There will be no new season of South Park this year, the first time since the animated series began in 1997. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said they didn’t want to have to parody the American election.
New episodes of South park have appeared more and more sporadically in recent years, due to a business conflict between rights holders. The last full season dates back to early 2023, although three specials were released for streaming service Paramount+ in the past year.
But in 2024, for the first time since 1997, there will be no regular, new episodes, Stone and Parker announced in an interview with Variety. The creators said they made the decision because they didn’t want to have to parody the American presidential election again. “We’ve done it four or five times, and it’s so hard,” Stone says. “We know the election is important, but it takes up so much space, and we’re just not having fun with it anymore. We don’t know what else we could say about Donald Trump.”
Stone and Parker are also irritated by the lack of clarity about the future of parent company Paramount. “We’re waiting for them to sort out their nonsense,” they say.