When Matt Stone and Trey Parker inked a massive deal with Paramount for their long-running animated series South Park, some fans were worried they had sold out. Paramount is, after all, linked to Donald Trump, and some fans of the show aren’t fans of the sitting president. But the first of 50 episodes ordered by the streaming platform features the president in less than desirable conditions, which led to a collective sigh of relief among some fans.
Afterward, Parker issued an apology to Trump, though it wasn’t as heartfelt as the president might have hoped for. In fact, some fans likened it to a similar fake-sounding and less than enthusiastic apology given in a past South Park episode. Is this life imitating art imitating life and back again? It kind of seems that way, and fans are here for it.
@apnewsentertainment “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker had the briefest of responses Thursday to anger from the White House over the season premiere of the animated institution, which showed a naked President Donald Trump in bed with Satan. #southpark #donaldtrump #whitehouse ♬ original sound – AP Entertainment
Trey Parker’s ‘South Park’ apology sounds a lot like one from the show.
In the Season 27 premiere of South Park, which was the first to drop on Paramount after the deal, Trump appears in bed with Satan. This isn’t the first time writers of the series have put Satan in a compromising position with a political figure, though. In the past, the cartoon version of Satan in South Park was in a relationship with Saddam Hussein.
After the Trump episode, which includes several jokes about Trump and even depicts him with a two-piece talking head instead of an actual drawn-on head, Parker made a public apology. At a Comic-Con panel in San Diego following the episode and the White House’s response, Parker declared, with a straight face and emotionless voice, “We’re terribly sorry,” per the BBC.
It isn’t unlike the fictional apology depicted in a Season 14 episode by South Park’s version of Tony Heyward, the then-CEO of BP. In a series of clips, the animated version of Heyward says “We’re sorry” in reference to the highly publicized and criticized oil spill of 2010. But the apology becomes less and less sincere as the clips continue in the episode. Parker’s own apology to Trump about the Season 27 premiere of South Park is said in a similar vein.
The episode from Season 27 also has Parker voicing Trump, though the voice sounds more like Parker’s voice when he plays Cartman rather than an actual impersonation of Trump. For some, that added fuel to the fire.
“Old fans will know this animation and voice is a nod to their character of Saddam,” one fan commented on a TikTok clip from the episode.
“This is so disrespectful and disgusting,” another fan commented. “South Park should be ashamed of themselves to portray someone in bed with something like that? No one deserves this kind of disrespect. They should really apologize to Satan for putting him in bed with Trump.”
South Park TORCHED Trump by putting him in bed with Satan, and the White House actually responded, calling the show “irrelevant.”
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) July 29, 2025
Meanwhile, the same episode mocked NPR, 60 Minutes, and cancel culture itself.
Real comedy punches EVERYONE; That’s the point. pic.twitter.com/m1uiKpRiVL
After the South Park episode about Trump aired, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers spoke to Variety about the president’s apparent stance on Left-leaning Americans and the South Park creators for having no real creativity.
“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,” Rogers told the news outlet in the statement. “President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history, and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
