Will Mr. Garrison Play President Trump in the New Season of ‘South Park’? Fans Weigh In
In the South Park universe, it’s not exactly clear who Donald Trump is. In Season Five, which aired in 2001, he appeared briefly as a potential investor in Mr. Garrison’s new invention, a gyroscopic bike with parts that insert into the driver’s mouth and anus. Fourteen years later, after Trump rode down that golden escalator and inserted himself fully into the American political scene, Matt Stone and Trey Parker decided to substitute the country’s most prominent bigot with their own: Mr. Garrison would stand in for Trump through his own presidential candidacy.
Back then, no one expected Trump to win the White House, so Stone and Parker likely figured this change would only last a few months, and soon they would return Mr. Garrison to the classroom, as they have after his countless other flights of fancy. But then Trump emerged victorious after all, and one of the most consistently funny characters since South Park began was stuck 1,700 miles away at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Aside from Mr. Garrison’s absence from the goings-on in the town of South Park, the show seemed to struggle with how to use the character. In 2017, Parker explained this difficulty in an interview: “It’s tricky now because satire has become reality. It’s really hard to make fun of, and in the last season of South Park, which just ended a month-and-a-half ago, we were really trying to make fun of what was going on but we couldn’t keep up and what was actually happening was much funnier than anything we could come up with. So we decided to kind of back off and let them do their comedy and we’ll do ours.”
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Using Mr. Garrison as Trump also seemed to be lose-lose for the show’s ideologically diverse fanbase. While supporters of Trump accused the show, which preached the virtues of accepting a gay dog in its fourth episode, of going woke, others felt the joke just got tiresome. And as a result, Stone and Parker decided to entirely sit out the 2024 election. “I don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump,” Parker told Vanity Fair.
Given all this, it’s unclear what Mr. Garrison’s — and Trump’s — status will be in the upcoming season of South Park, set to be released in July. Will Mr. Garrison be President? Will Donald Trump? Will the season, which may have as few as six episodes, sidestep the question entirely? Or will the South Park creators surprise fans with a new direction altogether?
For answers to these questions, I turned to South Park’s biggest Facebook group, where I posted them directly.
Many fans felt the obvious answer is simple: Mr. Garrison will be back in the White House because he has to be. Mr. Garrison is Trump in the South Park universe, so how could he not be? “Yes, he should be. The president is a moron and should be portrayed as such,” wrote Mike Peterson.
“Def should be! Hold these bigoted, asshole fucks accountable for trying to destroy American democracy,” echoed Zachary R. Estes.
That said, at least double the number of fans said Mr. Garrison wouldn’t be back as President for a variety of reasons. Some believe the character isn’t effective enough satire against Trump. “Mr. Garrison was never this dumb,” wrote Bob Kejci. Darlene Goucher voiced a similar sentiment: “I just don’t think Mr. Garrison is crazy enough.” “I don’t think there’s anything to laugh about anymore as far as Donald Trump,” added Del Wilkins.
Several others believe that Mr. Garrison won’t be back as Trump because Stone and Parker already said as much. “I read that they’re not doing it again. If memory serves, it’s just because they already did it,” said Leigh Tootell. While Nathan Bechtelheimer explained, “No. Matt and Trey have moved on from the President Garrison character.” Guinevere Mercer agreed, adding that allowing him to be Trump in the first place “cost them a major character, really.”
On a completely different note, there was at least one call for middle ground. “I’m expecting two Garrisons,” wrote Nick Miller. “One real one who will stay in South Park and a clone or robot who will be president.” Others suggested that Parker and Stone make Elon Musk or Sally Struthers president.
A handful of fans thought South Park would ignore the issue of who the president is entirely. But judging by the trailer — featuring images of the U.S. and Canada at war, a torn-down Statue of Liberty and Randy saying, “I’m gonna do some ketamine and fuck around with the government” an obvious reference to Elon Musk — it’s pretty clear that politics is at the forefront of the season.
Similarly, two fans noted that we do actually see Mr. Garrison, albeit briefly, in the trailer and that he isn’t sporting the Trump wig he wore during his first term. This suggests he might not be president, but it’s hardly conclusive — the scene could be a flashback or just a change in his getup.
Finally, some fans took my Garrison-as-Trump question as an opportunity to accuse South Park of “hating the right” and going woke. This included a tangent about DEI hiring practices at Target, which prompted a few people to reference the South Park character Darryl Weathers, who most know as the “they took our jobs” guy.
Honestly, Darryl wouldn’t make a terrible stand-in for Trump if Parker and Stone decide to truly leave Mr. Garrison out of it this time around. It might take a bit of explaining, but at least Mr. Garrison can go back to where everyone — on the right and left — seem to prefer him: spouting hate on the local stage of South Park, not the national one.
