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- [00:00]
Tim Miller
Hey, everybody. Tim Miller from the Bulwark here with our culture editor, Sonny Bunch. You know shit's getting real when we bring in Sonny over on south park, my Colorado boys, Matt and Trey. Was it a new season last night? Yeah, it's a new season. First episode of the new season, and they went hard in the paint at tiny dicks Donald Trump. And these guys have kind of avoided Trump discourse. Not completely, but just. They've even said in interviews about how challenging it is to spoof Trump because of the nature of Donald Trump, but for a. Been a change of tune. And when I saw the stuff coming across last night before I went to bed, I got to tell you, it is hilarious. They really go after Trump's little pee pee and his relationship with the devil, little Saddam Hussein throwback as well. Sonny, you've watched the whole episode this morning. Before we get into kind of the meta convo about how this plays into the Paramount and the censorship and the lawsuits, before we get into all that, let's just tell the people what the south park boys did.
- [01:04]
Sonny Bunch
Well, it's a very funny episode. This is the first episode in two and a half seasons. And as you said, they have always kind of come at Trump from a sideways angle. In the last season, they had Mr. Garrison running for president as kind of a Trump figure. He had the red hat and the tan makeup, et cetera. But they've always been a little bit hesitant about going directly at Trump just because, as you say, it's a, it's hard to satirize somebody like Donald Trump. But B, also, everybody else was doing it. Like, there was no shortage of people mocking Donald Trump. So they always kind of like, stayed away from it. This season, they went head on directly at Donald Trump. They. If. If longtime fans of the show will remember how they treated Saddam Hussein with. They used actual images of Saddam Hussein and gave him kind of a flappy head and a funny voice and had him in bed with Satan. And he. They've literally put Donald Trump into this same exact position this. This season as. As the season begins. And the thrust of the episode is the boys at south park are very confused because first off, Cartman can't listen to npr, which he loved, because it was always full of women and minorities complaining about things. And that's his watch. Their tears of sadness brought him great joy. And he's like, why? What's happened? And they say, well, Donald Trump has canceled npr. And he's like, what? Donald Trump can't cancel a show. Wink, wink, nudge. And we can get into that but. The but. And from there, they. Jesus has been reintroduced to South Park. He is being in. He's in the schools. Jesus is in the schools. He's in the schools. And the character who is known as PC Principal, who was introduced a few years back as kind of a frat bro type, but woke, like a woke bully, one would describe him as, you know, a woke skull, woke bully has rebranded as Power in Christ Principal. And the whole point of the episode is to capture the vibe shift of how the person who is telling you what you can and cannot say has gone from, you know, again, kind of the woke, left, whatever, you know, the. The PC principle type to now the woke. Right, Right. It's the. It's the. The folks on the right who say, you can't say this about Donald Trump. He'll sue you. He'll sue you. And that is. That is what happens to. Every time somebody says something about Donald Trump, or anytime somebody accurately in the context of the show paints or draws his very small member, he threatens lawsuits. He said, I'm going to sue you for $5 billion. You can't say that about me. You can't say that about me. And by the end of the episode, this is the clip that was going around last night. The people of south park have put together a psa, a public service announcement, as part of their settlement with Donald Trump, who has threatened to sue the town for $5 billion, in which Donald Trump is wandering through the desert suffering for the sins of the people. He's thirsty, he needs sustenance. He's taking off his clothes. And at the end of the psa, again, it's so childish to say out loud, but it's very, very funny. A tiny little Donald Trump penis with cartoon eyes on the end of it says, I'm Donald Trump and I approve this message. And I'm sorry.
- [04:15]
Tim Miller
No, that's wrong, Sonny. I've only seen the clips. You've seen the whole episode. But just because I've watched the clip 90 times, I can tell you how that actually ends. VO A Voice of God for the PSA, and it says, Donald Trump, his penis is teeny tiny, but his love for us is large.
- [04:33]
Sonny Bunch
That's a good point. I'm sorry, that is. That is. Tim, you've watched this more times than I have. Probably. It's. It's. But no, it. It's the whole episode. The whole episode is very funny. And, you know, again, we can get into the whole Paramount, CBS of it all, but it, it goes to show you can do. You could make fun of Trump and it can be very funny. And I am going to be very curious to see if he. What happens. What happens with the Paramount CBS sale and the Viacom merger and all that stuff. What happens with all that going forward is going to be kind of interesting to.
