The creators of South Park are reveling in White House backlash over the show’s savage takedowns of President Donald Trump and his goons.
Speaking on Tuesday at the South Park Emmy Official FYC event in Los Angeles, Trey Parker said in a joint interview with co-creator Matt Stone that criticism from the Trump administration has fired them up to keep roasting the president in future seasons.
The show’s 27th and 28th seasons featured graphic depictions of Trump, including scenes portraying him with a micropenis, in bed with Satan, and having sex with Vice President JD Vance. Episodes also ripped into other Cabinet figures, including Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth.
The episodes drew record ratings for the long-running Comedy Central series, while also triggering a sharp rebuke from the White House. “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,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement to the Daily Beast.
“We were just going to do that first show with the Trump stuff,” Parker told Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chair and CEO Mike De Luca, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But after the administration reacted publicly, Parker said the show’s writers doubled down.
“We laid into him so hard, and the thing became: ‘Well, who’s the bully now?’ It became this just totally juvenile joke of like, ‘We’re not gonna stop. We’re going to do it every single week.’ Even when everyone’s like, ‘OK, guys, move on,’ [we’re] like, ‘Nope, we’re not moving on. We’re going to keep going, going, going,’” Parker said.
He added: “That became the joke.”
Parker said hate from Trump voters spurred him on even more.
“To me, that was the whole season, was that they kept reacting, and we were like, ‘Well, God damn it. All right, we’ll do it some more.’”
Stone previously told The New York Times that Trump’s second term created a new cultural taboo around criticizing the administration. “Oh, that’s where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we’re over there,” Stone said. “Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey.”
Comedy Central said Season 29 is set to premiere September 16, with new episodes scheduled every two weeks, on September 30, October 14, October 28, November 11 and November 25.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
