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

South Park: Patton Oswalt on Why Trump Hasn't Reacted to Parker, Stone

Patton Oswalt has a theory why Donald Trump hasn't responded to Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park: "Nothing shuts Trump up like money."

When it comes to pushing back on Trump and his lackeys' attempts to turn the U.S. into a steaming pile of third-rate dictatorship, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have been hitting hard and haven't pulled their punches. And yet, the long-running Comedy Central animated series, much like NBC's Saturday Night Live, has remained off of Trump's social media tantrum radar. The same can't be said for late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and even Jimmy Fallon, who've each found themselves on the receiving end of a rant from "Mr. Freedom of Speech" demanding that they be fired and that FCC lackey Brendan Carr look into having their respective home networks' licenses revoked.

During the latest episode of The Daily Beast's Last Laugh podcast, comedian and actor Patton Oswalt shared his theory behind Trump's selective bullying. "Nothing shuts Trump up like money," Oswalt shared. "He can argue that Stephen Colbert isn't getting the ratings and isn't making the money, even though the show is brilliant. But it's not that Stephen Colbert is slipping in the ratings, it's that the whole infrastructure of late-night television is slipping."

It's a different situation with Parker and Stone's animated series. In the Paramount Skydance Shareholder Letter for Q3 2025, released earlier this month, we learned that South Park not only helped bring in subscribers during the most recent financial quarter but was also 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). That's one of the reasons why Parker and Stone were reportedly signed to a new five-year deal worth $1.5 billion.

"'South Park,' not only does it make insane amount of some money, it gets insane ratings. And Trump can only be so angry at that because what Trump ultimately will respect, even if it doesn't respect him, is something where the numbers are through the roof, and the money is through the roof. He can't look at 'South Park' and see how brilliant it is, and he can't look at something like John Oliver and see how equally brilliant it is. All he can think of in terms of, look at this guy's numbers, look at their numbers, and that's the only way he sees the world." Oswalt added. "Something that is as massive and as undeniable as 'South Park,' both in quality, which people like you and I can see, but then in numbers and money, which Trump can see, he just falls silent. If Colbert was making 'South Park' money and getting 'South Park' eyes on him, Trump wouldn't know what to do."

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

Parker and 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. "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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