South Park won’t be returning for a new season until 2025, meaning it will be skipping the 2024 Presidential Election, along with satirizing nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. That appears to be by design, as South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker revealed they are purposely opting out of covering the election. South Park Season 26 aired in 2023, and in the meantime, the series has continued on with three standalone specials that streamed exclusively on Paramount+, with the latest, South Park: The End of Obesity, airing in May 2024.
While speaking with Variety, Stone and Parker explained why they have decided not to return for Season 27 until 2025. One reason for that decision, according to the duo, is that they’re waiting for Paramount “to figure all their s–t out,” referring to the studio’s sale to Skydance, which has yet to be finalized. But the main reason for the delay is that Stone and Parker wanted to avoid covering the election. While they acknowledge its importance, the duo say they feel creatively burned out by the idea of covering Trump, feeling they don’t have much more to say on the subject:
Matt Stone: “We’ve tried to do ‘South Park’ through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing to — it’s such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance.”
Trey Parker: “Obviously, it’s f—ing important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun. I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”
Have Matt Stone and Trey Parker Lost Their Edge?
Matt Stone and Trey Parker’s excuse for sitting out the 2024 election feels rather flimsy. The idea that they can’t think of anything more to say about Trump rings hollow when one considers that Last Week Tonight With John Oliver airs as many episodes a week during its season as South Park does. However, John Oliver continues to tackle these subjects in both comedic and informative ways, while the creators of South Park seemingly can’t think of anything funny to say. The Daily Show, which airs on Comedy Central alongside South Park, manages to deliver humorous commentary four nights a week, with host Jon Stewart doing one show a week, the same number of episodes as South Park is expected to air. If Jon Stewart can do it once a week, why can’t South Park?
The decision also speaks to a change in South Park‘s creative ethos. While the series originally earned a reputation as an “equal-opportunity” offender that makes fun of everyone, in recent years, the series has become more of an avenue for Matt Stone and Trey Parker to air their frustrations and annoyances with Millennial and Gen-Z interests. Stone and Parker might be worried that mocking Trump will alienate the portion of their fanbase that celebrates South Park for “not being woke.” It speaks volumes that South Park could dedicate an entire Paramount+ special to mocking Kathleen Kennedy, complaining about diversity in media, and spewing toxic talking points that have been co-opted for targeted harassment campaigns, but they can’t find anything to mock about Donald Trump anymore. That seems a bit disingenuous, no?