Paramount Has a $1.5 Billion 'South Park' Problem
In an interview with Vanity Fair in September, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone all but swore off satirizing Donald Trump, noting 'I don't know what more we could possibly say.'
We found out what more they could say yesterday, in brutal fashion. The same day Paramount announced a five-year streaming deal with South Park , including 50 new episodes, the show's 27th season premiere mercilessly mocked both president Trump and the network for capitulating to his demands, settling with him over the 60 Minutes lawsuit, and canceling The Late Show With Stephen Colbert . The episode, called 'Sermon on the Mount,' did not hold back on crass jokes aimed at Trump, showing him with a 'teeny tiny' penis both in animation and as a deepfake, and portraying him as Satan's lover in a style reminiscent of the gay Saddam Hussein character from the 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
The episode aired as Paramount is set to merge with media company Skydance. Politicians and media personalities alike are speculating that its eagerness to keep Trump happy is motivated by gaining the US Federal Communications Commission's approval of the deal, which was made official Thursday evening. Before being fired, Colbert, a late-night ratings leader, described Paramount's $16-million settlement with Trump as a 'big fat bribe' and on Monday's show he said 'the gloves are off' while telling the president 'go fuck yourself.' Between Colbert's remaining season, network colleague Jon Stewart's scathing indictment of both Paramount and CBS, the new South Park deal, and a transformative merger, the company appears to be looking at a period where some of its biggest stars are openly hostile to both it and the president.
'I welcome Skydance's commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network,' FCC Chairman Brendan Carr—who wrote Project 2025's chapter on the telecommunications agency—reportedly said in a statement Thursday supporting the merger. 'Today's decision also marks another step forward in the FCC's efforts to eliminate invidious forms of DEI.'
Paramount did not respond to WIRED's requests for comment. In a statement emailed to WIRED, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers derided South Park as irrelevant and derided 'left' fans who liked the season opener.
'The Left's hypocrisy truly has no end—for years they have come after South Park for what they labeled as 'offense' [sic] content, but suddenly they are praising the show. Just like the creators of South Park , the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows,' she says.
'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. 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.'
Paramount's press release announcing the South Park deal—reported to be worth $1.5 billion—describes the show as 'one of the most valuable TV franchises in the world.' It also praises Parker and Stone as 'fearless' and 'boundary-pushing.'
But the roasting of Trump in 'Sermon on the Mount' was also something else: mean. Deeply, devastatingly mean.
After being accused by the Canadian Prime Minister of being akin to a 'dictator from the Middle East,' Trump lashes out at a White House artist for painting him with a small penis. The small dick theme is repeated throughout the episode, with numerous portraits of him humping things and animals and Satan telling him, 'I can't even see anything, it's so small.' Trump petulantly threatens to sue him, and the artist, and Jesus, and the entire town—basically anyone who pisses him off. It's also implied that he's on the Epstein list.
'Do you really want to end up like Colbert?' Jesus asks the townspeople, who are pushing back against forced Christianity in their kids' school. He calls out Paramount by name, saying, 'we're going to get canceled, you idiots.'
The town strikes a deal with the president, forcing them to do pro-Trump messaging—a nod to Trump's claim on Truth Social that Paramount's 'new owners' have agreed to give him $20 million in advertising and public service announcements in addition to the settlement. (Paramount told Deadline the settlement doesn't include PSAs and said it 'has no knowledge of any promises or commitments made to President Trump other than those set forth in the settlement proposed by the mediator and accepted by the parties.') The show is then interrupted by a PSA, where a deepfake Trump stumbles around naked through the desert; this time, his genitals have a pair of googly eyes attached. 'Trump: his penis is teeny, tiny. But his love for us is large,' a narrator says. The ad ends with 'He Gets Us. All Of Us'—'He Gets Us' is also the slogan used for a Christian ad campaign.
