In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, some conservatives are pointing fingers at South Park for mocking the conservative thought leader in a recent episode. While Comedy Central pulled the same episode from a scheduled repeat Wednesday night and sources say the channel will not be airing the episode in its linear rotation for the immediate future (though as of Thursday morning, the episode was still currently available on streaming).
The second episode of the current 27th season of Comedy Central’s satirical hit — titled “Got a Nut” — had Eric Cartman becoming a right-wing podcaster and spouting tropes used by Kirk, who tours college campuses debating progressive students. “Who wants to debate the master debater?” demanded Cartman, who also took on Kirk’s hairstyle and later attended a ceremony giving out “The Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters.”
The mockery was pretty tame by South Park standards (certainly kinder than its treatment of Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem in the same episode). After the episode aired, Kirk seemed thrilled and posted a TikTok (below) calling the episode “hilarious” and noted “South Park gets this right.” The Turning Point USA founder added, “We have a good spirit about being made fun of. This is all a win. We as conservatives have thick skin, not thin skin, and you can make fun of us and it doesn’t matter.”
But after Kirk’s tragic murder at Utah Valley University while engaged in the same sort of college campus debate the episode poked fun of, some MAGA conservatives are blasting the show.
According to the New York Post, one Turning Point USA staffer posted on Telegram, “Comedy has consequences. Charlie was targeted in the culture before he was targeted in real life” and right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly told his listeners: “South Park thought it was funny to turn Charlie into a cartoon joke. Now his wife is planning a funeral.”
The Daily Beast spotted some other comments on social media: “Let’s blame South Park. Blame the media. Blame leftist rhetoric. These people hate you and want to see you dead.” And: “South Park certainly fomented the hatred necessary to get Kirk assassinated.” And: “[South Park creators] Trey Parker and Matt Stone are responsible for this.” While a popular account called Johnny MAGA dubbed South Park “monsters” for the episode.
That said, many others on the right — perhaps even the majority — were quick to note they do not blame the series, so the impulse to bash the show has been far from universal. One “MAGA” labeled X account wrote, “I don’t blame South Park. They aren’t our leaders, representatives, mentors, pastors, example setters or societal caretakers. They are satire!”
Comedy Central had no comment on yesterday’s scrapped repeat, and the episode is still available on demand via Paramount+. The thinking behind the decision to not air the episode on cable but keep it on streaming is that viewers have to intentionally opt to watch the episode on demand whereas on cable its possible to for viewers passively watching Comedy Central to stumble onto the Kirk content, which some may find disturbing.
Pulling episodes that unintentionally intersect with a violent real-life tragedy is a common practice as a respectful effort not to inflame or seemingly take advantage of a situation. A few other episodes of South Park have been permanently pulled from distribution over the years due to controversial content.
On a Reddit thread about the episode being pulled, fans agreed not airing the episode was “the polite thing to do” while also concurring that South Park doesn’t deserve blame for the real-life violence. “Probably a smart decision, no matter your feeling on him; don’t give either side reason to exploit this,” wrote one. While another opined, “You really can’t fault them for not predicting this; I don’t think anyone could have predicted this series of events with him literally talking about gun violence as he was being shot.”
Given South Park has been on a tear going after President Trump and MAGA this season, and frequently pivots at the last minute to tackle current events in their episodes, it will be interesting to see what creators Parker and Stone focus on when the show returns next week amid its new biweekly rollout schedule this season.
Here was Kirk’s reaction to the episode, which also features some clips that showed the show’s mockery of his debate style:
The 31-year-old Kirk built a small conservative student group into America First — one of the most influential forces in Republican politics. Kirk was speaking at a debate Wednesday hosted by his nonprofit political organization. Immediately before the shooting, Kirk was taking questions for an audience member about mass shootings and gun violence. A single shot rang out and Kirk could be seen reaching for his neck with his right hand. The gunman is still at large.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!