ENTERTAINMENT‘South Park’ Season 29 Premiere Renames Town and Mocks Donald Trump
‘South Park’ returned with a Season 29 premiere that renamed the town South America.
Sept. 20 2026, Published 7:44 a.m. ET
Fresh off an Emmy victory, South Park returned September 16 with a new season, a new town name and another naked caricature of President Donald Trump.
The Season 29 premiere, “South American Biker Gangs,” features a persistent background joke that South Park has been renamed South America.
‘South Park' mocked Donlad Trump’s Lake Ontario renaming order.
The gag responds to Trump’s August executive order changing Lake Ontario to Lake America. The episode alters the opening theme lyrics, has characters casually use the new name and ends with a song declaring, “We’ll always be South America. We won’t change for anyone.”
Turning the Satire Dial to 11
Trey Parker and Matt Stone revived the show’s recurring n--- Donald Trump caricature.
“The chief tool of satire is ridicule through exaggeration,” said Ethan Thompson, PhD, professor of media arts at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
“As the absurdity and obnoxiousness of Donald Trump’s real-life words and deeds has grown, South Park has had to turn the satire dial to 11 to keep up,” he added.
The episode also brings back the show’s recurring portrayal of n--- Trump. Although the script does not explicitly name him, the geographic jokes and familiar caricature leave little ambiguity about their target.
Apple, Google and Paramount Enter the Joke
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The creators also poked fun at Apple, Google and Paramount during the episode.
Parker and Stone announced the South America rebrand a week before the premiere, sarcastically crediting Apple and Google for adopting Trump’s geographic change.
“Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA,” they said in a statement.
The creators also thanked Paramount with the jab “a Skydance Capitulation.” Inside the episode, reporters repeatedly criticize residents who object to e-bikes after accepting the town’s imposed new identity.
Politics Becomes Pop Culture
The premiere extends the sharp Trump focus of Seasons 27 and 28, an approach that surprised some viewers and drew objections from the White House.
Parker explained the change in a 2025 interview with The New York Times by saying, “It’s not that we got all political. It’s that politics became pop culture.”
Ridicule, Not Persuasion
The premiere continued the show’s recent focus on political satire.
“There’s little chance of alienating South Park fans because such fans are long gone already,” Thompson noted.
“Satire — like South Park’s of Trump — is not about changing minds,” he explained. “Those who dislike Trump can revel in South Park’s ridicule of him, the fiercer the better. Trump’s own fans say he doesn’t mean what he says; South Park fans who still like Trump would likely say the same of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.”
