The creators of South Park have said they will no longer be satirising Donald Trump on the show, and will be skipping this presidential election.
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The iconic adult animation has been on air since 1997 and has run for a total of 26 seasons as well as a number of recent one-off specials.
The show’s writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone have revealed in a new interview with Vanity Fair that they do not intend to bring the show back in time for the election in November, and that decision was made in part due to Trump dominating the campaign for a third consecutive cycle.
“We’ve tried to do South Park through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing to—it’s such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance,” Stone said. “Obviously, it’s fucking important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun.”
“I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump,” added Parker.
Confirming that the show would not return until 2025, the duo were asked whether this was due to them deliberately avoiding having to cover Trump again. “Honestly, it’s on purpose,” Stone admitted.
Since 2015, Parker and Stone have been parodying Trump’s policies through the South Park character Mr. Garrison, who loses his teaching job after denigrating the influx of illegal Canadian immigrants, and eventually is given the Republican Party nomination for president.
The United States presidential election takes place on November 5, with Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, with Harris currently holding a narrow lead in the polls.
Earlier this week, Parker also revealed that he wishes he could erase the first three seasons of the show from history. “It’s just embarrassing to watch,” he said. “OK, we were like, 26, 27, but it’s like, ‘Really?’ We thought that was funny? We thought that was well-written? Oh my god, this is terrible.”
The most recent new episode of South Park was ‘The End of Obesity’, the third in a trio of specials that aired on Paramount+ over the last 12 months.
The episode contained parodies around the so-called weight loss drug Ozempic, including a spoof sketch where Eric Cartman can’t afford the drug, so his doctor prescribes him ‘Lizzo’, to train him in body positivity so he can stop worrying about his weight.
“I want you to listen to Lizzo five times a day, and watch her videos just before bedtime,” the doctor says. “I’m afraid you’ll have to be on Lizzo for the rest of your life.”
The singer, who has long advocated for body positivity, later posted a video where she watches the skit for the first time.
After the success of South Park, Parker and Stone went on to co-create the satirical film Team America: World Police and the smash hit musical The Book Of Mormon.
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