South Park returned to television on Wednesday after a nearly two-and-a-half-year hiatus, kicking its 27th season off with a hilarious and, as expected, controversial premiere, where the show took on President Donald Trump, showing a depiction of him in bed with series regular, Satan.
Government censorship, the death of wokeness, ChatGPT, and religion in the nation’s public schools were the main topics of the season premiere. After Cartman learns of the cancellation of the radio show where “liberals bitch and whine about stuff,” an assembly is called by series favorite PC Principal, who introduces a guest at an assembly: Jesus Christ. Before the first act break, the town’s parents are rioting and a cut-out of President Trump turns up, as the plot shifts to the White House and a president at odds with Canada and lying naked in bed with Satan, with his small penis on full display.
In a promo clip for the episode, the return of a series favorite is touted in voiceover and PC Principal is introducing fellow series regular, Jesus Christ. The clip featured Cartman saying, “The government can’t cancel the show, I mean, what show are they going to cancel next?”
The episode follows Trump as he finds himself in crisis, as his South Park supporters turn on him over Jesus entering the education system. After shimmying through a White House lawn party, the president finds himself on a call with Randy Marsh (Stan’s dad). The call ends with Trump threatening to sue the people of South Park for $5 billion.
Trump is back in bed with Satan in the following scene, where the devil confronts the president about rumors that his name appears on the notorious “Epstein list.”
“It’s weird that whenever it comes up, you just tell everyone to relax,” Satan says, adding that Trump reminds me a lot of someone else he dates, an allusion to his beau in the 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, in which Satan is romantically involved with Saddam Hussein.
By the end of the episode, the cancelation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert comes up as Jesus pleads with the people of South Park not to mess around with Trump.
The premiere of the 27th season of the enduring animated series, known to cannonball into the pool of politics and pop culture and leave no party or person safe from its scathing satire, comes just as Paramount and creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s company, Park County, reached a new licensing deal. Their agreement allows South Park’s new season to debut as scheduled and for a run of 50 new episodes over five years, which will all debut on Comedy Central.
The companies added an expansive new streaming partnership (via their joint venture South Park Digital Studios), which will bring the South Park library to Paramount+ in the U.S., where it will remain in the HBO Max library, and globally. New episodes will also stream on Paramount+ in the U.S. the day after airing on Comedy Central. The deal was said to be valued at $1.5 billion.
The deal comes after a behind-the-scenes legal dispute between Park County, Paramount Global and Skydance, which is set to assume control of Paramount in the coming weeks. “This merger is a shitshow and it’s fucking up South Park. We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow,” Parker and Stone wrote in a social media post on July 2, after Comedy Central announced that the season 27 premiere had been pushed by a few weeks.
Stone, however said earlier today that he, Parker and their team are grateful and thanked Paramount co-CEO and president of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Chris McCarthy and COO Keyes Hill-Edgar for years of great partnership.
“We are grateful for this opportunity and deeply honored by the trust placed in us. This is about more than a contract — it’s about our commitment to this organization, our teammates, and our fans. We’re focused on building something special and doing whatever it takes to bring championships to this city.”