Donald Trump can be very funny. There’s no getting around this simple fact, and trying to will it away has been a huge tactical error by the Democrats since 2016. However, the President has one thing in common with these liberal scolds: for all his comic timing, he can’t take a joke. To be a true comedian, you need to have a sense of your own absurdity.

This week, animated comedy South Park aired the first episode of its 27th season, “Sermon on the Mount”, in which writers Matt Stone and Trey Parker poked fun at the notoriously thin-skinned Trump. The depiction clearly had an effect inside the White House, which published a statement in response saying that “no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s hot streak.” Of course, it would have been cooler to shrug the episode off. So much for Elon Musk promising comedy would be “legal” again under MAGA 2.0.

“Sermon on the Mount”, and the resulting discourse, comes amid several authoritarian moves by Trump against the media. Having sued CBS over an edited 60 Minutes segment, the President this month received a settlement of $16 million from the channel’s parent company, Paramount Global, which at the same time was seeking federal approval for an $8 billion merger with Skydance. Last week, CBS announced that it had canceled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which had criticized the payment to Trump.

Each episode of South Park is produced in just six days, allowing the cartoon to work in these topical stories. “Sermon on the Mount” opens with the character of Eric Cartman lamenting that “woke is dead” and edgy language is back, meaning his personality has lost its transgressive edge. Meanwhile, Christianity is being imposed at South Park Elementary, with Jesus now living at the school. Outraged parent Randy Marsh calls the President, revealed to be a photorealistic Donald Trump, who sues anyone acting in defiance of him. After Randy’s call, Trump sues the entire town.

The writers then portray Trump, equipped with a micropenis, hopping into bed with Satan, who grills him about the Epstein files. The episode concludes with the town agreeing to settle with Trump for $3.5 million, but there’s a proviso: they have to make a PSA, which ends up involving a deepfaked version Trump stripping completely naked in the desert from heat exhaustion. Once again, the diminutive manhood features.

Needless to say, this isn’t especially sophisticated comedy. South Park tends to announce its jokes with a klaxon, and it has none of the layered irony of, say, The Simpsons at its peak. Yet Trump’s humourless response goes some way in justifying this blunt approach. The episode’s sharpest humour comes from its portrayal of institutional cowardice, including a scene in which 60 Minutes nervously praises Trump while distancing itself from protestors.

Parker and Stone remain equal-opportunity offenders, having mocked everything from Obama worship and PC culture to George Clooney’s smugness. It’s also worthy of note that the show is willing to take shots at the very company with which it has just signed a $1.5 billion deal. South Park has stayed true to itself through successive administrations, and through periods of censoriousness from both the Left and the Right. It may be puerile, but there’s something pure about that.

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Rory Kiberd is a freelance writer. He has written book reviews for the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and the Sunday Business Post, as well as film reviews for Totally Dublin.

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