South Park is scheduled to release a new episode tomorrow evening, but we still have no idea what it could possibly be about now that the eyes of the entire country are on the series — well, more than they already were.
Last week, a gunman at Utah Valley University murdered right-wing political activist and South Park Season 27 parody subject Charlie Kirk during a public speaking engagement. Kirk, whose debate style and haircut played featured roles in the August 6th South Park episode “Got a Nut,” was a vocal fan of the show, and he changed his Twitter profile picture to the promotional image of Cartman arguing with college students ahead of the episode’s release. Kirk even live-streamed himself reacting positively to “Got a Nut” just days after the episode’s premiere.
But despite Kirk’s own feelings toward South Park and its treatment of him, far-right Kirk supporters brigaded every South Park social media page and demanded that the show and its creators be held accountable for his death just minutes after graphic videos of the shooting went viral.
South Park social team
The South Park social team has ceased posting on any South Park page entirely since the murder of Kirk, and, now, with the anxiously awaited fifth episode of Season 27 scheduled to premiere in just one day, the show still hasn’t unveiled any pre-episode promotional material, possibly to postpone the inevitable backlash from the enraged right over the show’s treatment of Kirk.
Or, maybe, South Park simply isn’t ready to return to its regular scheduled programming at a time when the federal government is threatening to go after Kirk’s critics.
Immediately following Kirk’s murder, Comedy Central pulled all “Got a Nut” reruns from its cable schedule, but the episode remains available to stream on Paramount+. Right now, the official Comedy Central schedule still lists a new episode of South Park in its usual 10 p.m. ET time slot tomorrow night, but the episode description simply reads, “Join Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny down in South Park for a dose of crude language and dark, surreal humour!”
South Park and its corporate patrons have been cagey about the irregular release schedule of Season 27, but the official South Park Twitter account typically communicates announcements about delayed airings and teaser material for upcoming episodes through its social media team.
At the time of writing, none of the South Park socials have posted anything about either a possible delay or tomorrow’s subject matter — nor have they posted anything at all since Kirk’s death.
Meanwhile, South Park has scrubbed almost every mention and depiction of the Kirk parody in “Got a Nut” from its social media pages, and it’s easy to see why. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi recently announced that the Justice Department will “target” and “go after” anyone who mocks or celebrates Kirk’s demise, and, with the series already on the White House’s unofficial hit list, there may be fear at Paramount that the federal government could escalate its media crackdown starting with Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Whatever the case may be behind South Park’s radio silence this close to a scheduled episode premiere, the show and its PR team can’t hide forever — sooner or later, the series will have to pick a new source of ridicule.