Over the years, South Park has poked fun out of just about every celebrity, political or religious figure, company, trend and global news story you could think of.
But their latest episode centred around a parody of the United States president has sparked a major conspiracy theory linking the 79-year-old Republican with the likes of Stephen Colbert - the latter of which has just seen his long-standing talk-show get axed.
It didn't take long for clips from the controversial episode to make their rounds on social media, prompting people to speculate whether the 'intent' behind it was 'to get Paramount sued by Trump as a repercussion' for them allegedly 'giving into him and firing Colbert'.
Before we get into all of that, however, it's important to note that Paramount maintains the decision to fire Colbert was merely 'financial'.
What happened in the South Park episode?
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The episode, titled 'Sermon on the Mount', heavily features Donald Trump, in scenes that see his character literally getting into bed with the devil.
Rather than being fully animated, the creators opted to stick an actual photo of Trump’s head onto a cartoon body.
Notable moments reference the 'Epstein list', the rising tariffs in Canada and the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert - and the episode even brutally takes aim at the size of his manhood.
In one scene that’s doing the rounds on social media, Trump gets into bed with Satan and says: “Come on Satan, I’ve been working hard all day.”
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The character of the devil then responds: “You haven’t been working! You’ve been doing your stupid memes and just f**king around.”
Trump’s character then adds: “Come on Satan, you know you can’t resist this!” before pulling down a blanket and revealing a comically small penis, to which Satan then says: “I can’t even see anything, it’s so small.”
And, it actually gets worse. In another scene, Trump is depicted telling his own supporters to ‘give it a rest’ as the protesting is making him ‘look bad’.
“Well, no, we’re not gonna give it a rest. All of the people here in South Park want some goddamn answers,” the character responds, before Trump says: “All right, then I’m gonna sue your whole town. You got that?”
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Then, he gets into bed with Satan again, who says: “I’m not in the mood right now. Another random b***h commented on my Instagram that you’re on the Epstein list.”
“The Epstein list? Are we still talking about that?” Trump’s character responds.
And the devil says: “Well are you on the list or not? It’s weird that whenever it comes up you just tell everyone to relax.”
What are people saying about the episode?
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One X user highlighted: "Sooooo I don’t think people realise how absolutely historic that episode of South Park is going to be… if you don’t understand the intent of that episode (to get Paramount sued by Trump as a repercussion for them giving into him and firing Colbert)… this is going to get nuclear."
Another tweeted: "And I love them for this - always loved Matt & Trey and have watched South Park since episode 1! I am so proud of them, those boys have done good!"
Not everyone agreed, with one fan writing: "Dumb take, South Park has made fun of Trump multiple times… why are folks acting like this is new?"
This comes as Paramount struck a $1.5 billion deal over the next five years for South Park episodes to exclusively stream on Paramount+ worldwide.
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The episode actually takes aim at Paramount specifically. Two TV hosts on a parody version of 60 Minutes refer to 'the president, who is a great man' and who 'is probably watching'.
Then later on, Jesus (who is also in the episode for... reasons) tells protestors: "You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount. You really want to end up like Colbert?
"You guys got to stop being stupid … He also has the power to sue and take bribes and he can do anything to anyone. It’s the f**king president, dude … South Park is over."
As for how the show can be quite this timely, it's been well publicised South Park has an insanely tight production schedule.
6 Days to Air: The Making of South Park (simply known as 6 Days to Air), a 2011 American documentary, detailed the production process of South Park, namely sharing with fans the show's hectic, rushed six-day production schedule, in which a 22-minute episode is completed just hours before its original air date.
"They famously produce their shows in a matter of days," one social media user explained.
The Colbert and 60 Minutes drama explained
Well, the news of the Late Show's cancellation was announced last Thursday (17 July), claiming in a bombshell statement it was purely a 'financial decision'.
The move was particularly controversial as it came days after Colbert took aim at his own bosses after Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to Trump to settle a lawsuit in which he claimed the editing of a 60 Minutes broadcast was favourable to his former opponent Kamala Harris.
That decision was controversial, since it came as Paramount is seeking the approval of Trump's administration for a $8.4 million merger with media giant Skydance.
Colbert had hit out at the settlement on his show, calling it a 'big fat bribe' and saying: "As someone who has always been a proud employee of this network, I am offended, and I don’t know if anything will ever repair my trust in this company. But just taking a stab at it, I’d say $16 million would help."
Following the announcement that the much-loved celebrity-hosting show was coming to an end, Trump, 79, wrote online last week: "I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!"
Colbert has since responded to Trump's Truth Social post, issuing a passionate statement on live television.
Speaking on Sunday night's instalment of his show (21 July), he quoted the Republican's statements about his alleged lack of talent and ratings, telling attendees: "How dare you, Sir. Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?"
"'Go f**k yourself'," he then quipped, after which the live audience erupted into cheers.
Many others have called out the timing of The Late Show's demise, including Democrat senator Elizabeth Warren.
Taking to X, she previously wrote: "CBS canceled Colbert’s show just THREE DAYS after Colbert called out CBS parent company Paramount for its $16M settlement with Trump – a deal that looks like bribery.
"America deserves to know if his show was canceled for political reasons."
Tyla has previously contacted the White House for comment and has also reached out to Paramount for additional comment.
Topics: TV And Film, Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Social Media
Rhiannon Ingle