“Right-wing humorists, the Joe Rogans and Andrew Schulzes of the world, they’re the ones occupying this offensive free-speech space. And so anything that the left can do to reclaim artists like Parker and Stone would be a benefit to them.”
In a meeting Thursday, the FCC’s Carr said he’s “not a ‘South Park’ watcher,” NBC News reports. He also said Trump is against “a handful of national programmers” who “control and dictate to the American what the narrative is, what they can say, what they can think.” But, while many of his attacks have focused on news organizations themselves—ABC, CBS, NPR, even The Wall Street Journal—censoring cherished entertainers could rile up members of the public who frankly may not care that much about the plight of journalists.
That’s something that Paramount, too, has to contend with now.
“They just inked this $1.5 billion deal that, to me, is a gesture of full and unequivocal support from Paramount,” Marx says. “The syndication and streaming licenses that South Park draws are worth much, much more than they’ve been paying Parker and Stone over the years.” He says he wouldn’t be surprised if Parker and Stone got away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.
But, as the episode itself indicated, Trump has been relentless with his lawsuit targets and openly bragged about getting Colbert fired and keeping the media in line.
Michael Sozan, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says he could absolutely see Paramount trying to tone down South Park’s content, considering that the company settled on “the flimsiest of lawsuits,” predicated on the claim that 60 Minutes edited an interview with Kamala Harris to make it more flattering to her. But he said doing so could “wake up a sleeping giant”: the public. The streamer has also promised Trump it will cancel its DEI initiatives.
“A lot of American people are starting to be more and more aware of how Trump is trying to censor reporters, but now also just entertainment shows that he disagrees with it. That is something that authoritarians do,” he says. People could respond with outrage or boycotts.
But he cautions that’s not Paramount’s only problem as it clinches the $8 billion Skydance merger.
Already, senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have written a letter to Skydance CEO David Ellison seeking answers about the “secret side deal with President Trump” that allegedly offered him future PSAs. Trump has called Ellison’s father, Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, a “friend.” California officials are also looking into whether the company engaged in bribery related to the deal, as Semafor reported.
“If there’s a Democratic administration and a Democratic Department of Justice starting three years from now, or Democratic House or Senate, Paramount also has opened itself up to the possibility of lots of investigations,” Sozan says.
It’s fascinating that South Park and late-night comics are issuing some of the harshest rebukes of Trump, though Sozan says satire—and joy—are considered by scholars to be an effective tool against authoritarians who “want to keep people depressed and in line.”
He thinks the backlash over Paramount’s mounting controversies could be a genuine “cultural flash point.”
So far, there’s no indication that Paramount plans to censor South Park. Then again, the Skydance merger has only just been greenlit.
At the end of the premiere episode, Cartman and Butters, seemingly stand-ins for Parker and Stone, try to kill themselves because Cartman is depressed that “woke is dead” and he has nothing to make fun of anymore.
“I think I might be going,” Butters says. “Yep, sweet death is about to come. I love you man,” Cartman replies.
For fans of the show—and free speech in general—let’s hope that’s not true. But just in case, you should probably watch that episode now.
