^{Credit: South Park (Comedy Central)}

We’re not even through the current Emmy season with Arcane and Common Side Effects vying for Outstanding Animated Program. Yet, it’s worth looking ahead to next year’s race with South Park’s season premiere, “Sermon on the 'Mount.” For a hot minute, it looked like the episode might not reach its July 23 premiere date, which had already been pushed back from July 9. With the streaming rights to South Park up in the air and Paramount’s merger with Skydance further complicating matters, some feared this might be the end of Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s Emmy-winning creation. Days before airing, the creators reached a $1.5 billion deal with Paramount. Stone and Parker will produce 50 new South Park episodes over five years, with the show’s entire library exclusively streaming on Paramount+.

This news came on the heels of the announcement that CBS, also owned by Paramount, was cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. CBS insists this was “purely a financial decision,” claiming to be losing $40 million annually on The Late Show, despite it being #1 in the ratings. The decision was also reportedly made before Colbert called CBS’ $16 million settlement with President Trump over a 60 Minutes interview “a big fat bribe.” Many still find the timing suspicious, Colbert being one of Trump’s most vocal critics, and the president potentially standing in the merger’s way. Colbert will surely use his final months on The Late Show as a platform to troll Trump. South Park, meanwhile, will be making fun of Trump for at least another 49 episodes. 

South Park is no stranger to Trump, although they’ve taken a different approach in the past. In 2015, when The Apprentice guy becoming POTUS was only a possibility, South Park had the Canadian President as a Trump stand-in. The episode ends with Mr. Garrison killing him, only to set his own eyes on the White House. The following year saw Mr. Garrison become President Garrison in the show’s continuity, essentially turning him into Trump for four years. After the 2020 election, Garrison resumed his old position as an elementary school teacher. With Trump seeking reelection in 2024, though, it seemed Garrison might not be done with politics either.

In September 2024, Trey Parker told Vanity Fair that when South Park returned in 2025, Trump wouldn’t be the focus, saying, “I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.” Of course, much has changed since then. Having won the election, Trump is suing the pants off people, silencing his critics, and dodging questions about the Epstein files. It was impossible for a show like South Park not to at least acknowledge Trump. The season premiere tackled the president head-on like never before.

Rather than just have Garrison run again, it’s revealed that the actual Trump has become president. Trump’s appearance is modeled after the show’s version of Saddam Hussein, complete with a flappy head, a whiny voice, and an instrumental version of “I Can Change.” Also like Saddam, Trump has entered a sexual relationship with Satan, who was last seen ascending to heaven in Season 22. Where Saddam at least satisfied Satan, he gets nothing from Trump's micro penis. How small is it? So small that Comedy Central apparently didn’t have to censor it (not that they didn’t try). 

The gag is reminiscent of a scene in the Season 5 episode, “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants,” in which a magnifying glass is required to see the terrorist’s testicles. That episode got nominated for an Emmy, although South Park wouldn’t win until Season 9’s “Best Friends Forever.” South Park has since won four more Emmys for “Make Love, Not Warcraft,” the “Imaginationland” trilogy, “Margaritaville,” and “Raising the Bar.” With five wins overall, it trails only The Simpsons in the Outstanding Animated Program categories.

Despite this, South Park hasn’t been nominated since “The Pandemic Special” in 2021. That special lost to Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal for “Plague of Madness,” which also had a pandemic theme. The crew submitted “The Big Fix” in 2022, “The Worldwide Privacy Tour” in 2023, and the “Joining the Panderverse” special in 2024, but none were nominated. South Park didn’t have a submission for 2025, although “The End of Obesity” special missed the eligibility window by barely a week. South Park may return to the Emmys in 2026 with “Sermon on the 'Mount,” which has quickly become one of the most talked-about episodes in years. It even received a response from the White House. Needless to say, Trump isn’t a fan.

South Park’s version of Trump spends much of the episode suing people, from 60 Minutes to the titular town. The citizens settle, although they’re also required to produce some “pro-Trump” PSAs. They turn in an ad featuring a deepfake Trump wandering the desert, stripping down to his finger puppet. The title screen notably reads, “Pro-Trump PSA 01 of 50.” That means we can count on one PSA per episode for the next five seasons. South Park will surely take on other targets during that time. Even “Sermon on the 'Mount” isn’t exclusively dedicated to Trump, also addressing Jesus being forced into public schools and “woke” being dead. Yet, the Trump bashing is just beginning.

Who knows what will happen with the Skydance merger (which the FCC has approved) or Trump’s presidency? All I know is that during these uncertain times when news outlets are bowing to bitter politicians and comedians are being censored, at least South Park will be around to say, “The Emperor isn’t wearing any clothes… and he has a tiny penis.” It may be too early to talk about next year’s Emmy race, but two things can’t be denied. 1) South Park will still be relevant when Emmy voters mark their ballots in 2026. 2) South Park already has more Emmys than Trump will ever see, although he did win Emmy Idol with Karen Walker in 2006. Look it up.

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1 and 2. Available Now!