Not even South Park wants to deal with the 2024 election

Trey Parker, on keeping South Park gone until after the election: "I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”

By William Hughes | September 5, 2024 | 7:37pm

Image: Paramount+

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Not even South Park wants to deal with the 2024 election

Amateur restaurateurs Trey Parker and Matt Stone gave a short interview to Vanity Fair this week, briefly touching on their other major business venture: Comedy Central series/Paramount+ streaming bargaining chip South Park. Specifically, the pair, who are currently gearing up for the release of ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, their new documentary about their efforts to renovate a beloved Colorado Mexican restaurant of their youths, have made it clear that they’re waiting to bring South Park for a variety of reasons—including really not wanting to have to cover the 2024 election this time around.

“Honestly, it’s on purpose,” Stone says of the long pause between the show’s most recent seasons and specials, noting that, “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. Obviously, it’s fucking important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun.” Parker: “I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”

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South Park covered the 2016 election pretty exhaustively, including racing to complete an episode in the immediate aftermath of the election after Trump’s unexpected victory at the polls. The show has, through its own efforts—and Stone and Parker’s own self-imposed obligation to cover and reflect the world with their foul-mouthed cartoon show—often taken on what even its creators seem to now view as an outsized political identity, so it’s no wonder that they might decide to just tap out of it for an election cycle.

Of course, it’s not the only reason they’ve stepped away for a time, citing a need for “Paramount to figure all their shit out.” Presumably referencing the contentious legal battles between their long-time partners and Warner Bros, which has sued the studio over feeling like it didn’t get its money worth out of a huge deal a few years back to make Max South Park‘s streaming home—only to have Paramount begin commissioning “exclusive specials” to bolster its own Paramount+ service. Anyway: No South Park until at least 2025, although ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, directed by Arthur Bradford, will be out on Paramount+ some time sooner.