South Park co-creator 'terribly sorry' after depicting naked Trump in bed with the devil
"We're terribly sorry," Parker said, followed by a long, deadpan-comic stare.
Parker was asked for his reaction to the fracas as he sat on the stage at San Diego's Comic-Con International at the beginning of a Comedy Central animation panel that also included his South Park partner Matt Stone, Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge, and actor Andy Samberg, who co-created the animated Digman!
Earlier in the day, the White House issued a statement on the 27th season premiere, which aired Wednesday night.
"This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention," White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in the statement. "President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country's history — and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak."
WATCH | A clip from South Park's premiere (warning: contains graphic language and images):
Later in the panel, Parker said they did get a note from their producers about the episode.
"They said, 'OK, but we're gonna blur the penis,' and I said, 'No you're not gonna blur the penis,'" Parker said.
The premiere also took aim at Paramount and its $16 million US recent settlement with Trump just hours after Parker and Stone signed a five-year deal with the company for 50 new episodes and streaming rights to previous seasons. The Los Angeles Times and other outlets report the deal was worth $1.5 billion US.
'Do you really want to end up like Colbert?'
In the episode, Trump sues the town of South Park when its residents challenge the presence of Jesus Christ — the actual person — in its elementary school.
Jesus tells them they ought to settle.
"You guys saw what happened to CBS? Yeah, well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount," Jesus says. "Do you really want to end up like Colbert?"
CBS and parent Paramount Global cancelled Stephen Colbert's Late Show last week, days after Colbert sharply criticized Paramount's settlement of Trump's lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview.
CBS and Paramount executives said it was a financial decision to axe The Late Show.
The efficiency of South Park production, and the brinksmanship of its creators, allow it to stay incredibly current for an animated series.
"I don't know what next week's episode is going to be," Parker said at Comic-Con. "Even just three days ago, we were like, 'I don't know if people are going to like this.'"
WATCH | Why was Colbert cancelled?
Why CBS axed The Late Show: Ratings or politics?
6 days ago
Questions are swirling over whether the cancellation of Stephen Colbert's Late Show was politically motivated or purely financial. Colbert alluded to a 'bribe' tied to a Trump lawsuit and a corporate deal.
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The Province
2 hours ago
- The Province
How Trump could complicate Canada's 2026 World Cup hosting plans
'No one wants to go to the World Cup to watch some soccer games and then end up in jail,' says professor of sports economy Published Jul 27, 2025 • Last updated 7 hours ago • 5 minute read U.S. President Donald Trump celebrates with members of Chelsea FC after they won the FIFA Club World Cup in July. U.S. immigration policy under Trump is raising concern about travel, safety and cross-border cooperation for the co-hosted 2026 FIFA World Cup. Photo by David Ramos / Getty Images With less than a year to go until the 2026 World Cup, political tensions and U.S. policy threaten to pose problems as Canada, the United States and Mexico prepare to co-host the tournament. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Next year's FIFA World Cup will be the biggest ever, with the three countries hosting a record 48 teams. Between June 11 and July 19, they will play 104 matches, most of them in the U.S. With millions of fans expected to cross borders to attend the games, U.S. President Donald Trump's harsh immigration policies — which include travel bans on some countries, immigration raids and mass deportations — are generating anxiety. 'This is all being driven by the United States. And we're entirely the guilty party here,' said Victor Matheson, a professor at College of Holy Cross in Massachusetts who specializes in sports economics. 'You could have significant immigration problems with fans and players going across borders.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The U.S. has travel bans in place for 12 countries and restrictions in place for seven, and is considering banning travellers from another 36 countries. Though there are exemptions for athletes, staff and families, the unpredictability of Trump's administration means no one knows for certain what kind of rules might be in place by the time the tournament starts. No one wants to go to the World Cup to watch some soccer games and then end up in jail. Economist Andrew Zimbalist, who wrote a book on the economics of hosting the World Cup, said Trump has the ability to make it difficult for people to travel, but it's not clear whether he will actually do so. 