South Park is not your friend

Summary

Today, Explained – "South Park is not your friend"

Date: August 20, 2025
Podcast: Today, Explained (Vox)
Host(s): Sean Rameswaram, Noel King
Guests: Brian Stelter (Chief Media Analyst, CNN), Nicholas Quah (Culture Writer, Vulture)
Producer: Gabrielle Burbay

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Episode Overview

This episode of Today, Explained examines the resurgence of South Park in the cultural conversation following its sharply satirical new season, which goes directly after President Trump, Kristi Noem, and even its own corporate overlords. The discussion centers on South Park's ideological consistency, the implications for its massive business partnership with Paramount, and the dangers of misreading the show's alliances. The episode argues that while South Park might currently thrill Trump critics, it remains an "equal opportunity offender"—as unpredictable and unsparing as ever, not anyone’s “friend.”

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. South Park’s Latest Season: Political Satire Hits Hard

• The new season takes unprecedented direct aim at President Trump, his administration, and figures like Kristi Noem.
  • Features Trump in outrageous scenarios, e.g., in bed with Satan (04:13), comment on his anatomy.
  • Kristi Noem is the punchline of jokes surrounding scandals—a dog-shooting incident, overuse of facial fillers, and obsession with photo ops (05:00-06:12).
• Satire is “more direct and vicious than ever before,” as Brian Stelter notes, compared to earlier allegories like Mr. Garrison-as-Trump (06:30-07:14).

Notable Quote:

Brian Stelter (02:40): "The creators of South Park have always hated bullies, and they seem to believe Trump is the biggest bully of them all."

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2. Equal-Opportunity Offending: No Ideological Safe Havens

• The show’s new biting attacks on Trump attract “Normie Libs,” but Nicholas Quah and Gabrielle Burbay warn its satire spares no one.
  • South Park previously mocked NPR (“ripping on NPR” at 18:00), Occupy Wall Street (19:55), “woke” positions, and various religions (19:39-19:44).
• There is a cyclical pattern: when South Park targets someone’s “side,” fans cheer; when it targets them, they are outraged.
• The podcast cites an ethos of relentless independence:
  • Quote: Paraphrasing Trey Parker and Matt Stone: “We're not on anybody's fucking side.” (20:54)

Notable Quote:

Gabrielle Burbay (21:23): "South Park, essentially, they are somewhat libertarian in flavor... really embrace the notion of free speech... and that has not been the dominant political frame... on the left... so there’s a very uneasy tension."

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3. Massive Business Stakes: Profits vs. Politics

• Despite skewering the Trump administration during a sensitive media merger, South Park is courted and protected by Paramount/Skydance.
  • Paramount signed a five-year, billion-dollar deal for South Park exclusivity (09:00-10:06).
  • Contrast drawn with Stephen Colbert: canceled (ostensibly for financial reasons) despite being a Trump critic, while South Park continues and thrives because it’s hugely profitable (11:26-13:21).
  • The show is breaking streaming and cable ratings records this season, hitting 5-7 million viewers for new episodes (12:44).
• Paramount CEO David Ellison calls South Park and its creators “equal opportunity offenders” and stressed their value as unique talents (08:32-09:00).

Notable Quote:

Brian Stelter (11:26): "Right now, this might be a case of business actually trumping politics... For the future of this newly combined company, big, loud franchises like South Park are key."

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4. Audience Reception: Unexpected Alliances and Misreadings

• The show’s current anti-Trump focus draws in “liberal” viewers who typically might find its style or content objectionable.
  • This moment is described as a “coalition of aesthetics” rather than political alignment.
  • Gabrielle Burbay notes many fans now celebrating the show once recoiled at its previous attacks on left-liberal shibboleths.
• The episode title emerges here: “South Park is not your friend”—it is not a reliable ally for any faction.
  • Reminder of the danger in adopting South Park as a hero or standard-bearer for a cause (20:54-22:16).

Notable Quote:

Nicholas Quah (20:54): "South Park is not your friend, whoever you may be. Do you think people are forgetting that right now?"

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5. Creative Consistency & Evolution

• Parker and Stone shun all labels; their only reliable principle is the rejection of sacred cows (22:33-23:26).
  • Example: "ManBearPig"—initially mocked Al Gore’s climate warnings (23:26), later reversed that stance with an episode admitting the threat was real (24:18), reflecting intellectual flexibility but not partisanship.
• This independence has protected them from institutional or advertiser pressure.
  • South Park would “walk away” rather than submit to censorship, making them rare in corporate media today (24:28-25:53).