- [05:07]
Tim Miller
I got to tell you, if I was Donald Trump, I would ignore this because it is so brutal and like, these guys are so good that Trump's superpower in the, in a political fight, right, is he's always fighting with dork. I say this as somebody that has been, that has tried, you know, that was there in 2016 with Jeb. God love him, Jeb's a dork. You know, Donald Trump had this advantage where everybody else plays by the rules and he doesn't. He doesn't give an F, right? He can be like, you know, whatever. Hillary eats babies and, you know, like, just, he can just, you know, remember the one time Marco Rubio tried this and made a comment about Donald Trump's tiny hands, meaning he has a tiny penis. Like, Rubio apologized two days later, right? Because, like, he got shamed, right? Donald Trump is unshameable. And so he can, like, even though he is weak, he can take an alpha posture in a, in a fight with other politicians because he's willing to do stuff that they're not. Right, frankly. And, and also because he's, like, been on TV and stuff. Like, he's a pretty good insult comic. And it doesn't really work for me, but it's better even when other politicians try. It just feels phony, right? Like, it, it's more authentic to him. Like, he is an insult comic bully. So he doesn't have that advantage against these guys. You know, you can push her and like, you know, I, I mean, what, what it's going to be like, oh, Matt and Trey with their stupid, you know, stupid cartoon. Like, it draws attention to this. Like, there's the other scene that was going around, which was where Donald Trump commissions a painting. And like, he goes in the lighthouse and the painter has painted him with this figure, fat, distended belly and tiny dick. And he comes in, he's like, I'm going to sue the painter. I'm going to sue this, I'm going to sue that. And it's just like, I don't know, man. I don't think the Dan Scavino bleeds at South Park's expense. Now. His play might be in this, I think, gets us into the politics of this, to go after the suits. Right. And to try to try to create issues with that and not to go at south park directly, but you know, this context as we keep kind of alluding to is, you know, Paramount is trying to have this merger happen. They got bullied on 60 Minutes on the stupidest lawsuit in history and they succumbed.
- [07:27]
Sonny Bunch
By the way, funny aside here, there's a whole riff in this episode about 60 Minutes being terrified to say anything about Donald trump. They send 60 minutes 60,000. They send 60 minutes to the town to cover the lawsuit and they're like, I don't know, these guys are a bunch of losers who were mad at Donald Trump, who's a great man, who's a great president. Again, it's spot on. Absolutely perfect criticism of the FOL just gave them $1.5 billion. I mean it's, it's.
- [07:56]
Tim Miller
Yes, this is so, this is so South Park's on, you know, as part of the Paramount family. They just re upped with them for what, five years? For 1.5 billion.
- [08:04]
Sonny Bunch
Five years. $300 million per to, to get exclusive rights to the, to the library to stream at Paramount plus but also to make 10 new episodes a year. Basically. They're getting paid, Matt and Trey, My understanding is they're getting paid $250 million to them to make 10 new episodes a year.
- [08:22]
Tim Miller
Wow. It's a good deal. It's a good business. You can get it. We're not doing that. We're not doing that kind of Rev on YouTube yet. So subscribe to the feed and tell your friends it's a good deal if you can get it. Well deserved for those guys though. The. So anyway, so they're, they're part of this Paramount. The merger still hasn't happened. Paramount was, was bullied into submission over 60 minutes. They paid off downtown what was 16 million or whatever in damages for editing the Kamala Harris interview. Like literally the stupidest lawsuit in history. And yet, you know, and there is a lot of other stuff happening with Paramount and cbs. Like there's some discussion that CBS is totally going to revamp their news department, that they're getting rid of all dei. They're going to bring in some conservative potentially from this outlet, the Free Press, to like manage the news department to. We'll see if that actually happens. But like they're doing all these things to suck up to Donald Trump and to appeal to Donald Trump. And then these guys come out on their first episode and they offer the most withering, childish mock of Donald Trump imaginable. And I mean I don't. Who knows? Again, like, I guess his choice is to either ignore it or to try to use it to garner more concessions out of cbs or who knows, maybe threats and pulls it. How that plays out is as interesting as anything. What do you make of it?
- [09:40]
Sonny Bunch
I don't know. I mean, look, all of these, everything that is gonna happen with Paramount and CBS is gonna happen kind of behind the scenes with the various commissioners and whatever. You remember that. You've seen the movie Casino, right?
- [09:52]
Tim Miller
Of course, yeah.
- [09:53]
Sonny Bunch
You remember the scene in Casino where Ace goes and he thinks he's gonna get his gambling license and then the board just immediately votes no on that? That is what could end up happening to Paramount. Right. Just kind of a quick no vote without any real explanation, which will then be followed a day later by Donald Trump just putting it out on Truth Social. Like, yeah, I tanked it. I tanked it because of South Park. What are you going to do now? And like, whatever. But the, but you know, you say Donald Trump should ignore this, and I think that that is, that is the kind of traditionally correct response. Right? Since Donald Trump never does the traditionally correct thing, he. There's no reason why he can't treat this like just another reality TV feud for him to rile up his base. Look at. You thought, you thought, you thought the south park guys were on your side maga. You thought that they were anti woke. They're the wokest people out there. They're, they're, they're, they're making fun of me. They're making fun of you. They're making fun of Christianity. They're making fun of Jesus Christ. And that's another element of this episode, which is like the commodification of Christ. Like, there's a party at the White House and. Right, there's a party at the White House and everybody's wearing crucifixes and it's just like women in bikinis and Kid Rock and, you know, it's like, it's disgusting, but it's also funny because it's true. It's like, this is the world in which we live.