'I think probably Trump himself might not have the answers because … he responds very impetuously to changes in his environment,' he said. Concerns about visas or political opposition to Trump might lead some soccer fans to decide not to attend at all, while others opt to attend the games in Canada instead, Zimbalist suggested. But he also pointed out that the quarter, semifinals and final are all taking place in the U.S. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. A spokesperson for Canadian Heritage said Canada could see a million international visitors during the tournament. 'Given the tri-national nature of the event, it is anticipated that international and domestic travellers will move back and forth between Canada and the United States. The focus will continue to be on the flow of movement, the safety of travellers and the security of the borders,' the spokesperson said. A spokesperson for the Canada Border Services Agency said the agency is working closely with federal government departments, host cities and FIFA 'in the safety and security planning for this international event.' How much do premium Toronto, Vancouver FIFA World Cup tickets cost right now? Here's what we know Matheson said fans — particularly those from countries that have found themselves in Trump's crosshairs — have good reasons to be worried. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I would be very concerned about planning a vacation that has you travelling from Mexico or from Canada into the United States and back. I don't think that you can guarantee that vacation of a lifetime is actually going to be there for you to actually take,' he said. He said it's one thing to be denied entry, another to end up in jail and deported — potentially to a prison in El Salvador. 'No one wants to go to the World Cup to watch some soccer games and then end up in jail,' he said. Trump's moves to impose tariffs on much of the world, including Canada, could also affect the World Cup. Matheson offered the example of someone who makes jerseys for a country's team who would want to ship those jerseys across the border with the team. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Tariffs make that type of inventory management pretty challenging,' he said. Tim Elcombe is a professor at Wilfrid Laurier University whose areas of expertise include sports, politics and international affairs. He said 'there was a sense that having the event in Canada, the United States and Mexico would almost be a bit of a calming of the political waters,' as the cup returned to Western countries. Instead, he said, the 2026 tournament may be even more politically charged than the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Canada's Alphonso Davies scores on a header during a game against Croatia at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images Canada is co-hosting one of world's biggest sporting events with a country whose president has instigated a trade war and threatened annexation. Canadians have cut travel to the U.S. and stopped buying American products — and it's not clear what all of that might mean for the World Cup. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. While Vancouver and Toronto will host some games, 'really this is an American-centric competition,' Elcombe said. 'So how will Canadians feel about this? Will we get behind it? Will it become the event I think they were hoping it would be?' In early July, labour and human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, wrote to FIFA president Gianni Infantino to say U.S. policies under Trump pose a 'serious threat' to individuals, especially non-citizens. The letter accused FIFA of ignoring 'the clear evidence of the significant deterioration of the rights climate in the United States.' Elcombe said while the United States is likely to take the brunt of scrutiny, Canada is not immune. 'Canada is going to have to be prepared for a very critical eye in terms of focus on some of the issues in Canada from a human rights perspective, because I think they will be exposed,' he said, citing Canada's relationship with Indigenous Peoples as one example. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. MacIntosh Ross, a fellow at the Scott McCain and Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health at Saint Mary's University, said Canada should put pressure on the U.S. government 'to make sure that things happen in a safe or as safe a manner as possible.' 'The Canadian organizers and the Canadian government need to be very clear about their expectations for their partners in this World Cup and reiterate them and state them over and over again,' he said. Elcombe noted Infantino, who has 'very much established himself as a friend and supporter of President Trump,' could be a key player in determining how the coming months unfold. U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and FIFA president Gianni Infantino at the 2025 Club World Cup final at MetLife Stadium on July 13, 2025 in East Rutherford, N.J. Photo by Alex Grimm / Getty Images It's difficult to predict what Trump might do, Zimbalist said. If there are political issues in the United States that he wants to distract people from, 'you can see him doing crazier and crazier things internationally to get people's minds off of what's actually happening.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But Trump also has shown that he cares about the World Cup and looking good as he hosts the tournament. 'I think he does care about image and he does care about being on the world stage,' Zimbalist said. 'So I can see that being a significant deterrent, actually.' Read More Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here. Vancouver Canucks Vancouver Whitecaps News BC Lions Vancouver Whitecaps