Notable Quote:

Gabrielle Burbay (24:28): "That's something that's kind of rare, I think, in the current political climate... avatars of free speech... basically fold their cards... These are two guys. This is a team. This is a show that doesn't seem to give a damn about any of that."

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Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Trump in bed with Satan (04:13-04:43):

  Nicholas Quah: "Trump disrobes before you even see who he's about to get into bed with and has, I guess, like, a micro penis."
  —Emphasizes the show's willingness to go further than other satires.

• On being equal-opportunity offenders (08:32-09:00):

  Brian Stelter: "[David Ellison] said... they are equal opportunity offenders and they always have been."

• On the show's business power (11:26):

  "Profits actually trumping politics for Paramount... big, loud franchises like south park are key."

• On misunderstood alliances (20:54, 21:23):

  Nicholas Quah: "South Park is not your friend, whoever you may be." Gabrielle Burbay: "There's a tendency... to find heroes wherever they can... but South Park, essentially... really embrace the notion of free speech... there's a very uneasy tension..."

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• South Park’s direct attack on Trump, Noem, and their extremity: 02:37–07:14
• Previous, less direct parodies of Trump: 06:35–07:14
• Attacks on Paramount and implications for business: 07:21–13:21
• Discussion of South Park’s ratings and streaming dominance: 11:26–13:21
• How liberal audiences are embracing the current season: 16:37–18:00
• South Park’s history as an equal-opportunity offender: 18:00–20:54
• The ideological position and resistance to being “saviors”: 20:54–24:28
• Evolution on issues (ManBearPig/climate change): 23:26–24:28

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Final Takeaway

South Park is experiencing a cultural resurgence due to its ruthless satire in the new season, targeting President Trump, Kristi Noem, and its own corporate owners—even as those very owners invest heavily in its future. While it’s being momentarily embraced by those who disapprove of Trump, the podcast cautions listeners not to mistake South Park for a reliable ideological ally. The show’s consistent iconoclasm and commercial heft have made it untouchable—“not your friend," and possibly nobody’s—remaining a rare voice of unpredictable, profit-driven, equal-opportunity offensiveness in the current media landscape.

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Transcript

[Nicholas Quah]

President Trump has a new adversary.

[Brian Stelter]

And.

[Nicholas Quah]

This adversary is really going for it. They're hitting him where it hurts. They're taking no prisoners. They're depicting the President in bed with Satan.

[Kristi Noem]

Another random commented on my Instagram that you're on the Epstein list.

[Kyle]

The Epstein list? Are we still talking about that?

[Nicholas Quah]

It's south park, guys. All two episodes of the show's latest season have skewered the President, and it looks like Trey Parker and Matt Stone are gonna make it a three peat tonight.

[Kyle]

Wow. Washington, D.C.

[Nicholas Quah]

Your reaction, Mr. President?

[Kristi Noem]

I never watched South Spawn.

[Brian Stelter]

I don't know anything about South Spawn.

[Nicholas Quah]

Don't worry about it, sir. Today explained from Vox is gonna catch.

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[Henry Blodgett]

How do we AI proof our jobs? How do we fix the deficit? How do we get our political system working again? I'm Henry Blodgett and I'm launching a new podcast called Solutions where every week I'll talk to an innovative, enterprising expert to cut through the doom and focus on how to build a better world. Follow Solutions with Henry Blodgett wherever you get your podcasts. The first episode will be out Monday, August 18th.

[Kyle]

This is today explained.

[Brian Stelter]

Brian Stelter, S T E L T E R Chief Media Analyst, CNN Great.

[Nicholas Quah]

And are you now or have you ever been a fan of South Park?

[Brian Stelter]

I would call myself a passive south park fan.

[Kyle]

You, Kyle?

[Brian Stelter]

I was the kind of viewer that if I saw it on Comedy Central, I would watch, I would enjoy it.

[Kyle]

But.

[Brian Stelter]

But now, in the past month, I am now an active fan.

[Kyle]

Dude, I totally didn't mean that, Cap.

[Brian Stelter]

Like a lot of other people, I'm now going and seeking out the new episodes because this show has defied the odds. I mean, this show is almost 30 years old and it's suddenly more relevant than ever.

