South Park has always been a magnet for controversy, especially with its current run of episodes mocking Donald Trump, but things have escalated following the death of Charlie Kirk. Comedy Central has pulled the Season 27 episode “Got A Nut,” which features Cartman mocking Kirk’s “Prove Me Wrong” style of debates. This apparently isn’t enough for Kirk’s supporters, who took to Twitter with claims that South Park painted a target on the Turning Point founder’s back. In addition to calls for pulling “Got A Nut” off the air, there have been calls to pull the episode — and the entirety of South Park — off of Paramount+. What these posts are missing is a key bit of context, namely the context surrounding “Got A Nut” and Kirk’s reaction to it.
When “Got A Nut” first aired, Kirk addressed the episode when he appeared on Fox News, calling it “a badge of honor” to be featured on South Park. “We as conservatives should be able to take a joke, we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously,” he said, even going so far as to praise South Park for nailing the details about his debates. The ending of “Got A Nut” features a nod to Kirk, albeit with the raunchy sense of humor that permeates South Park. When Cartman and another boy, Eric Donovan, end up in a fierce debate about who has the best right-wing podcast, Donovan ends up winning the coveted “Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters.” On top of that, this isn’t the first time real-life events have impacted South Park or other TV shows.
This Isn’t the First Time ‘South Park’ Has Had Episodes Pulled Off the Air
South Park often finds itself in the crosshairs of controversy, especially with co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone leaving no stone unturned when it comes to mocking others. A key example is the iconic episode “Trapped in the Closet,” which implied that Scientology was a scam and that Tom Cruise was a gay man metaphorically “trapped in the closet,” so to speak; to avoid the extremely litigious church, Parker and Stone changed the names of the cast, though this led to longtime cast member Isaac Hayes quitting as he was a Scientologist.
A more serious example concerns five episodes that featured a less-than-flattering depiction of the ProphetMuhammad, which led to criticism from the Islamic community and resulted in the episodes being banned from streaming and cable. On top of that, South Park is fully banned in China due to one episode featuring the country as the target of mockery.
There’s also the fact that “Got A Nut” aired a month before Kirk’s death, meaning that the two events are only connected through random happenstance — but this is not the first time that the media has been altered in the wake of a major event. After the Columbine shootings, an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was postponed due to a plot featuring a student planning to shoot his classmates.
The September 11 attacks led to recalls of a poster for Sam Raimi‘s Spider-Man, since it featured the Twin Towers reflected in the web-slinger’s eyes. A more recent example involves The Boys, with its Season 4 finale needing to drop the title of “Assassination Run” and adding a disclaimer following an attempt on Donald Trump’s life.
Paramount Struck a Major Deal for ‘South Park,’ So It’s Not Going Anywhere
“Got A Nut” might be pulled from the airwaves for now, but it will probably return once the furor surrounding Kirk’s death flames out. Those arguing for South Park to be entirely taken off the air are probably in for a shock, as Paramount’s $1.5 billion deal with Parker and Stone means that the series is a key part of the network’s future.
It’s no secret that new Paramount chief David Ellison is seeking to make iconic franchises like Star Trek and Transformers into pillars for the legendary studio, and it looks like South Park is going to get a similar treatment with that kind of price tag. Shelving it would make no sense, and if outright mocking the Trump administration wasn’t enough to stop the series from airing, Kirk’s death probably won’t either.
South Park is streaming on Paramount+.
South Park
- Release Date
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August 13, 1997
- Network
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Comedy Central
- Directors
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Adrien Beard
- Writers
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David A. Goodman, Nancy M. Pimental, Kenny Hotz, Philip Stark, Dave Weasel, Dan Sterling, Susan Hurwitz Arneson, Trisha Nixon, David R. Goodman, Tim Talbott, Pam Brady, Robert Lopez, Dani Michaeli, Kyle McCulloch, Karey Dornetto, Jonathan Kimmel, Jane Bussmann
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Karri Turner
Liane Cartman / Wendy Testaburger / Mrs. Crabtree (voice)
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Kyle Broflovski / Kenny McCormick (voice)