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

South Park: Here's Why Paramount Is Leaving Parker & Stone Alone

A Paramount Skydance Q3 2025 Shareholder Letter offered a very big reason why it leaves South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone alone.

Comedy Central's South Park creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, had some interesting things to say about the long-running animated series's focus on Trump and its use of political satire during a recent interview with The New York Times (more on that below). One topic that was touched on was their relationship with Paramount under David Ellison/Skydance's ownership. Following rumors that the merger was delaying progress, Parker and Stone signed a new five-year deal reportedly worth $ 1.5 billion. Even with Trump making it clear that he's a big fan of Ellison and what he's doing with Paramount, Stone noted that the animated series hasn't received pushback from either Ellison or Paramount execs. "I know with the Colbert thing and all the Trump stuff, people think certain things, but they're letting us do whatever we want, to their credit," he explained.

Now, before you start patting Paramount on the back for being champions of free speech, we've got a much more down-to-earth reason why Ellison and his folks are "letting us do whatever we want, to their credit." In the Paramount Skydance Shareholder Letter for Q3 2025, we learned that South Park not only helped bring in subscribers during the most recent financial quarter, but it was the top driver of growth. "Recent highlights include our five-year exclusive deal with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, co-creators of 'South Park' – the top acquisition driver on Paramount+ in Q3," read the letter (which you can check out here).

South Park Creators on Trump Focus: "Politics Became Pop Culture"

"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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