[Nicholas Quah]

How did it do that? How did it defy the odds by.

[Brian Stelter]

Speaking truth to the ultimate power right now. You know, the creators of south park have always hated bullies, and they seem to believe Trump is the biggest bully of them all. The very premise of the first episode of this new season is about Trump targeting the media Eric. The character Eric Hartman, is angry that NPR has been forced off the air.

[Kyle]

What do you mean? The president canceled npr? That was, like, the funniest shit ever. It was seriously the best show. It had, like, gay rappers from Mexico all sad because girls in Pakistan got.

[Brian Stelter]

Stoned to death from the very first second of the new season. You know that this show has something to say.

[Kristi Noem]

There's some bullcrap going on in this country, and I am not going to let it corrupt the environment at this school.

[Brian Stelter]

You also see how South park elementary is being transformed due to Trump's actions.

[Kristi Noem]

There is only one thing that can bring some normalty back to these corrupt times, and that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

[Kyle]

What?

[Brian Stelter]

This is, of course, a dramatic exaggeration of what's happening in real life, but it is true.

[Kristi Noem]

I'd like you all to put your hands together in welcoming Christ, our Lord. Hello, my children. I am the light and the way.

[Brian Stelter]

When Trump has entered in the show, you see him, you know, fighting with the Prime Minister of Canada over tariffs.

[Kyle]

People of Canada will not be devalued like this. Ah, come on. You don't want me to bomb you like I did Iraq. I thought you just bombed Iran. Iran, Iraq. What the hell's the difference? Relax, guy.

[Brian Stelter]

But most memorably, you see him getting in bed with Satan himself.

[Kyle]

Hey, Satan.

[Kristi Noem]

I don't want to right now.

[Kyle]

What? Hey, relax. Come on, Satan. I've been working hard all day, and.

[Nicholas Quah]

I'm gonna use some words I don't typically use on the show right now to describe that particular scene, because Trump derobes before you even see who he's about to get into bed with and has, I guess, like, a micro penis.

[Kyle]

Ah, come on, Satan.

[Nicholas Quah]

How do they follow that up? I think, like, two weeks later.

[Brian Stelter]

The most ruthless jokes in the second episode were about Kristi Noem. They were about that old scandal involving her shooting a dog on her farm. The reason that this story is in.

[David Ellison]

The book, because people need to understand who I am.

[Kristi Noem]

Welcome to the team, recruits. I'm Kristi Noem, head of Homeland Security.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

She seems nice.

[Brian Stelter]

Okay. Very pretty. You saw her over and over again in this episode, shooting at dogs.

[Kristi Noem]

A few years ago, I had to put my puppy down by shooting it in the face. Because sometimes doing what's important means doing what's hard.

[Brian Stelter]

This episode was really, really personal in the way it targeted Nome. Showing her face, maybe falling apart.

[Kristi Noem]

Think I can't handle myself because I'm a lady with good looks?

[Brian Stelter]

You know, pushing this idea that she was overused, Botox or other face fillers. Also, this idea that she cares so much about photo ops and PR that she's always out there dressing up in various outfits, posing for photos and videos. And as always, there are elements of truth to these critiques or these satires. You know, it is true that Noam has tried really hard to be front and center, very visible, playing to the cameras, going out on tours, appearing in the field, you know, showing that she's doing the work, so to speak.

[Kristi Noem]

Another job well done.

[Brian Stelter]

Noem did not take this episode in stride. She said it's so lazy to make fun of women and how they look. For Noem, this was personal, this was ugly, and she wanted to be on the record about it.

[Nicholas Quah]

Is this the first time this show has gone after Donald Trump and his administration?

[Brian Stelter]

No, but it is by far the most direct, the most vicious, I'd say. You know, back during Trump 1.0, right? Trump's first term in office, there was this storyline where one of the teachers at the school, Mr. Garrison, was becoming president and over time, acting more and more Trump.

[Kristi Noem]

Like Mr. Garrison, you believe the immigration problem is easy to solve? Yes. Them all to death. Let's make this country great again.

[Brian Stelter]

This served as a way for the creators of south park to ridicule Trump and to speak out about some of his behavior, some of his conduct in the first term. But this was not nearly as direct and not nearly as aggressive as what we're seeing now.