- [11:17]
Tim Miller
Yeah, we'll have to see. I'm interested to find out what he decides to do because I just even like kind of spitballing potential responses. Like, they all just seem so sad compared to what Matt and Trey just did to him, you know, like, I don't know. Right. Like, it seems a little pathetic and sad. Now again, sometimes he doesn't care about that. Like, he does things that are pathetic all the Time because he has a cult following. And so they make it seem like it's really great, you know, in their little bubble. But I don't know, I mean, I, I think the other interesting element that I want to talk about with you about this really quick about the vibe shift is this is another thing that's kind of getting out of control for him a little bit. And it relates to the Epstein story is important in the kind of narrow sense of. It's important that the victims get justice. Right. It's important if any story where the President of the United States and the Justice Department is covering something up, that is potential illegality by the President is a story in itself. But to me, the broader meta narrative of it is it has provided this opportunity for all these kind of contrarian types, you know, libertarian type people that are like, are not really mapped to either party, you know, and people say like, what is the Joe Rogan of the left? Well, Joe Rogan used to be the Joe Rogan of the left, right? And he's kind of gone back and forth like these types of folks and you know, and they are all different kind of stripes, but like, but you can sort of lump in together like the non, like political maga, right? Like the Rogan and Theovan and Suffolk wouldn't even be called maga, but like, you know, kind of this anti woke kind of like, you know, libertarian sort of streak in the culture, right?
- [13:09]
Sonny Bunch
And these guys, like people don't want to be told what they can and can't say.
- [13:13]
Tim Miller
Yeah, yeah, that's a good way to describe, like, to sum it up, right, Those folks were for some, for reasons that range from legitimate to kind of stupid, like very upset at the left for the last, like going back to Covid, basically. And like, you know, it ties a lot to some of the COVID rules and restrictions. And like now if Trump is covering up the Epstein thing and the south park guys can inject this kind of woke, right, like the right wing PC, what I call patriotic correctness, like the stupid stuff that they're putting in, like, oh, we have to honor, you know, all of the great things that America always did. You can't. Like, I think it really opens them up to a, to losing that group or, or at least to kind of losing control of the narrative in that world, you know.
- [14:02]
Sonny Bunch
Totally. I think. I mean, look again, that is really the most interesting part of this episode for me. The PSA stuff is very funny, obviously, because. Little tiny penis, it's funny, you know, that's there's one bedrock rule of comedy. If you put googly eyes on a penis, people are gonna laugh. But the big point of this episode is again, the guys at south park saying, we are being, there is somebody in power who is using the power of the presidency and the power of the legal system to shut people up. And that is, that's, we're not, we're not going to be shut up. We're not going to play that game. We're not going to bow and decide what can and cannot be said for us. And I do think that that is, that's a real vibe shift. That is a, that is a thing that the President has long, you know, kind of played as a trump card. And I, I, he is losing it. He is losing it. And this is a, this is a pretty, this is exhibit A in what is, what is going on.
- [15:04]
Tim Miller
Like, the Epstein stuff also, like, wasn't really in this episode, right. And they turned out there was a little bit because the Iran bombing was in it.
- [15:11]
Sonny Bunch
So the, there at one point, Donald Trump goes into bed with Satan and does the kind of Saddam Hussein thing.
- [15:18]
Tim Miller
Yeah.
- [15:19]
Sonny Bunch
Mad at him. Satan is mad at him because his name kept showing up in the Epstein files. Like, I don't even want to talk to you. You are in the Epstein files. And President Trump in South Park's like, I don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. It's fine. It's fine. And it's, it's again, it hits every, it hits every note. It hits every note from the last, I don't know, month or so of the presidency.
- [15:45]
Tim Miller
Boy, I might just have to rewatch that clip again. It's really good. Everybody, you guys go watch it. We don't want to get. Paramount has a lot of legal issues right now, so probably our YouTube feed is not at the top of it. But just to be safe, you guys go watch it on another platform. We'll just show you a couple little pictures of Trump cuddling with Satan to give you a tease because I enjoy that. You'll have to go see the googly eyed penis yourself at hopefully on the Internet somewhere. You don't need to, don't, you don't need to give the Paramount people money. All right, if you don't want to. I get that. Hey, look, they just paid 16 million to Donald Trump.
- [16:21]
Sonny Bunch
It's worth supporting Trey Parker and Matt Stone for what they.
- [16:25]
Tim Miller
Yeah, can we direct order? Is it like southpark.com is there like a direct.
- [16:30]
Sonny Bunch
There is actually there's a website, e trumpdust.com if you go to he trumpdust.com it'll take you to an embed of the PSA, which you then have to actually click over to YouTube to watch because they won't even show it on that, that site because it's, you know, again, it's, it's a little bit risque. They want to make sure everybody's watching that on YouTube where they can verify ages and such.
- [16:52]
Tim Miller
Well, thank you to Matt and Trey. They brought back Casa Bonita, and now they have torn Donald Trump down to size. We appreciate you very much, Sonny Bunch culture. Go read Sonny's culture material@theborg.com he has a it's a podcast about the movies and such. You can check out as well if you're interested in that. And Sunny, I appreciate your time. Your penis is teeny tiny, but your love for all of our viewers is strong.
- [17:17]
Sonny Bunch
What.