Authoritarians tend not to like comedians. Not really the sort who can laugh at themselves.
Whatever evidence there is of Donald Trump’s sense of humor is open to debate. In fact, there is a lot of evidence that the time Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents’ Dinner was what convinced him to run for president in 2016.
The idea that part of the reason we are currently in this mess is that President Sack of Sewage ran for president out of spite over some sick burns would sound insane in any other timeline, but perfectly plausible in this one. In fact, he hasn’t mellowed much with age. Fourteen years later, Trump was behind the firing of another one of his nemesis, late-night host and comedian Stephen Colbert.
Colbert had been crushing it in the late-night game, routinely dominating his time slot. But that streak came to an abrupt end last week when CBS’s parent company, Paramount, showed him the door. This conveniently happened right after coughing up $16 million to Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit so ridiculous it barely deserved a headline. Trump, naturally, claims he already has the check in hand and is probably shopping for gold-plated golf carts as we speak. Or he is completely full of shit about already having the check, which is another possibility. The lawsuit accused CBS of election interference for supposedly editing an interview with Kamala Harris last fall, which is a claim so laughable it wouldn’t survive five minutes in court even if Alina Habaa were the opposing attorney.
Still, Trump managed to squeeze a settlement out of Paramount by threatening to tank a crucial merger unless they ponied up. Days later, Paramount announced they were canceling The Late Show, swearing it had nothing to do with the settlement and was purely a financial decision. Sure. And Trump’s a humble public servant who is just trying to lower the cost of eggs and get the best healthcare for rural Americans.
This entire situation was ripe for parody, so enter the boys from South Park. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have zero shits to give, apparently, and their episode last week, a giant middle finger to Trump, got the exact kind of official reaction you might expect from this White House:
“The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end — for years they have come after South Park for what they labeled as ‘offense’ [sic] content, but suddenly they are praising the show, Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows. This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention. President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any other president in our country’s history — and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.”
Translation: Trump was pouting and super-pissed at being portrayed as having a tiny penis. As Will Shakesphere once said, methinks you doth protest too much.
Whether this means an attempt to cancel South Park is in the making remains to be seen, but this administration has not exactly been shy about what their intentions are as far as free speech. In fact, recently the FCC chaircretin, Brendan Carr, threatened “consequences” because The View’s Joy Behar, herself a comedian, said that Donald Trump was jealous of Barack Obama’s looks and marriage.
There is a lot of truth in this Bluesky post:
Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes.bsky.social) 2025-07-18T15:39:39.505Z
I would mention that most of the people who thought that progressives telling people with shitty opinions that their opinions were shitty were grave threats to freedom of speech are curiously silent about this, but that goes without saying.
The last word goes to the late, great song satirist Tom Lehrer, who passed away last week at the ripe old age of 96.