[Nicholas Quah]

I guess it's not that big a surprise that south park would go after Donald Trump when he is Donald trumping harder than he's ever Donald trumped before.

[Kristi Noem]

But.

[Nicholas Quah]

But they're not even sparing their parent company in these new episodes, right?

[Brian Stelter]

Matt and Trey are like a lot of critters that they like. They love to poke fun at the parent company when they can. The timing of this new season has been really extraordinary because Paramount was in the final moments, the final days of this protracted, politically tortured merger approval process when the new season premiered. So you literally had this anti Trump episode, sticking it to the administration, putting the president in bed with Satan, airing on cable at the same time that the administration is having to review and approve this merger. The second episode of the season aired on a Wednesday and. And then on a Thursday, the new Paramount took shape.

[David Ellison]

The FCC just approving that long simmering.

[Brian Stelter]

Merger between Paramount and Skydance, a media company.

[David Ellison]

This is a deal getting the green light.

[Brian Stelter]

Just weeks after Paramount agreed to settle.

[David Ellison]

With the Trump administration for $16 million and just days after Paramount fired Stephen Colbert.

[Nicholas Quah]

What's more, as part of the deal, Skydance agreed to address the Trump administration's concerns about alleged bias at cbs.

[Brian Stelter]

The emerged company, Paramount and Skydance, they came together. There was this big formal press conference on Thursday around lunchtime in New York City. And the new CEO, David Ellison took questions from media reporters about his grand hopes and dreams about this new company. I said to him, so what about this south park problem? You know, what are you gonna do about this problem? Do you view it as a problem? Ellison's response was really telling. He started out by saying he's a huge fan of the show. He's been a fan of south park for his entire adult life. He's 42. And he then went on to praise Madden Trey as being really unique, really, really talented creators. And he said to me, they are equal opportunity offenders and they always have been. So I think Ellison was saying they're not just targeting Trump because they're a bunch of lefties who want to attack the Republicans. They have always called out people on the left and on the right, whatever, they're equal opportunity offenders. I think he was trying to differentiate from late night shows like the Late show with Stephen Colbert, which was recently canceled. I think he was trying to say these two creators are special, they are one of a kind, or we would say two of a kind, and they're going to be protected by Paramount. And obviously the other context here is the new owners of Paramount had just struck a five year deal to exclusively stream south park on the Paramount streaming service. This five year deal is worth well over a billion dollars.

[Kyle]

Oh my God.

[Brian Stelter]

For the creators, south park and for their production company, this is a huge, huge vote of confidence in south park as a tent pole of the future of Paramount. And the whole idea here, it makes a lot of sense when you think about it. South park has a library of 325 episodes going back to the 90s. This is a really, really valuable library in the streaming era because people like to go back and watch episodes from 10 or 20 years ago. These episodes have a really long shelf life. So it's really valuable on streaming. And that's why Paramount was willing to fork over so much cash.

[Nicholas Quah]

I think this might be where some people get confused because you've got everyone from, you know, Brown University to Meta to CBS and Paramount themselves settling with the president, making, you know, donations to the President's inaugural committee. And then you've got Trey Parker and Matt Stone who work for CBS or do business with Paramount plus, or Paramount not only going for the president, not only making fun of his administration, his own manhood, but like making literally a billion dollars while doing it. How are they able to get away with something that seemingly no one else is?

[Brian Stelter]

Right now, this might be a case of business actually trumping politics, of profits actually trumping politics for Paramount, for the Paramount plus streaming service. For the future of this newly combined company, big, loud franchises like south park are key. They are crucial. They're more important now than they were 10 years ago, and they might even be more important 10 years from now. They are the foundation of the house that David Ellison is trying to build, and he can't compromise with something like that. And the difference here between south park and Stephen Colbert is that, you know, the late show was losing money. So, yeah, Stephen Colbert is a staunch critic of President Trump, one of the loudest Trump critics on tv. He's been canceled. A lot of his fans worry it's for political reasons. CBS says it's purely for financial reasons. And in a way, south park actually affirms the CBS claim. Right? South park also, you know, going for the jugular, taking on Trump directly. And yet because the show is really profitable and crucial for the future of streaming, it's not only back for a new season, it is being praised, it's being celebrated by Paramount for having high ratings. You know, Paramount keeps putting out press releases touting how well south park is doing. The show is beating some of its very old records on cable, meaning records that date back to the 90s and the early 2000s in terms of what share of the cable universe south park is nabbing on Wednesday nights. But more importantly, if you add up the cable audience and the streaming audience, you're seeing 5, 6, 7 million viewers tuning in for south park for these new episodes. Those are the kinds of numbers that almost any creator would kill for. Certainly. Creators of animated comedies.

