The creators of South Park have fired back at the White House following backlash over a controversial joke in the show’s latest episode that mocked Donald Trump’s genitalia.
The South Park season 27 premiere set off a political firestorm this week after airing an episode that featured a naked, deepfaked Donald Trump walking through a desert and lying in bed with Satan - complete with repeated jokes about the president’s genitalia.
The hyper-realistic segment used an actual photo of the 72-year-old's face animated onto a cartoon body, breaking from the show’s traditional style.
In one of the more surreal scenes, Jesus Christ appears in a South Park elementary school, advising townspeople to settle a lawsuit brought against them by Trump.
“You guys saw what happened to CBS? Yeah, well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount... Do you really want to end up like Colbert?” Jesus says, cited by The Guardian, a pointed reference to the recent cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
While CBS and Paramount attributed the move to financial reasons, it followed Colbert’s sharp criticism of Paramount’s $16 million settlement with Trump, sparking speculation about political motives.
The White House wasted no time blasting the episode, with spokesperson Taylor Rogers calling it “a desperate attempt for attention".
“This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas,” Rogers said in a 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.”
Asked about the controversy during a Comic-Con International panel on Thursday (July 24), Parker offered a one-liner dripping with sarcasm: “We’re terribly sorry,” he said, pausing for a long, deadpan stare.
Sitting beside him were co-creator Matt Stone, Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge, and Digman! co-creator Andy Samberg.
Later in the panel, Parker shared that producers had flagged the explicit imagery in the episode. “They said, ‘OK, but we’re gonna blur the p***s,’ and I said, ‘No you’re not gonna blur the p***s,’” Parker recalled.
Stone added, “If we put eyes on the p***s, we won’t blur it. That was a whole conversation with grown-up people for four f***ing days.”
The controversial episode aired the same day the creators finalized a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount for 50 new episodes and expanded streaming rights - a move that only added fuel to their satirical takedown of the media giant.
With its famously rapid production cycle, South Park remains one of the few animated shows capable of responding to current events within days.
“I don’t know what next week’s episode is going to be,” Parker admitted at the panel. “Even just three days ago, we were like, ‘I don’t know if people are going to like this.’”