Posted in: Comedy Central, Paramount+, TV | Tagged: south park

South Park Creators on Embracing "Bully Mentality" to Take On Trump

 South Park creators Trey Parker & Matt Stone on going with a "bully mentality" to hit at Trump, and hate from his supporters inspiring them.

Earlier this week, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone checked in with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel to offer some insights into the Donald Trump-focused Season 28 (including bringing "mini Trump" to life) and announce that Season 29 is set to debut on Comedy Central September 16th. The topic of the long-running animated series's focus on Trump was also a hot topic during the duo's one-on-one with Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group co-chair and CEO Mike De Luca during the South Park Emmy Official FYC event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. For the record, Parker and Stone made it clear that their original plan was to go after Trump as a one-shot. That changed when they saw how it turned out and the reaction it received.

"We were just going to do that first show [Season 27 opener] with the Trump stuff.' We laid into him so hard, and the thing became: 'Well, who's the bully now?' It became this just totally juvenile joke of like, 'We're not gonna stop. We're going to do it every single week.' Even when everyone's like, 'OK, guys, move on,' [we're] like, 'Nope, we're not moving on. We're going to keep going, going, going.' That became the joke," Parker shared. "To me, that was the whole season, was that they kept reacting, and we were like, 'Well, God damn it. All right, we'll do it some more.'"

As for Parker and Stone being concerned about a backlash from the Trump Administration, Stone referred back to the duo's all-or-nothing attitude, where they would rather lose it all than play it safe. It was a bully mentality," Stone shared. "We don't care. We don't give a fuck. We say it all the time. We're not irresponsible, but we'll go back to Colorado. We don't give a fuck." Yes, that included the possibility of losing the show. "[With] last season, the thing that felt powerful about it wasn't just that we're going to say this thing or we're going to go there [but] that we're going to throw our show on the table," he added.

South Park: Parker & Stone on Trump: "Politics Became Pop Culture"

The South Park creators had some interesting things to say about the long-running animated series's focus on Trump and its use of political satire during a previous interview with The New York Times. "It's not that we got all political. It's that politics became pop culture," Parker noted during the NYT interview, explaining why the Comedy Central series made a harder shift toward political satire. Adding to that was the growing vibe within the media community that pushing back against Trump was too "taboo" to consider. "Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey. Oh, that's where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we're over there," Stone added.

Although some criticize the duo and the show for having a left-leaning perspective, Parker views the show's creators as walking a middle ground, targeting issues on both sides of the political aisle. "We're just very down-the-middle guys. Any extremists of any kind we make fun of. We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us," Parker explained. But with the line between politics and pop culture all but nonexistent at this point, Parker knows that "there's no getting away from this" – and that means the show can't ignore it. "It's like the government is just in your face everywhere you look," he shared. "Whether it's the actual government or whether it is all the podcasters and the TikToks and the YouTubes and all of that, and it's just all political and political because it's more than political. It's pop culture."

Though noting that there will be a point when Parker and Stone are "sick of" having Trump and his lackeys getting the show's spotlight, it won't be happening anytime soon. "You know, next year will be different. If there's one thing we know, it is that our show will be a lot longer than theirs," Parker said, before ending with a line that echoes when Kyle had to share with Stan and Kenny at the end of the most recent episode. "So, we just got to do this for now," he added.

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