White House Slams ‘South Park’ as “Desperate” for Attention After Unflattering Depiction of Trump
The White House is slamming the political left in response to Wednesday night’s controversial season 27 premiere of South Park, in which the show’s cartoon-cut-out depiction of Donald Trump took Satan as a lover and which was capped off with a deepfake of the president featuring a rendering of his exposed penis.
The controversy-courting and long-running animated series has delighted in skewering both the political left and the right for decades, along with celebrities, politicians, tech CEOs and anyone else its writers deem worthy of the show’s specific brand of satire. Trump, whom creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone avoided directly depicting for years, finally made his South Park debut on Wednesday night.
The president was depicted similarly to South Park’s portrayal of Saddam Hussein in its 1999 feature-length movie, South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut: ill-tempered, conniving and cruel. The depiction of Trump’s fully nude, small penis, which is on full display while he is in bed with Satan, is topped only by a show-capping phony public service announcement in which an AI-rendered Trump walks through the desert, his penis soon exposed and speaking to him.
White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers reacted to the episode on Thursday, suggesting it represents the hypocrisy of the political left, lobbing insults at the Comedy Central show and touting Trump’s delivery on his promises.
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“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,” Rogers said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “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. 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.”
Ratings numbers are not yet available for Wednesday night’s 27th season premiere, but according to Nielsen’s ratings for April 2023, the first month that South Park’s 26th season was available on HBO Max, it logged 700 million minutes of viewing time. This made it the most watched adult animated series that month.
During the 2016 election, Stone and Parker expressed uncertainty about the best way to add Trump to the show or how to lampoon him amid his chaotic march to the presidency. Instead, they opted at the time to use the show’s Mr. Garrison character as a stand-in for the 45th president.
The inflammatory South Park episode comes as Paramount is preparing to be sold to Skydance Media, which the Federal Communications Commission must approve. Trump’s appointed FCC chair, Brendan Carr, said Thursday that he does not watch South Park but added that Trump is of the opinion that “a handful of national programmers” should not “control and dictate to the American what the narrative is, what they can say, what they can think.”
Notably, Skydance is run by David Ellison, who is the son of Oracle mogul and Trump ally Larry Ellison.
