‘Fourth-rate show’: Here you go, Donald Trump responds after South Park exposed his mushroom

Donald Trump has once again proven that the sharpest blow he can’t stomach isn’t from critics or opponents. It’s from comedy.

This time, the jab comes courtesy of South Park, the long-running animated series famous for sparing no one. In true South Park fashion, the president is depicted as a caricature of his larger-than-life persona, portrayed as literally being in bed with the devil. And if that wasn’t enough, the episode concludes with an AI-generated public service announcement featuring a fully nude Trump wandering aimlessly in the desert, his “itty-bitty” manhood barely noticeable.

For over two decades, South Park has thrived on its ability to offend and entertain in equal measure. The show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have made a sport of lampooning cultural and political figures with a kind of gleeful irreverence that feels increasingly rare in today’s media landscape. In this particular episode, Trump serves as the target for their trademark brand of satire.

If the goal was to provoke Trump, it worked. His team quickly issued a statement condemning the episode, accusing the Left — and by extension, South Park — of hypocrisy for applauding the same type of humor they’ve criticized in the past. They dismissed the show as outdated and irrelevant, claiming its creators were desperate for attention.

What makes this feud even more interesting is the backdrop against which it’s playing out. Just days before the episode aired, Paramount, the media giant behind South Park, announced a whopping $1.5 billion deal to secure the show’s global streaming rights. This alone is proof that South Park, far from being irrelevant, remains a cultural juggernaut with staying power. At the same time, Paramount has been embroiled in its own Trump-related controversy.

The company recently settled a lawsuit Trump filed over claims that CBS’s 60 Minutes selectively edited an interview with Kamala Harris, his likely 2024 opponent. The settlement reportedly included millions of dollars for Trump’s presidential library fund, as well as a $20 million commitment to air public service announcements or similar programming—a detail that South Park was quick to lampoon in its episode. Paramount’s timing has raised eyebrows.

With the company seeking regulatory approval for its merger with Skydance, some critics see the settlement as part of a broader effort to avoid conflict with Trump, who still wields considerable influence over Republican regulators and voters. Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear that the South Park episode is hitting nerves not just in Trump’s camp but also in corporate boardrooms.