“South Park” fans have to face the disappointment of a Wednesday night without a new episode from their favorite animated mischief makers.
Show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker explained that they didn’t finish the episode in time to air and that “this one’s on us.” They thanked both the network and fans for “being so understanding.”
“Apparently when you do everything at the last minute, sometimes you don’t get it done,” they said in a statement posted to Instagram.
Both men recently signed a deal reportedly worth $1.5 billion to produce 50 episodes of their popular satirical cartoon for Paramount.
In their debut episode under the new deal in July, the show slammed President Donald Trump and Paramount with an episode mocking the president’s lawsuit against the company.
Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement with Trump, who accused “60 Minutes” of editing an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. Critics accused the network of kowtowing to Trump as they proposed blockbuster merger with SkyDance.
Just after the settlement, Stephen Colbert’s popular late night show was canceled. Many pointed out that Colbert frequently used his CBS show, which is under Paramount, to criticize Trump.
The Federal Communications Commission approved the SkyDance merger weeks later.
Parker and Stone wrote in their debut episode a storyline where Trump sued the town of South Park for $5 billion, and Jesus Christ urges the townspeople to settle.
“You guys saw what happened to CBS? Yeah, well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount,” Jesus Christ says at the episode’s climax. “Do you really want to end up like Colbert?”
“South Park” has also faced scrutiny in the wake of the assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, who was somewhat featured in another episode this season. Eric Cartman, one of the show’s main characters, dressed similarly to Kirk and adopts Kirk’s style of speaking while hosting a podcast.
Kirk himself enjoyed the parody and told Fox News that it was “badge of honor” to be featured on the show. He said he’d been familiar with the show his entire life and that he was excited to watch it.
“They seem to be an equal opportunity offender,” Kirk said. “I mean look, they’re going to obviously make fun of me … but I think it’s kind of funny.”
Deadline reported that Paramount pulled the episode from “South Park” re-runs after Kirk’s death. Commenters on Wednesday wrote that they believed the “South Park” episode was finished, but Stone and Parker had to “pivot due to recent circumstances.”
“Blink twice if they’re silencing you, Matt and Trey,” one of the comments said.
