From its inception in 1997, South Park has never shied away from controversy. The animated sitcom, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker, has built its reputation on lampooning everything from religion and sexuality to politics and celebrity culture. But in 2025, the show’s biting satire has escalated to new heights, provoking not only public backlash but also official responses from the highest levels of the U.S. government.
The latest wave of controversy centers on the show’s 27th season, particularly the premiere episode, "Sermon on the Mount," which aired on July 23, 2025. According to Metro, the episode pulled in a staggering 5.9 million viewers across Paramount Plus and Comedy Central within its first three days—a testament to the enduring draw of South Park’s irreverent humor. The episode’s central target: former President Donald Trump, depicted as a litigious sex pest entangled in a bizarre relationship with Satan.
In one of the episode’s most headline-grabbing scenes, Trump is seen in bed with Satan, attempting to initiate intimacy. When Satan rebuffs him, Trump retorts, "Come on Satan, you know you can’t resist this!" He then pulls down his blanket, revealing an extremely small penis. Satan’s response? "I can’t even see anything, it’s so small." The episode doesn’t stop there—later, the pair argue after Trump refuses to say whether he’s on "The Epstein List." The creators reportedly had to fight to keep these jokes from being censored, pushing back against efforts to blur the explicit content.
This isn’t the first time South Park has targeted Trump. The show’s history with the former president stretches back two decades. In season five, Trump appeared as himself—a wealthy, eccentric businessman—more a cultural reference than a political critique. Fast forward to 2015’s season 19, and the show introduced a Canadian version of Trump as President of Canada, blamed for the country’s downfall and inspiring Mr. Garrison’s anti-immigration crusade. Over subsequent seasons, Mr. Garrison would serve as a Trump stand-in, ridiculing real-world politics with the show’s signature outrageousness.
Yet, despite this long-running satire, Stone and Parker had previously suggested they would avoid Trump-related storylines during the 2024 U.S. election. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Stone remarked that writing about Trump was "such a mind scramble" and that they "didn’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump." Parker added that they were "waiting for Paramount to figure out their s***." But with the explosive return of Trump-centric satire in season 27, it’s clear the creators couldn’t resist the lure of current events for long.
The fallout from these episodes has been swift and multifaceted. Following the season premiere, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin of Homeland Security issued a statement to Metro that took the show’s critique in stride—at least on the surface. "We want to thank South Park for drawing attention to ICE law enforcement recruitment," McLaughlin said, before urging "patriotic" viewers to consider joining ICE and listing the benefits of doing so. It was a tongue-in-cheek response, but one that underscored how the show’s satire has real-world reverberations, especially when it comes to contentious issues like immigration enforcement.
The controversy didn’t stop with Trump, however. On August 8, 2025, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem publicly criticized South Park for what she called "lazy" and misogynistic humor in the episode "Got a Nut." Speaking on Glenn Beck’s podcast, Noem said she hadn’t watched the episode but was appalled by its portrayal of her. The show depicted Noem with exaggerated makeup and a melting face, a clear nod to the real-life revelation that she shot her dog, Cricket. The animated Noem is further shown shooting dogs in an ICE orientation video and leading aggressive immigration raids.
Noem didn’t hold back in her critique, stating, "It’s lazy to just constantly make fun of women for how they look." She challenged the show’s creators, saying, "Criticize my job, go ahead and do that, but clearly they can’t." Her comments reflect a broader debate about the boundaries of satire—when does lampooning cross the line into personal attack, especially when it targets a woman’s appearance?
Trump’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, also weighed in, telling NewsNation that the episode was "in bad form" and "certainly bad timing," particularly given what he described as a more than 1,000% increase in assaults on ICE agents. Homan argued that the show’s lampooning of ICE’s hiring incentives was unfair, especially as interest in joining the agency is, according to him, at an all-time high. He claimed he had to close his LinkedIn account after "thousands and thousands" of people expressed interest in becoming ICE agents and noted that Border Patrol recently achieved its highest recruiting numbers ever.
All of this underscores the unique power—and peril—of South Park’s brand of comedy. The show has always walked a tightrope, balancing on the edge of what’s socially acceptable and often tumbling gleefully into the territory of the offensive. Its willingness to mock anyone and everyone, from world leaders to pop culture icons, is both its greatest strength and the source of its fiercest criticism.
But the latest episodes have reignited age-old questions about the role of satire in society. Is it fair game to lampoon public figures for their actions and policies? Or does the humor become problematic when it targets personal appearance and past mistakes? For their part, Stone and Parker have long maintained that nothing—and no one—is off-limits. Yet, as the backlash from government officials and the public alike demonstrates, not everyone is willing to laugh along.
Still, the numbers don’t lie. With millions tuning in for each new episode, South Park remains one of the most-watched and talked-about shows on television, decades after its debut. Whether you see the show as a necessary check on the powerful or an equal-opportunity offender that sometimes goes too far, it’s clear that its influence on American culture—and politics—shows no signs of waning. As the boundaries of satire continue to be tested, South Park seems determined to lead the charge, controversy and all.
