A political firestorm ensued as late-night talk show host Stephen Colbert was basically fired from CBS last week after a “financial decision.” With The Late Show franchise all set to retire in May of 2026, Colbert’s fans came down hard at the US network and its parent organisation, Paramount Global, for potentially calling the shots due to the iconic TV figure’s verbal onslaughts on US President Donald Trump. Ironically, the same company eventually went on to sign a $1.5 million deal with the long-running hit TV series South Park, only for the show to take jabs at the MAGA boss a day later. 

South Park Season 27 returns with Trump parody

Returning with its head-turning Season 27 premiere, South Park, which was initially being envisioned as an adversary of Stephen Colbert in light of the network’s recent shakeups, appeared to have done its bit in possibly avenging the comedian instead. The explosive Wednesday night episode caught the US president getting into bed with Satan – quite literally.

ALSO READ

Leaving little to the imagination, the show didn’t even replace Trump with an animated counterpart. It instead launches its jaw-dropping portrayal – fuelled by Trump’s legal war with Paramount, Colbert’s Late Show cancellation, “wokeness,” and a lot more – by bringing in an actual image of the American leader backed by animation controls. At one point, the South Park Season 27 debut even goes on to illustrate the POTUS completely naked. With deepkfakes at its disposal, the episode repeatedly insinuates that the MAGA leader’s genitalia are small. 

Jesus’ presence in South Park schools is a central theme of the episode, allowing creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker to build up a creative satire of the network’s entanglement with Trump. 

In a jibe at the president himself, the show’s Jesus says, “I didn’t want to come back and be in the school, but I had to because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount,” as he practically begs parents to settle a case with the president after their protests for not wanting Jesus in these institutions. 

Without mincing words, the show bends over backwards, hitting it out against Trump while referring to the whole Colbert fiasco. “You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount. You really want to end up like Colbert?” goes on Jesus. “You guys got to stop being stupid … He also has the power to sue and take bribes and he can do anything to anyone. It’s the fucking president, dude … South Park is over.”

Colbert was indeed unhappy with how his show’s cancellation transitioned into South Park bagging the $1.5 million deal, promising 50 new episodes over five years, the outspoken Trump critics torched the contract as a “big fat bribe” on his currently on CBS show. 

Netizens react to South Park’s Trump episode after parent company fired Stephen Colbert

Nonetheless, netizens can’t help but wonder now whether Stone and Parker’s brand-new episode had plans to avenge Colbert. Many went on to note how Trump’s MAGA camp instantly doubled on its love for South Park as its future expansion settled in as a replacement for Stephen’s late night offering just days ago. As they now seemed to have switched their tone, fans quickly reminded the far-right that the show was never on their side to begin with. 

ALSO READ

“Is MAGA gonna cancel South Park now,” a netizen questioned on X, plugging Rolling Stone’s coverage on the issue, titled, “‘South Park’ Skewers Trump and his ‘Teeny Tiny’ Manhood.’”

Another user broke down the show’s history, noting that Matt Stone and Trey Parker actually prefer no political side over the other as they are“self confessed independent libertarians.” 

The user detailed, “They don’t pick sides. They mock everyone. They were taking shots at Trump all the way back to 2016. They tackled trans athletes. They made a whole special mocking Kathleen Kennedy and woke pandering. They made 3 separate full length episodes mocking the most liberal of celebrities (most notably mega lefty Rob Reiner). In fact they made an entire movie mocking actors being political (Team America watch it).”

They added, “This is South Park doing what it’s always done since day one. Taking a current topic and doing their best to make fun of it. They love to troll anything. Seriously people.”

A third person said, “Just yesterday, MAGA was lauding the $1.5B deal between South Park and Paramount saying how it’s actually funny unlike Colbert. Now they’ve changed their tune because they got their feelings hurt.”

A fourth laughed off the full-circle moment, saying, “Paramount axed Colbert report because Trump didn’t like it, they give $1.5 billion to South Park, who- literally the next day- go after him 10x harder than Colbert ever has. Genius… I don’t think you guys realise that this episode wasn’t made out of spite for Trump, he was just the means to the end. This episode’s entire point was to f*** over paramount as hard as possible, and it’s beautiful.”

A ‘Trump Lie Tracker’ page on X wrote, “South Park just dropped one of the greatest takedowns of Trump that you’ll ever see on TV. What makes this even more rich is that Paramount (who canceled Colbert) just paid South Park over a billion dollars for streaming rights.” Someone tweeted, “Colbert being sacrificed so South Park can do what it did tonight. An equivalent exchange.”

Yet another user added, “Sooooo I don’t think people realize how absolutely historic that episode of South Park is going to be… if you don’t understand the intent of that episode (to get Paramout sued by Trump as a repercussion for them giving into him and firing Colbert)… this is going to get nuclear.” 

ALSO READ

How the White House responded to the Trump-bashing South Park episode

The White House didn’t stay quiet after the Trump parody episode either. WH  spokesperson Taylor Rogers told Variety, “The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end – for years they have come after ‘South Park’ for what they labeled as ‘offense’ 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.” 

Rogers attempted to torch the “fourth-rate” show, saying that it “hasn’t been relevant for 20 years and is hanging by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.”

Despite the White House flipping out on South Park‘s relevance, Google searches painted a different picture. CNN reported that its searches went up 670% compared to last week. The outlet also foregrounded that it soared to becoming the “top topic searched with Donald Trump this afternoon.”