[Kyle]

Foreign.

[Nicholas Quah]

S T E L T E R cnn. Check your local listenings. I'm Sean. R A M E S W A R A M. South park is not your friend. When we are back on Today. Explained.

[David Ellison]

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[Henry Blodgett]

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[Nicholas Quah]

The answer actually is 73%.

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[Kyle]

Oh my God, they killed today, explained.

[Nicholas Quah]

Nicholas kwa. You write about culture for Vulture. You wrote about south park for Vulture. You watched these latest episodes. How are people reacting to South Park's treatment of Donald Trump?

[Gabrielle Burbay]

Well, they're reacting with their eyeballs, right? They're watching it. The first two episodes of the season so far has been drawing the biggest ratings that the show has had in many, many years. It's drawing a lot of strong feelings, right? I think a lot of the, you know, I can sort of uncharily call them the Normie Libs or the Trump critics are, you know, responding very positively to this very visceral depiction of the president.

[Nicholas Quah]

I did notice more people in my life were texting me about south park than have ever texted me about south park ever before.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

Probably a lot of people that you have never heard talk about south park maybe ever. So people that you might not expect, like your aunt or your uncle, who maybe have more genteel tastes. And this is kind of what's so interesting about this moment. It's seen south park, which has been part of our lives for, frankly, almost for as long as some of us have been alive. They're breaking once again to the culture in a very unexpected way, because, look, they're on Comedy Central. But Comedy Central right now is a very small concern in terms of their broadcast and streaming footprint. So the fact that they're able to punch through like this, it's quite remarkable, frankly.

[Nicholas Quah]

But as you point out in your piece for Vulture, which is called South Park Speaks Only for Itself. This show has not been afraid to turn on liberals to mock liberals viciously in the past. In fact, the first episode of this new season, Sermon on the Mount, starts out with the show just ripping on npr.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

The reason that we decided to work on this piece or that I wrote this piece is because we started noticing that south park was getting celebrated by the same corners of, you know, the quote, unquote, normie liberal community, the same kinds of folks that took a lot of pleasure from SNL's, you know, satire of Trump.

[Kristi Noem]

Yes, this is real life. This is really happening. On January 20th, I, Donald J. Trump, will become the 45th President of the United States. And then two months later, Mike Pence, will become the 46th. Hmm.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

You know, even way back when, like in the. In the first Trump administration, the way like, John Oliver would. Would treat him. It's just. It's kind of this critique, satire, but still ultimately gentle, still ultimately very polite.

[Kristi Noem]

Donald Trump can seem appealing until you take a closer look. Much like the lunch buffet at a strip club or the NFL or having a pet chimpanzee.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

South park, because of the way it's always operated and the worldview and ideology which it has, which is somewhere between libertarian and nihilism, you could argue, or everybody's fair game kind of mentality. They've often been at odds of each other in the past. Right. So south park has constantly drawn controversy over the course of its existence for depictions, you know, left and right. Like it goes after religion.

[Kristi Noem]

Joseph Smith was called a prophet.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

Dum, dum, dum, dum, dum goes after dewoke.

[Kristi Noem]

What I'M upset about is a wee little thing called cultural appropriation. Ever heard of it? That's why we can't wear sombreros on Cinco de Mayo.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

It went after Occupy Wall street back.

[Kristi Noem]

In the day, porting from the middle of a protest where two fourth grade students are fed up and have decided to occupy Red Robin.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

And so the fact that we're seeing a lot of normie libs, like, celebrate south park at this point in time, and specifically celebrating an episode that, you know, contains elements that they would have find reprehensible in the past, there's an interesting development there. And it is a suggestion of, like, some sort of weird kind of coalition, or at least a coalition of aesthetics kind of forming. So I wrote that piece to be like, south Park's not different. It's doing the same that it's always done. It is the same as it has always been, and it would only ever speak for itself. It's not positioning itself as a savior, as some people on social media has been sort of like kind of congratulating and celebrating them for. And, you know, that's kind of part of the interesting thing about this. It's that, you know, what unlikely bitfellows to emerge at this point in time.