You can argue that portraying Trump as a narcissistic manchild and focusing so heavily on his appearance is low-brow. But Nick Marx, an associate professor of film and media studies at Colorado State University, says it's also a refreshing change from the defiant messaging of Colbert and others.
'It's fucking funny as hell that they seek to sexually humiliate Trump,' he claims, saying it's an effective troll of what he believes to be the president's 'vanity and insecurity.'
'I think that is the card to play … And I am frustrated that more of the comedians that I love on the left haven't leaned into that really harsh attack of him.'
Critics of the episode on X issued complaints that 'the left took over south park,' and 'this show is for libtards' while others outright expressed fear that Trump will get the show canceled, saying'South Park was good while it lasted.'
But making small dick jokes isn't woke—it's exactly that type of humor, along with an affinity for saying the r-word and racial and homophobic slurs that helped cultivate South Park 's right-wing audience. Marx thinks that's a good thing for liberals.
'Right-wing humorists, the Joe Rogans and Andrew Schulzes of the world, they're the ones occupying this offensive free speech space. And so anything that the left can do to reclaim artists like Parker and Stone would be a benefit to them.'
In a meeting Thursday, the FCC's Carr said he's 'not a ' South Park ' watcher,' NBC News reports. He also said Trump is against 'a handful of national programmers' who 'control and dictate to the American what the narrative is, what they can say, what they can think.' But, while many of his attacks have focused on news organizations themselves—ABC, CBS, NPR, even the Wall Street Journal—censoring cherished entertainers could rile up members of the public who frankly may not care that much about the plight of journalists.
That's something that Paramount too, has to contend with now.
'They just inked this $1.5 billion deal that, to me, is a gesture of full and unequivocal support from Paramount,' Marx says. 'The syndication and streaming licenses that South Park draws are worth much, much more than they've been paying Parker and Stone over the years.' He says he wouldn't be surprised if Parker and Stone got away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
But, as the episode itself indicated, Trump has been relentless with his lawsuit targets and openly bragged about getting Colbert fired and keeping the media in line.
Michael Sozan, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says he could absolutely see Paramount trying to tone down South Park 's content, considering that they settled on 'the flimsiest of lawsuits,' predicated on the claim that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make it more flattering to her. But he said doing so could 'wake up a sleeping giant': the public. The streamer has also promised Trump it will cancel its DEI initiatives.
'A lot of American people are starting to be more and more aware of how Trump is trying to censor reporters, but now also just entertainment shows that he disagrees with it. That is something that authoritarians do,' he says. People could respond with outrage or boycotts.
But he cautions that's not Paramount's only problem, as it clinches the $8 billion Skydance merger.
Already Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have written a letter to Skydance CEO David Ellison, seeking answers about the 'secret side deal with President Trump,' that allegedly offered him future PSAs. Trump has called Ellison's father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, a 'friend.' California officials are also looking into whether the company engaged in bribery related to the deal, as Semafor reported.
'If there's a Democratic administration and a Democratic Department of Justice starting three years from now, or Democratic House or Senate, Paramount also has opened itself up to the possibility of lots of investigations,' Sozan says.
It's fascinating that South Park and late-night comics are issuing some of the harshest rebukes of Trump, though Sozan says satire—and joy—are considered by scholars to be an effective tool against authoritarians who 'want to keep people depressed and in line.'
He thinks the backlash over Paramount's mounting controversies could be a genuine 'cultural flashpoint.'
So far, there's no indication that Paramount plans to censor South Park . Then again, the Skydance merger has only just been greenlit.
At the end of the premiere, Cartman and Butters, seemingly stand-ins for Parker and Stone, try to kill themselves because Cartman is depressed that 'woke is dead' and he has nothing to make fun of anymore.
'I think I might be going,' Butters says. 'Yep, sweet death is about to come. I love you man,' Cartman replies.
For fans of the show—and free speech in general—let's hope that's not true. But just in case, you should probably watch that episode now.
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