Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart unloaded on their corporate bosses and Donald Trump this week, but that turned out to be just the appetizer. “South Park” delivered the entrée, brutalizing Paramount Global and the president with the irreverent, near-unhinged gusto for which they’re renowned.
Paramount might want to get out of the headlines now that the Federal Communications Commission has approved its long-pending $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. Yet as the company and its soon-to-be owner are discovering, the studio’s mix of assets represents a lineup that’s popular precisely because of their cultural edge, which will make efforts to police those voices going forward challenging — if not impossible.
As it happened, “South Park” co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone demonstrated their cultural clout on Thursday night, appearing at Comic-Con’s massive Hall H on an Adult Animation panel less than 24 hours after their much-buzzed-about episode in which an AI-generated Trump was depicted crawling naked through the desert in a fake PSA and drawn as a cartoon in bed with the devil.
The duo walked on stage to thunderous applause, and when asked about the reaction to the episode, Parker offered this deadpan response: “We’re terribly sorry,” eliciting more laughs from the crowd.
The episode came on the heels of a massive $1.5 billion deal for the pair to license their library and air new episodes on Paramount+. The White House responded furiously on Thursday by calling the adult animated show “fourth-rate.”
But what more could the White House do? Within hours, the FCC approved the long-awaited Paramount-Skydance merger, even as social media exploded with memes and mockery of the president.
The cacophonous coda to the merger, with accusations of corporate bribery, a show cancellation and the furious response of the company’s most cherished comedic talent (including Colbert telling Trump to “Go f—k yourself” on network television Monday), represent a harbinger of the strife yet to come. A cosmic clash between political and cultural power is about to play out, as the president does all he can to bring media and entertainment companies to heel and — however compliant the corporate brass might be — the talent says in the most unmistakable terms: Get lost.
It’s going to make for a tumultuous mix for the Ellison family — father Larry, who is financing the merger, and son David, who is to become CEO — as they take over Paramount from Shari Redstone.
First news, then satire and comedy
Initially, much of the focus on Paramount centered on CBS News and Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes,” which most legal experts saw as frivolous but the parent company ultimately settled.
Since then, CBS announced the cancellation of its “Late Show” franchise, which will take Colbert off the air next May. While the network explained the decision as strictly financial, critics and skeptics could not help seeing the timing of dropping late night’s top-rated show as further evidence of a vulnerable company willing to do anything to mollify Trump – and, by extension, FCC chairman Brendan Carr – to clear regulatory hurdles.
FCC Clears Paramount-Skydance Merger
Carr lauded the new owners in announcing approval of the deal, citing Skydance’s “commitment to make significant changes at the once-storied CBS broadcast network.” While much of the FCC’s attention has been on dismantling DEI programs, that promise and endorsement will surely send a chill down the spines of talent across the company.
After all the tumult at CBS News, it quickly became apparent that the thin-skinned Trump – who publicly exulted over the Colbert news – might have additional demands. Trump also appears preoccupied with aging franchises like network news, late-night TV and morning shows (on Wednesday, he railed against ABC’s “The View”), evincing a preoccupation with linear TV that doesn’t reflect the direction in which the media culture has moved.
“South Park” probably didn’t loom large on Trump’s radar until Thursday, but its frontal attack made its presence known and quickly drew a customarily tart 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,” said the administration.
By so overtly leaning into controversy immediately after signing their enormously lucrative deal with Paramount, Parker and Stone also underscored that the talent most likely to tackle such issues are those with the creative freedom to do so – with, to use a popular phrase, zero f–ks to give.
After their billion-dollar bounty from Paramount, Parker and Stone find themselves with the sort of enviable latitude that allows them to take big swings, and a reputation as provocateurs who relish offending people. Just watch “The Book of Mormon” and “Team America: World Police” as other prime examples.
On the attack
It’s worth noting that “South Park” is no stranger to controversy or pushing boundaries into the uncouth and beyond. It’s not even the first time they’ve viciously attacked Trump. Throughout 2016, the show’s Trump stand-in was the boys’ teacher Mr. Garrison, who ran a political campaign promising to “f–k everyone to death” — literally. Mr. Garrison then proceeded to do that to the Canadian version of Donald Trump.
Did we mention “South Park” is a weird show?
That’s just the tip of Stone and Parker’s controversial iceberg. In the Season 5 episode “Super Best Friends,” the show portrayed the Prophet Muhammad. Expectedly, the episode was pulled in subsequent airings and is unavailable to stream, but the producers mocked the controversy around the episode in Season 10’s “Cartoon Wars” saga.
Both “Cartoon Wars” episodes are still unavailable to watch, as are “200” and “201,” all for portraying the religious figure. There was also Season 11’s “With Apologies to Jesse Jackson,” which featured one of the characters using the N-word; and Season 23’s “Band in China,” which mocked corporations that bow to Chinese censorship. Predictably, that one was, indeed, banned in China.
The blocky, photo-realistic portrayal of Trump isn’t even the first time “South Park” has employed that tactic to mock a famous figure. In the movie “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut,” Saddam Hussein was animated in the same way with the same voice, and was also the abusive partner in a relationship with Satan.
The question is how far Trump and Carr can push the administration’s efforts to cow and curtail media companies – having focused primarily on news divisions, but also comedians and satirists who dare criticize what Stewart called “the boy king.” As Stewart suggested, if companies do bow to such pressure, they risk either losing signature talent, or homogenizing their product to the point of serving up a “gruel” so flavorless nobody will be inclined to consume it.
Paramount isn’t alone in this regard, as other studios have discovered, from ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and the aforementioned “The View” to HBO’s John Oliver. Given the studio’s holdings, though, the Paramount properties generating controversy might loom a little larger in its portfolio.
As the recent five-year agreement suggests, “South Park” is a key asset for Paramount. Per Nielsen data, the show was the 20th most-streamed series overall in the first half of 2025, accounting for 10.5 billion minutes viewed. Parrot Analytics has found that the audience demand for South Park is 43 times the demand of the average TV series in the U.S. in the last 30 days.
What will Skydance do?
Skydance’s management team, led by David Ellison, appears to have promised a more Trump-friendly approach, with his father among the president’s supporters and friends.
In addition, Skydance’s focus could be on maximizing other parts of the company, including its streaming operation and movie studio, with Skydance having partnered with Paramount on the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
Still, Paramount+, Taylor Sheridan’s serialized dramas and “Star Trek” are only part of the population on what those ads refer to as “Paramount Mountain.” Policing assorted voices within the company could become a game of Whac-a-Mole, each fraught with public relations headaches if management appears to be silencing or curbing political content.
Referring to Parker and Stone, one former Paramount veteran who asked for anonymity told TheWrap, “These guys are going to do what they’re going to do, I can tell you that. And they should, and they’re really good at it, and they deserve to. They’ve earned the right.”
Parker and Stone, and everyone else, will have to wait and see if Skydance agrees.
Umberto Gonzalez contributed to this story.
