{"id":88968,"date":"2025-07-24T15:36:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88968\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T15:36:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T15:36:12","slug":"south-park-mocks-paramounts-settlement-with-trump-after-creators-sign-1-5b-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/88968\/","title":{"rendered":"‘South Park’ mocks Paramount’s settlement with Trump after creators sign $1.5B deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The media conglomerate Paramount announced Wednesday afternoon that the creators of \u201cSouth Park\u201d had agreed to produce 50 new episodes over the next five years in a deal reportedly valued at $1.5 billion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ten hours later, \u201cSouth Park\u201d creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker excoriated Paramount \u2014 and aggressively skewered President Donald Trump \u2014 in the premiere episode of the Comedy Central show\u2019s 27th season.<\/p>\n

In the episode, Trump (voiced by Stone) sues the town of South Park for $5 billion after they challenge Jesus Christ\u2019s presence in their elementary school. The townspeople are prepared to fight back, but Jesus Christ (also voiced by Stone) urges them to settle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys saw what happened to CBS? Yeah, well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount,\u201d Jesus Christ says at the episode\u2019s climax. \u201cDo you really want to end up like Colbert?\u201d<\/p>\n

Paramount is under intense scrutiny for appearing to kowtow to the Trump administration ahead of a proposed blockbuster merger. Stone and Parker were clearly riffing on their corporate parent\u2019s eventful summer.<\/p>\n

On July 2, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump, who alleged that CBS\u2019 \u201c60 Minutes\u201d had deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. CBS denied that claim.<\/p>\n

On July 17, CBS announced that it planned to cancel \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d in May, calling the move \u201cpurely a financial decision.\u201d But many of Colbert\u2019s fans cried foul, arguing that the comedian was being penalized for his years of anti-Trump humor.<\/p>\n

\"2024Matt Stone and Trey Parker at the Telluride Film Festival in 2024.Vivien Killilea \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Both developments came as Paramount is preparing to be sold to Skydance Media, an entertainment production and finance company headed by David Ellison, the son of Oracle mogul (and Trump ally) Larry Ellison. The corporate tie-up requires federal approval.<\/p>\n

The premiere episode, titled \u201cSermon on the \u2018Mount,\u201d took aim at other satirical targets, including the supposed death of \u201cwokeness,\u201d the rise of ChatGPT and the debate over Christian teachings in public schools. Trump and Paramount were the focal points, however.<\/p>\n

In one scene, \u201c60 Minutes\u201d reports on the social unrest roiling South Park amid Trump\u2019s lawsuit. The fictional hosts of the news show are visibly nervous as they introduce the segment, going out of their way to praise the president as \u201ca great man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know he\u2019s probably watching,\u201d one of the hosts says.<\/p>\n

CBS is not the only network to reach a legal settlement with Trump. ABC agreed to pay $15 million as part of a settlement with Trump a month before he took office, effectively ending a case concerning alleged defamation.<\/p>\n

Paramount\u2019s settlement with Trump has drawn more attention, though. Colbert, three days before CBS announced the end of his show, blasted the arrangement as a \u201cbig fat bribe.\u201d Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central\u2019s \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d also assailed the deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Paramount owns CBS, a venerable Hollywood movie studio, a suite of cable brands (including Comedy Central) and the Paramount+ streaming platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth Park\u201d is widely known for jabbing politicians and social trends across the ideological spectrum. But the latest episode\u2019s depiction of Trump arguably went further than usual. <\/p>\n

Stone and Parker depict Trump as a petulant child, recycling the animation style they used for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in the 1999 film \u201cSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.\u201d They also make profane references to the president\u2019s anatomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSermon on the \u2018Mount\u201d closes with an apparently AI-generated video of Trump wandering in a desert and removing his clothes.<\/p>\n

Paramount spokespeople did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The media conglomerate Paramount announced Wednesday afternoon that the creators of \u201cSouth Park\u201d had agreed to produce 50…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":88969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-88968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114908954028424731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}