South Park Season 27 Picked The Show's Biggest Fight Yet — What Happens Now?

Hours before the season 27 premiere of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's "South Park," they finally inked a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount amid the "s*** show" of a merger between the legacy studio and Skydance Media. The new contract extends Paramount's relationship with South Park Studios for five years, guaranteeing 50 new episodes of the show for Comedy Central, as well as obtaining the library of the previous 26 seasons for Paramount+. To celebrate, they released "Sermon on the 'Mount," an episode where they're practically begging the twice-impeached President and indicted felon Donald Trump to sue them, using Jesus Christ himself to comment on CBS' lawsuit with Trump and the subsequent cancellation of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," and the abject horror journalists are enduring as their corporate bosses force them to appease Trump out of fear of retribution by turning the "60 Minutes" ticking clock into one that's fused to a bomb about to go off.

Trump is obviously very unhappy about the episode. Less than 24 hours earlier, the president took time away from running the country to fire off angry posts on his TruthSocial account about Joy Behar after she claimed on "The View" that he was jealous of former president Barack Obama's looks, and that was just one passing comment. This is an entire episode filled with nude, crude, and hilariously offensive depictions of the commander-in-chief, including a deepfake with a talking micropenis (complete with its own website). In order for the Paramount/Skydance merger to take place, the companies needed the approval of Trump's Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and many have speculated (myself included) that acts like paying out the baseless lawsuit against CBS, firing Colbert, and announcing they were ending DEI initiatives at Paramount were all in an attempt to appease Trump to earn his approval.

The FCC gave its approval for the merger the day after the episode aired, seemingly proving that capitulating to oppressors who wish to tighten restrictions on media is the only way to get what you want. Or if we want to look at this even more cynically, these institutions are doing exactly what they've always wanted to do and are now using "Trump's pressure" as a scapegoat. Either way, it's pathetic.

As the season 27 premiere rightfully points out when Cartman mourns the fact "woke is dead" and bigots feel comfortable spouting off their nonsense proudly and openly, America is starting to feel beyond satire. Fortunately, "South Park" still has plenty to say as long as Americans are willing to listen. The show has been our greatest cultural Rorschach test for over 25 years, and while I'm never going to simp for the extravagantly wealthy, the fact that they pulled this move immediately after nabbing a $1.5 billion deal is so ungodly hilarious that it feels straight out of a "South Park" episode. "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," read a statement from the White House. "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." A "fourth-rate" show? I'm sure Parker and Stone are going to be crying about that sick burn while they sign all the paperwork and deposit that billion-plus dollar check. Despite the oft-repeated line on social media, satire is not dead, and "South Park" refusing to pull its punches is proof of that.

To satirize America (and especially its political leaders) requires confidence, bravery, and the understanding that no matter how explicit you make your comedy, there will still be people who woefully misunderstand your message, and you're constantly running the risk of being censored. Regardless of a person's personal feelings about "South Park" or Parker and Stone as a creative duo, what they did by releasing "Sermon on the 'Mount" was audacious as hell. The emperor has no clothes, and they're not going to let us all be gaslit into thinking otherwise. It's just ridiculous that no one else is willing to swing for the fences the way they have.

Trump-appointed FCC chairman Brendan Carr has been pushing hard against alleged "media bias," primarily focused on the news. However, it would be foolish to believe this "media bias" accusation will start and stop with news reporting and not extend into other programs broadcast to the masses. Parker and Stone were obviously aware that this episode could mark the end of "South Park," adding in a suicide pact subplot between Butters (Stone) and Cartman (Parker) that serves as a metatextual acknowledgement that if the show is going to die, it's going to be by their hand and no one else's.

And sure, there will be plenty of hand-wringing and mouth-frothing about how they chose to lampoon President Trump, and plenty of pearl-clutching about how juvenile it was to body-shame the President and compare him to Saddam Hussein instead of criticizing him for his policy or his opinions. Journalists and political pundits have spent years calling Trump a racist, fascist, legally liable sexual abuser, and it has done nothing. The man sells merchandise with his mugshot on it, for crying out loud. You cannot shame someone for something that they do not feel shame about. To skewer him in a way that actually gets through to him, they had to speak the language of the oppressor and weaponize his own toxic feelings and opinions against him. But by not playing nice, there's no telling what the retaliation is going to be. By essentially negging the President and their own parent company, "South Park" has laid the perfect trap, where punishing them would require the retaliatory party to tell on themselves with their actions.

Whether you find what Parker and Stone said in this episode (or any episode) funny, appropriate, or in good taste doesn't actually matter, because they're expressing their First Amendment rights to free speech. Satirists, comedians, journalists, and academics are some of the most obvious targets for fascist regimes. Because in its strongest and most effective form, satire tackles hard truths, and truth is the enemy of those in power. As ridiculous as it sounds, the future of "South Park" will serve as a herald for the future of us all.

Maybe then we truly will be beyond satire.