Trey Parker and Matt Stone Once Thought That Trump Parodies Were ‘Easy’ and ‘Base’

So far, South Park’s 27th season has devoted far more attention to President Donald Trump and his tiny member than core characters like Stan, Kyle, Kenny or Tolkien, earning big ratings and an unprecedented level of media attention as a result. 

But there was once a time when Trey Parker and Matt Stone believed that ridiculing the Home Alone 2 star was a little too obvious. 

As we’ve already mentioned, this was hardly the first time that South Park dunked on Donald Trump. Back in Season 19, in the episode “Where Has My Country Gone?” the Canadian Prime Minister becomes a xenophobic, not-so-subtle Trump analogue, who even builds a border wall to keep out immigrants. That is, until Mr. Garrison murders him and takes up his mantle as the world’s scummiest politician.

As Parker and Stone revealed in the season’s DVD commentary, they weren’t very enthusiastic about tackling the unhinged GOP frontrunner, but felt pressured to comment on his candidacy in some fashion. In fact, the episode simply began with the duo reasoning that the newly-introduced P.C. Principal would “butt heads” with Mr. Garrison eventually.

“That also just started us going, ‘I guess we’ve got to do a Trump show, because everyone’s talking about Trump,’” Parker explained. “Even though we were kind of like, ‘Ehh, that sounds really easy. And it sounds really base.’”

Initially, they were going to include a literal Trump stand-in before realizing that this would just give the future Commander-in-Chief the attention he so desperately craves at all times. “We were definitely, like at first like, ‘Okay we made a little Trump.’ And (then) we’re like, ‘No fuck it. We’re not going to give him the satisfaction of being in the show,’” Parker noted. “We’ll make one of our characters Trump.’ So that became Garrison. We sort of got our whole Trump thing out and sent Garrison on his way.”

Of course, a lot has changed since that decision was made. Trump won the 2016 election, famously upending the show’s plans for the following season. And Garrison’s Trump persona essentially became an internal demon for him to conquer in Season 26.

Since Garrison ultimately freed himself of his Trumpian alter-ego, and now enjoys a quiet life in South Park with his partner Rick, the show’s new Trump is just Trump. While they may have considered it too “easy” 10 years ago, that hasn’t stopped the duo from brutally mocking America’s leader harder than any other mainstream comedic outlet. 

Although not hard enough to provoke a lawsuit — yet.