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97
Musician Tom Lehrer sits beside the piano in his house in Santa Cruz, Calif., on April 21, 2000. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File) LOS ANGELES — Tom Lehrer, the popular and erudite song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97. Longtime friend David Herder said Lehrer died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He did not specify a cause of death. Lehrer had remained on the math faculty of the University of California at Santa Cruz well into his late 70s. In 2020, he even turned away from his own copyright, granting the public permission to use his lyrics in any format without any fee in return. A Harvard prodigy (he had earned a math degree from the institution at age 18), Lehrer soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. His songs included 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,' 'The Old Dope Peddler' (set to a tune reminiscent of 'The Old Lamplighter'), 'Be Prepared' (in which he mocked the Boy Scouts) and 'The Vatican Rag,' in which Lehrer, an atheist, poked at the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. (Sample lyrics: 'Get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries. Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect.') Accompanying himself on piano, he performed the songs in a colorful style reminiscent of such musical heroes as Gilbert and Sullivan and Stephen Sondheim, the latter a lifelong friend. Lehrer was often likened to such contemporaries as Allen Sherman and Stan Freberg for his comic riffs on culture and politics and he was cited by Randy Newman and 'Weird Al' Jankovic among others as an influence. He mocked the forms of music he didn't like (modern folk songs, rock 'n' roll and modern jazz), laughed at the threat of nuclear annihilation and denounced discrimination. But he attacked in such an erudite, even polite, manner that almost no one objected. 'Tom Lehrer is the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded,' musicologist Barry Hansen once said. Hansen co-produced the 2000 boxed set of Lehrer's songs, 'The Remains of Tom Lehrer,' and had featured Lehrer's music for decades on his syndicated 'Dr. Demento' radio show. Lehrer's body of work was actually quite small, amounting to about three dozen songs. 'When I got a funny idea for a song, I wrote it. And if I didn't, I didn't,' Lehrer told The Associated Press in 2000 during a rare interview. 'I wasn't like a real writer who would sit down and put a piece of paper in the typewriter. And when I quit writing, I just quit. ... It wasn't like I had writer's block.' He'd gotten into performing accidentally when he began to compose songs in the early 1950s to amuse his friends. Soon he was performing them at coffeehouses around Cambridge, Massachusetts, while he remained at Harvard to teach and obtain a master's degree in math. He cut his first record in 1953, 'Songs by Tom Lehrer,' which included 'I Wanna Go Back to Dixie,' lampooning the attitudes of the Old South, and the 'Fight Fiercely, Harvard,' suggesting how a prissy Harvard blueblood might sing a football fight song. After a two-year stint in the Army, Lehrer began to perform concerts of his material in venues around the world. In 1959, he released another LP called 'More of Tom Lehrer' and a live recording called 'An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer,' nominated for a Grammy for best comedy performance (musical) in 1960. But around the same time, he largely quit touring and returned to teaching math, though he did some writing and performing on the side. Lehrer said he was never comfortable appearing in public. 'I enjoyed it up to a point,' he told The AP in 2000. 'But to me, going out and performing the concert every night when it was all available on record would be like a novelist going out and reading his novel every night.' He did produce a political satire song each week for the 1964 television show 'That Was the Week That Was,' a groundbreaking topical comedy show that anticipated 'Saturday Night Live' a decade later. He released the songs the following year in an album titled 'That Was the Year That Was.' The material included 'Who's Next?' that ponders which government will be the next to get the nuclear bomb ... perhaps Alabama? (He didn't need to tell his listeners that it was a bastion of segregation at the time.) 'Pollution' takes a look at the then-new concept that perhaps rivers and lakes should be cleaned up. He also wrote songs for the 1970s educational children's show 'The Electric Company.' He told AP in 2000 that hearing from people who had benefited from them gave him far more satisfaction than praise for any of his satirical works. His songs were revived in the 1980 musical revue 'Tomfoolery' and he made a rare public appearance in London in 1998 at a celebration honoring that musical's producer, Cameron Mackintosh. Lehrer was born in 1928, in New York City, the son of a successful necktie designer. He recalled an idyllic childhood on Manhattan's Upper West Side that included attending Broadway shows with his family and walking through Central Park day or night. After skipping two grades in school, he entered Harvard at 15 and, after receiving his master's degree, he spent several years unsuccessfully pursuing a doctorate. 