Popular US Animated Series Satirizes Trump... White House Outraged, Calls It a "Fourth-Rate Show"

Long-Running Animation 'South Park'
Jesus Appears, Says "Trump Sent Me"

The popular American animated series 'South Park' indirectly satirized President Donald Trump by featuring Jesus as a character. In response, the White House openly expressed displeasure, referring to the program as a "fourth-rate show."

According to CNN, The New York Times (NYT), and other U.S. media outlets on July 24 (local time), the previous day's episode of South Park, aired on Paramount Plus, included a scene where the character of Jesus visits an elementary school. After being introduced by the principal, who is known for his extreme pursuit of "Political Correctness," Jesus steps forward and tells the students, who are puzzled by his appearance, "Trump sent me. It's because of the settlement with Paramount."

A scene featuring the Jesus character in the US animation 'South Park.' Comedy Central, Photo by Yonhap News

This is a satirical reference to the incident earlier this month, when CBS, a subsidiary of Paramount, agreed to pay $16 million (approximately 21.75 billion KRW) in a civil lawsuit filed by President Trump. In American political circles, there has been criticism that Paramount essentially delivered a form of 'bribe' to secure approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its proposed $8.4 billion (approximately 11.7 trillion KRW) merger with Skydance Media.

The same episode of South Park also featured the removal of Colbert as an episode theme. Recently, CBS decided to drop its popular late-night talk show, 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,' which had repeatedly made jokes that irritated President Trump. Regarding this, the Jesus character, addressing students confused by his invitation to a public school that strictly adheres to the principle of separation from religion, said, "If you don't want to end up like Colbert, stop doing stupid things," and, "If we don't keep our mouths shut, we'll end up the same way."

Characters based on the reporters from CBS's flagship news program '60 Minutes' also appeared in the episode. These characters, who had been targets of Trump's lawsuits, were depicted as trembling in fear while mentioning Trump's name. There were also more provocative scenes, such as a depiction of the Trump character lying side by side with Satan on a bed in hell, having a conversation about billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In response, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in a statement, "South Park, which has been irrelevant for over 20 years, is barely surviving on insignificant ideas just to attract attention," and strongly criticized, "A fourth-rate show like this cannot undermine President Trump's momentum."

Since its debut in 1997, South Park has built a large fan base as a long-running program known for its satire and humor spanning politics, religion, diplomacy, and more.

Meanwhile, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone recently expressed dissatisfaction via social networking services (SNS) regarding Skydance Media's plan to acquire Paramount Global and the impact of this plan on contract negotiations. In their posts, they criticized, "This merger is a mess and is ruining South Park."