South Park has always been indiscriminate with its satirical targets, but the current season has been especially ruthless in taunting President Donald Trump and the MAGA crowd. In an unfortunate coincidence of timing, one episode that parodied right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk was scheduled to air a rerun on Wednesday September 10, the same day Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University. In wake of the shooting, the rerun was pulled from the schedule and another South Park episode aired on Comedy Central instead.
“Got A Nut” originally aired in August, and featured Cartman styling himself after Kirk and arguing politics with young people. “I have my arguments down rock solid,” Cartman tells his mother in the episode (via The Daily Beast). “These young college girls are totally unprepared, so I can just destroy them, and also edit out all the ones that actually argue back well. It just feels so good.” At the end of the episode, Cartman receives the “Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters.”
Kirk, who became a right-wing celebrity for promoting racist, sexist, and extreme conservative rhetoric, celebrated the South Park parody at the time. He called it “hilarious,” saying on TikTok (via The Hollywood Reporter), “We have a good spirit about being made fun of. This is all a win. We as conservatives have thick skin, not thin skin, and you can make fun of us and it doesn’t matter.” Unlike the White House and secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem, Kirk was able to spin South Park‘s attention into a positive. He called it a “badge of honor” and told Fox News (via The Independent) that it “goes to show the cultural impact and the resonance that our movement has been able to achieve.”
Not all within his movement would agree, and after his death some have blamed South Park for the shocking political violence. According to The New York Post, a staffer from Kirk’s Turning Point USA posted on Telegram, “Comedy has consequences. Charlie was targeted in the culture before he was targeted in real life.” Similarly, right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly said on his program, “South Park thought it was funny to turn Charlie into a cartoon joke. Now his wife is planning a funeral.”