'I spent many, many years satisfying all the requirements, as many years as possible, and I started on the thesis,' he once said. 'But I just wanted to be a grad student, it's a wonderful life. That's what I wanted to be, and unfortunately, you can't be a Ph.D. and a grad student at the same time.' He began to teach part-time at Santa Cruz in the 1970s, mainly to escape the harsh New England winters. From time to time, he acknowledged, a student would enroll in one of his classes based on knowledge of his songs. 'But it's a real math class,' he said at the time. 'I don't do any funny theorems. So those people go away pretty quickly.' Former Associated Press writer John Rogers contributed to this story. Rogers retired from The AP in 2021. Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press
CTV News
2 hours ago
- CTV News
Qatari plane that could be new Air Force One will be ‘unconditional' gift to the Pentagon, agreement says
A 13-year-old private Boeing aircraft that U.S. President Donald Trump toured on July 26 to check out new hardware and technology features, and highlight the aircraft maker's delay in delivering updated versions of the Air Force One presidential aircraft. Ben Curtis/AP/FILE via CNN Newsource U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his Qatari counterpart have signed an agreement outlining the terms of Qatar's 'unconditional donation' of a Boeing jet to the Pentagon, confirming that the U.S. will pay nothing for the plane, according to a copy of the memorandum of understanding reviewed by CNN. The agreement, signed by Hegseth and Qatar's deputy prime minister and minister of state for defense affairs, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, on July 7, says the plane — which is expected to be used by President Donald Trump as Air Force One once it is upgraded — is a 'bona fide gift' to the Defense Department. 'This donation is made in good faith and in the spirit of cooperation and mutual support between the parties,' the document says. 'Nothing in this MoU is, or shall be interpreted or construed as, an offer, promise, or acceptance of any form of bribery, undue influence, or corrupt practice.' The memorandum, while signed by both parties, could still be tweaked ahead of a formal announcement, a source familiar with the matter said. The aircraft is parked in San Antonio awaiting upgrades, CNN has reported. CNN has reached out to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Air Force and the Qatari Embassy for comment. The MOU was first reported by The Washington Post. The transfer of the jet from Qatar to the Trump administration sparked a political firestorm in the spring as Democrats and several influential Republicans, including supporters of the president, said they opposed the potential deal on ethics grounds. It also caught Air Force officials off guard, CNN has reported. While the Air Force was exploring options for getting a replacement plane for Air Force One faster than Boeing could deliver the new jets it had been contracted to build, the Air Force was initially under the impression that any transaction with the Qataris would involve a sale of the plane — not a donation, defense officials said. But after news of the U.S.-Qatar discussions became public, Trump repeatedly described the plane as a 'GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE.' The memorandum signed by Hegseth and Al-Thani emphasizes the transfer of the plane is 'unconditional' and that it is 'not connected or otherwise related to any governmental decision and, as such, is not made, offered, promised or accepted because of any past, present or future official act or decision and is not intended to obtain or retain any improper advantage or to influence any official decision.' But beyond the ethical and legal questions, retrofitting and installing the required security and communications equipment on a second-hand plane from another government, even a friendly one, is a monumental task. To fund the upgrades, the Air Force has sought to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from the vastly overbudget Sentinel program to an unspecified classified project, according to sources familiar with a congressional notification about the transfer. Sentinel is a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile system that is being developed to replace the U.S.' aging Minuteman III missiles. Officially, the price tag to retrofit the Qatari plane for use by the president is classified, the Air Force previously told CNN. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told lawmakers last month that it will 'probably' cost less than $400 million. An addendum to the Defense Department-Qatar agreement reviewed by CNN says the Air Force 'is in the process of finalizing the transfer of registration and will immediately begin execution of the required modifications.'
