South Park (sorry, South America) returns with new name, same bloody satire

The first episode since the series won the Outstanding Animated Program Emmy last week (its sixth) saw Cartman kick off an e-bike arms race in the newly rechristened town which, predictably, gets very, messily out of hand. Those darned e-bikes! Incurring the wrath of the town’s ten-speed enthusiast dads, the kids soon find themselves in a bloody turf war between, as the title spells out, “South American Biker Gangs,” with at least two resulting fatalities. (No points for guessing which of the kids gets blown to bits on his overpowered electronic bicycle.)

But speaking of that name change, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker recently trolled none other than favorite target Donald Trump (and a few of his corporate enablers), whose willy-nilly, unilateral place-renaming spree recently extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the shores of Lake Ontario. (Trump also today shuttered the Kennedy Center because courts won’t let him slather his own name on a building dedicated to someone else.) 

In an announcement earlier this month, Stone and Parker proudly proclaimed, “Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA. We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount—a Skydance Capitulation.” The reference to the two tech giants referred to the companies’ immediate capitulation to Trump’s nationalistic whims by dutifully changing Lake Ontario to “Lake America” on its map apps. Skydance, having merged with South America‘s Paramount parent company, has long been a target of hand-biting mockery for its Trump-favoring rapaciousness, but that didn’t stop Paramount from re-upping with Stone and Parker for five more years back in 2025. 

As for the episode itself, the whole name change gag (as long as it lasts) was mostly background humor, with irate citizens spouting lines like, “I’m telling you guys, South America just isn’t safe any more!” The show continues to imagine its infamous all-inclusive offensiveness is cover for, say, an Asian e-bike shop owner speaking in an accent that would make Jerry Lewis blush is hilarious. (They pronounce their “l”s like “r”s, get it?) But the way that Stan’s father and the other “old farts” attempt to reclaim the streets by immediately blaming (and beating) an immigrant is some prime South America America-bashing.