'South Park' mocks Paramount's settlement with Trump after creators sign $1.5B deal

[ad_1] The media conglomerate Paramount introduced Wednesday afternoon that the creators of “South Park” had agreed to supply 50 new episodes over the following 5 years in a deal reportedly valued at $1.5 billion.

Ten hours later, “South Park” creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker excoriated Paramount — and aggressively skewered President Donald Trump — within the premiere episode of the Comedy Central present’s twenty seventh season.

Within the episode, Trump (voiced by Stone) sues the city of South Park for $5 billion after they problem Jesus Christ’s presence of their elementary faculty. The townspeople are ready to combat again, however Jesus Christ (additionally voiced by Stone) urges them to settle.

“You guys noticed what occurred to CBS? Yeah, properly, guess who owns CBS? Paramount,” Jesus Christ says on the episode’s climax. “Do you actually wish to find yourself like Colbert?”

Paramount is underneath intense scrutiny for showing to kowtow to the Trump administration forward of a proposed blockbuster merger. Stone and Parker had been clearly riffing on their company mum or dad’s eventful summer time.

On July 2, Paramount agreed to pay $16 million to settle a lawsuit from Trump, who alleged that CBS’ “60 Minutes” had deceptively edited an interview with former Vice President Kamala Harris. CBS denied that declare.

On July 17, CBS introduced that it deliberate to cancel “The Late Present With Stephen Colbert” in Might, calling the transfer “purely a monetary choice.” However lots of Colbert’s followers cried foul, arguing that the comic was being penalized for his years of anti-Trump humor.

Each developments got here as Paramount is making ready to be bought to Skydance Media, an leisure manufacturing and finance firm headed by David Ellison, the son of Oracle mogul (and Trump ally) Larry Ellison. The company tie-up requires federal approval.

The premiere episode, titled “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” took goal at different satirical targets, together with the supposed loss of life of “wokeness,” the rise of ChatGPT and the talk over Christian teachings in public faculties. Trump and Paramount had been the focal factors, nevertheless.

In a single scene, “60 Minutes” stories on the social unrest roiling South Park amid Trump’s lawsuit. The fictional hosts of the information present are visibly nervous as they introduce the section, going out of their approach to reward the president as “an awesome man.”

“We all know he’s most likely watching,” one of many hosts says.

CBS shouldn't be the one community to succeed in a authorized settlement with Trump. ABC agreed to pay $15 million as a part of a settlement with Trump a month earlier than he took workplace, successfully ending a case regarding alleged defamation.

Paramount’s settlement with Trump has drawn extra consideration, although. Colbert, three days earlier than CBS introduced the tip of his present, blasted the association as a “massive fats bribe.” Jon Stewart, the host of Comedy Central’s “The Every day Present,” additionally assailed the deal.

Paramount owns CBS, a venerable Hollywood film studio, a collection of cable manufacturers (together with Comedy Central) and the Paramount+ streaming platform.

“South Park” is extensively recognized for jabbing politicians and social developments throughout the ideological spectrum. However the newest episode’s depiction of Trump arguably went additional than common.

Stone and Parker depict Trump as a petulant little one, recycling the animation fashion they used for Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein within the 1999 movie “South Park: Larger, Longer & Uncut.” In addition they make profane references to the president’s anatomy.