitulation.
In this backdrop, South Park pulled no punches. The episode opens with Cartman lamenting Trump's decision to strip funding from NPR, ironically complaining the government “can't cancel a show.”
Trump's animated counterpart is introduced shortly after. The episode shows Trump literally in bed with Satan, his lover, using real photos of the US President awkwardly superimposed onto an animated body.
It is the same treatment Saddam Hussein got in the 1999 South Park movie, with Satan even saying that Trump and Saddam were “exactly alike,” according to a report in USA Today. In the episode, Trump is portrayed as a thin-skinned bully threatening legal action against anyone who crosses him.
One of the episode's most pointed scenes features the fictional version of 60 Minutes, whose hosts visibly panic as they report on Trump. They utter lines like “Oh boy, oh s***, oh God” while a ticking time bomb plays on screen, a direct reference to the lawsuit that led to the real-life CBS settlement, The Guardian reported.
The plot centres on the supposed “death of wokeness” and Trump's push to bring Christianity back into schools, sending Jesus to physically appear at the boys' classroom, reported USA Today. Jesus warns the townspeople, saying, “You saw what happened to CBS. You want to end up like Colbert? Just shut up or we're going to be cancelled.”
The episode ends with a sequence featuring a deepfake version of Trump wandering through a desert, disrobing. As he collapses in the sand naked, his animated genitalia, complete with eyes and a mouth, delivers the line, “I'm Donald J Trump and I approve this message.” A voiceover adds, “His penis is teeny tiny, but his love for us is large.”
The timing is complex. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are currently in the middle of a $1.5-billion deal with Paramount+, giving the streamer exclusive rights to the show for the next five years. That places the company in a difficult position, whether to stand by its flagship satire or appease a powerful political figure who could obstruct its business ambitions.
A day after airing the episode, Parker and Stone offered a cheeky response to the backlash. “We're terribly sorry,” Parker said with a sly grin during a Comic-Con animation panel alongside Stone, “Beavis and Butt-Head” creator Mike Judge, and “Digiman” creator Andy Samberg, according to USA Today.
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