Topline
“South Park” continued its no-holds-barred mockery of the Donald Trump administration Thursday in an episode that focused mainly on Sora 2, OpenAI’s video generator, but also featured a graphic storyline between the president and Vice president JD Vance that some viewers said left them “traumatized.”
Vice President J.D. Vance and U.S. President Donald Trump.
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Key Facts
Thursday’s “South Park” episode depicted Vance talking his way out of a punishment for treason before mending fences with Trump with the two first soaking in a hot tub together and then retiring to the Lincoln Bedroom in an explicit sex scene.
When security camera footage of the incident is found by police and ends up on Fox News, Trump insists its AI generated, a lie the network readily accepts before issuing a “Fox News Fake News Alert.”
Some viewers took to social media to say they’d been “traumatized” by the homoerotic depiction of the president, with one adding they’ve “never been more disturbed by something but laughed as hard at the same time.”
The White House has not yet commented on the episode publicly, nor did representatives immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment Thursday morning, but spokesperson Taylor Rogers responded to the “South Park” season premiere in July by calling it “fourth-rate” and claiming it “hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.”
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Key Background
The current season of South Park has touched on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and immigration, but every episode has had the common thread of withering attacks on the current administration. Running storylines include that Trump is in a romantic relationship with Satan and they’ve together conceived the Antichrist; that tech billionaire Peter Thiel and Vance are working together to stop the baby’s birth; and that Jesus works as a school counselor pushing a “MAGA style” version of Christianity. In an interview with the New York Times published Saturday, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker responded to criticism the show has gotten overly political by claiming it was unavoidable in today’s climate, and that they “sensed a fear of speaking out against the administration.”