[Nicholas Quah]

Yeah, I mean, you dug up an old interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone in which one of them said after an episode that they got calls from their atheist friends a couple of times saying, what the fuck? We thought you were on our side. And they said, we're not on anybody's fucking side. The takeaway for me was south park is not your friend, whoever you may be. Do you think people are forgetting that right now?

[Gabrielle Burbay]

I do think there's a tendency when it comes to, again, normie lip expressions of disdain or exhaustion over the Trump administration to find heroes wherever they can. And I think part of what I find somewhat uncounterproductive and distasteful about that is that it's just putting way too much emotional stock on parties that are just temporary allies. And south park, essentially, they are somewhat libertarian of flavor, in which they really embrace the notion of free speech. They really embrace the notion of sacrificing or cutting down sacred cows. And that has not been the dominant political frame for a lot of the past couple of years, at least, when it comes to the left or liberal. And so there's a very uneasy tension when it comes to the relationship between those two sides.

[Nicholas Quah]

Did you think at all about how the politics of Trey Parker and Matt Stone have evolved, or have they not evolved over the course of this period of time in which American politics have certainly evolved or devolved, if you will.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

No, I mean, many, many years ago, the writer, blogger Andrew Sullivan tried to coin the concept of the South Park Republican, which is a varia, like fiscally conservative, socially liberal. My gut feeling is that Trey Parker and Matt Stone rejects any and all labels that's thrown on them. They kind of want the freedom to move around. In many senses, there are two things that are true at the same time. One is that I think they've been ideologically consistent throughout their entire careers, which is they believe very much in saying whatever they want. They believe very much in that everything is worth critiquing. That earnestness is maybe something that they don't prize personally. But at the same time they can also change. They also change in worldview. And one of the more interesting examples of this is kind of how they handle climate change. So there was a talked about episode back in the mid 2000s called Man Bear Pig.

[Kristi Noem]

It is half man, half bear and.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

Half pig where south park essentially satirized Al Gore's climate advocacy.

[Kristi Noem]

Basically, ManBear Pig simply wants to create, get you. I'm super serial.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

You could read it somewhat uncharitably, but somewhat honestly as them going, you know, this sort of fear on climate change is a little overblown and you know, Gore is in it maybe for the attention. Right? That is like one interpretation, one very strong interpretation of the episode. And they just went after Gore with it. Then about like 12 years later, I want to say they release a sort of a kind of a two parter that revisited ManBearPig where essentially they're like, ManBearPig is real. ManBearPig being this sort of creature that Al Gore is like kind of warning against, which is a standard for climate change.

[Kyle]

It is real.

[Kristi Noem]

You want to believe it's real. You go right on ahead.

[Brian Stelter]

Susan.

[Kyle]

No, it's right there. It's right there behind you.

[Gabrielle Burbay]

That's kind of widely viewed as like, look, they revised their view on, on making fun of people who are advocating around climate change. But it's still grounded in this like core ideology, which is they're essentially still the same people, though they can sort of change their positions on certain things, which is a really, you know, it's a, it's something that we should be open to when it comes to people and their relationship to politics. You get the sense that if Paramount or CBS or company Central were to try to, you know, put the thumb on the scale of what they're able to say or what they're able to depict, that it could walk away and actually be all the more happy or all the more powerful for it. And that's something that's kind of rare, I think, in the current political climate. We're seeing avatars of, quote, unquote, free speech or of expression, of journalism basically fold their cards because they're worried that they will lose their power, will lose money, will lose their position in society. These are two guys. This is a team. This is a show that doesn't seem to give a damn about any of that. And it is, you know, say what you want and feel what you want about how they have approached certain issues in the past. Say what you want and feel what you want about the crudeness of the humor. That is a very refreshing thing to see at this point in time.

[Kyle]

Okay, that's it. Will you get.

[Nicholas Quah]

Nicholas Qua? His friends call him Nick. You can read and support his work at [e-mail] Gabrielle Burbay made our show today. Jolene Myers edited Patrick and Andy Mixed and Laura Bullard did the facts for Today Explained. Feel better, Murph?

[Kyle]

Can you guess? Screw you, guess. Screw you, guess. Well, screw you guys and we're going home.