“South Park” pulled no punches against Donald Trump in its 27th season premiere on Comedy Central Wednesday night, stripping the president naked in a deepfake PSA video.
In the episode, South Park settles a lawsuit with Trump (sound familiar?), requiring the fictional mountain town to produce “pro-Trump messaging.” The final minute of the broadcast, in a departure from “South Park’s” trademark paper cut-out animation, shows one of such patriotic ads.
“When things heat up, who will deliver us from temptation? Donald J. Trump,” reads the narrator, as a realistic-looking Trump stumbles across a desert landscape. “No matter how hot it gets, he’s not afraid to fight for America.” Trump takes off suit, red tie and white underwear, until he collapses on the sand wearing just his loafers and black socks. As he lies down, a small, googly-eyed penis peers over his stomach and says, “I’m Donald J. Trump, and I endorse this message.”
“Trump. His penis is teeny-tiny, but his love for us is large,” the narrator concludes, while the PSA links to the website HeTrumpedUs.com, which confirms “This parody contains synthetic media.” In 2020, “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone established an artificial intelligence entertainment start-up, Deep Voodoo, which leverages deepfake technology to create hyperrealistic depictions of people.
Elsewhere in the Season 27 premiere of “South Park,” Cartman mourns the cancellation of his favorite radio program, NPR, and Randy tries to prevent Jesus from taking over the elementary school. Meanwhile, President Trump is too busy arresting and suing his enemies to care. In the Oval Office, Trump argues with the Canadian Prime Minister, threatening to bomb Canada “like I did Iraq.” (“Iran, Iraq, what the hell’s the difference? Relax guy!” Trump yells.) Later, Trump cozies up in bed with Satan, insinuating he wants to have sex. “You haven’t been working! You’ve been doing your stupid memes and just fucking around,” the Devil sneers at Trump, to which the president responds, “Come on Satan, you know you can’t resist this!” Trump then pulls down the sheets and reveals a poorly endowed manhood. Satan then says, “I can’t even see anything, it’s so small.”
The scorching episode of “South Park” comes amid highly publicized drama at Paramount Global, the parent company of Comedy Central. Earlier this month, Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million in a settlement after the president sued the company, claiming that CBS News deceptively edited a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris leading up to the 2024 election. Many figures in the media world viewed the settlement as a kowtow to the president as Paramount seeks FCC approval for its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.
In fact, when this episode of “South Park” was pushed by two weeks, from July 9 to July 23, the comedy series issued an expletive-laden statement on social media, blaming the impending Paramount-Skydance merger for the delay. “This merger is a shit show and it’s fucking up ‘South Park,’” said Parker and Stone. The day of the Season 27 premiere, the creators announced they resolved their standoff with Paramount and had signed a five-year extension of their overall deal worth approximately $1.5 billion. Under the terms of the deal, “South Park” received an order for 50 new episodes, plus all 26 previous seasons will be available to stream on Paramount+ for the first time.
Love Film & TV?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in music, film and TV in Australia and abroad.
From Variety US