If you were hoping Cartman and the gang would help you survive this year's election cycle, well, that's not happening: Delays have pushed off South Park returning to Comedy Central until 2025. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the animated series' creators, tell Vanity Fair that's because a) they're "waiting for Paramount to figure all their s--- out," per Parker, and b) they simply don't want to take on the specter of Donald Trump again.
"We've tried to do South Park through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing to—it's such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance," Stone tells the magazine. "Obviously, [the election is] f---ing important, but it kind of takes over everything and we just have less fun." Parker also weighs in, noting, "I don't know what more we could possibly say about Trump." Deadline notes that the last episode of the 26th season of South Park aired in March 2023, though Parker and Stone have created some stand-alone content for Paramount+ since.
In a previous interview, Stone told People that making the show has "become an even more spontaneous thing" as the years have gone by. "It's a 'Let's get in a room, figure it out, and do it right now' thing," he said at the time of his work with Parker. "It's mainly just, 'We've got to get something to put on in two weeks. What are we doing?' We've proven to ourselves that the show does not get better with more time. We don't need more time." More from their Vanity Fair interview here, including the pair's new documentary, ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor! (More South Park stories.)