This season, South Park has drawn attention for repeatedly targeting President Donald Trump and his administration. In an interview with The New York Times, however, co-creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker clarified that this wasn’t intentional, but rather a byproduct of the times.
“It’s not that we got all political,” Parker said. “It’s that politics became pop culture.” Stone added that they were also “attracted to” the idea that speaking out against the administration had become “taboo.”
According to the creative duo, they didn’t decide to take on the US president until after their deal with Paramount was delayed by a merger between Paramount and Skydance that required the Trump administration’s approval.
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“We just had to show our independence somehow,” Stone explained. Parker added that the Trump parody was meant to be a one-off: “We basically start with a song and we don’t know where the album’s going to take us.”
And while Stone and Parker have frequently discussed returning to their regular style of programming, they realized there is “no getting away” from MAGA.
“It’s like the government is just in your face everywhere you look,” Parker said. “Whether it’s the actual government or whether it is all the podcasters and the TikToks and the YouTubes and all of that, and it’s just all political and political because it’s more than political. It’s pop culture.”
The ratings success likely factored into their decision-making as well, with viewership over the past four months more than doubling South Park’s previous season in 2023.
According to Stone, they haven’t gotten any pushback from Skydance founder David Ellison, who took over as chairman and CEO of Paramount after the two companies merged in August. A recent Variety report noted that Ellison has helped push Paramount toward cultivating closer ties with the Trump administration.
Parker also emphasized that he and Stone are still “down-the-middle guys,” unafraid to satirize both sides of the political spectrum. “Any extremists of any kind we make fun of. We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us.”
For more on South Park, read our own Jonah Krueger’s essay on how the show finally got Gen Z to take notice. Plus, read our review of the first two episodes of Season 28 (Season 27 ran just five episodes): “Twisted Christian” and Halloween special “The Woman in the Hat.”
