‘South Park’ vs. Trump: And the little children shall lead them

What does it say about America that the only people taking on President Trump on his own terms — which is to say, in the gutter — are two bad-boy cartoonists?

In its 27th season opener this week, titled “The Sermon on the Mount,” the Paramount Plus animated show “South Park” provided by far the most comprehensive and trenchant critique of Trump’s first six months back in office.

The episode, which includes both Jesus and Satan as characters, brutally and hilariously takes on Trump’s laundry list of fixations: NPR, bathrooms, electric cars, returning Christianity to public schools, tariffs, “wokeness,” “60 Minutes” and Stephen Colbert. Characters also denounce Trump for looting the country for personal benefit (“putting money in his own pockets”) and ruling through fear and lawsuits. 

In its first return volley after viewing advanced episode clips, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers dismissed “South Park” as a “fourth-rate show” that “hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread.”

Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone replied to the criticism with typical puckishness. On Thursday, appearing on an animation panel at Comic-Con in San Diego, Parker was asked his reaction to the controversy. “We’re terribly sorry,” he deadpanned.

If past experience holds, we may hear more about this from the nation’s number one amateur TV critic (and slashing Queens street-fighter), and it won't likely be pretty.

On Thursday, after 250 days of suspicious foot-dragging, the Federal Communications Commission voted 2 to 1 to approve the $8 billion merger of Skydance Media and Paramount Global, corporate parent of CBS. Many believed the approval was delayed to force the network into settling Trump’s lawsuit against “60 Minutes” for $16 million, litigation which many legal and media figures considered to be without merit.

But Parker and Stone have a benefit not afforded to other Trump media critics. Unlike Colbert and “The Late Show,” their show makes money for Paramount. Just days before the “South Park” season opener, the pair signed a five-year contract with the studio for $1.5 billion — yes, you read that right, with a "b" — for 10 episodes per season.

The deal may make Parker and Stone bulletproof to any Trump lawsuits. If not, their pockets are at least deep. In fact, factoring in their “The Book of Mormon” financial behemoth, they may be worth more than Trump himself.

As in seasons past, this episode of “South Park” weaves scatology with eschatology, placing the Christian cosmos at its center, as I have written previously.

This episode begins at South Park Elementary School, where the principal had previously embraced diversity, equity and inclusion — which he describes more simply as “kindness.” Since the November election, he, like so many, has cravenly flipped. At a student assembly, the principal now embraces compelling students to accept Jesus as their personal lord and savior —to the point where Jesus himself comes down from Heaven to make his pitch, even in the lunchroom.

At first one parent objects. “What’s Jesus doing in your school?” Randy Marsh asks the principal. Another character asks, “What the hell is this president doing? He doesn’t even act like a Christian.”

Without what Trump calls “wokeness,” student Eric Cartman, a bigot and antisemite, says, “Everyone hates the Jews. Everyone is fine with using gay slurs. It’s terrible. Because,” he says, near tears, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Jesus cautions Trump’s “South Park” opponents that, as an unhinged, omnipotent megalomaniac, the president “can do anything he wants to anyone.”

“You really want to end up like Colbert?” Jesus asks at one point.

Jesus says he only returned to South Park to warn the townspeople.

“I didn’t want to come back to the school, but I had no choice because it was part of a lawsuit and the agreement with Paramount. ... The guy can do whatever he wants now that someone backed down. ... If someone has the power of the presidency, and also the power to sue and take bribes, then he can do anything to anyone.”

Rather than unalloyed outrage at what some would call (and have called) the blasphemous portrayal of Jesus in this and previous “South Park” episodes, some Christians take a more nuanced view.

Veteran speaker and writer Rusty Wright told me, “As a longtime Jesus-follower, I can appreciate faith-skeptics’ criticisms, because I once was one. ‘South Park’ gets it right in that too many Christians can be pushy, controlling and intolerant. ‘South Park’s’ Jesus portrayal might be more credible if he befriended more of his critics, was less PR-anxious, and expressed confidence in divine ability to bring good from difficult situations.”

The cartoon Trump, meanwhile, is literally in bed with Satan, his longtime boyfriend. The devil is so upset with him that he refuses the president sex, saying Trump is beginning to remind him of his previous boyfriend, Saddam Hussein. Satan is also disturbed to learn that Trump has appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

When the town of South Park is sued by Trump for $5 billion for opposing the president, they settle for $3.5 million, but with the added requirement of producing 50 public service announcements extolling the president’s virtues. The first one ... well, let's just say it doesn't help his cause.

There may be an actual political dimension to the episode. The show’s key demographic is young males, precisely the cohort that has been drifting toward Trump. If they are persuaded by the episode that Trump is a tyrannical buffoon and a fair target for ridicule, that may affect their next trip to the polls.

Mark I. Pinsky is the author of “The Gospel According to The Simpsons” and has written extensively about the intersection of religion, popular culture and politics.