After nearly 30 years, South Park is changing its name.
Well… sort of.
Ahead of the show’s 29th season, Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced that South Park will now be called South America.
Yes, seriously.
Or at least as seriously as anyone should take an announcement from the guys who gave us Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo.
Parker and Stone said the change was inspired by the “bravery and patriotism” of Apple and Google, while also thanking Paramount—which they sarcastically called “a Skydance Capitulation.”
Subtle, gentlemen.
The joke is aimed at President Donald Trump’s efforts to rename geographic locations, including the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and Lake Ontario as Lake America. Trump also recently floated changing New Mexico to “New America,” which has drawn criticism from residents and historians. People, Reuters
Apple and Google were dragged into the announcement because their mapping services adopted some of the administration’s preferred names.
It’s not yet clear whether South America is merely a one-day publicity gag or something the show plans to carry into Season 29.
But considering how relentlessly South Park focused on the Trump administration last season, I’m guessing Trey and Matt aren’t finished with this joke yet.
The announcement also arrived just days after South Park won the Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for “Sermon on the ’Mount”—its first victory in that category since 2013. Television Academy
Afterward, the show posted an image of its animated Trump holding the award with the caption:
“You finally got your Emmy.”
That, of course, was another jab at Trump’s long-running complaints about never winning an Emmy for The Apprentice. Entertainment Weekly
Thirty seasons in, most shows are desperately trying to remind people they still exist.
South Park just renamed itself to keep the argument going.
South America—or whatever the hell we’re calling it—returns Wednesday, September 16 on Comedy Central, followed the next day on Paramount+.
