The animated series “South Park” (“South Park”) received an Emmy Award for the first time in 13 years in the category “Best Animated Program” – for an episode in which US President Donald Trump became one of the main objects of satire. The creators of the show celebrated the victory with a new joke on the head of the White House – they depicted him with a statuette and recalled that Trump himself has repeatedly stated that he deserves an Emmy for the reality show The Apprentice.
Earlier this year, series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
South Park received its fifth Emmy for the episode Sermon on the Mount, which opened the 27th season of the animated series. In it, the president dances his signature dance, argues about tariffs with the Canadian prime minister, hangs his own nude photos in the White House, constantly files lawsuits, and in response to any question calls on everyone to “calm down.” Among other things, the episode satirizes the scandal surrounding the case of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein: when Trump jumps into bed with Satan, he tries to find out whether the president is on the “Epstein list.”
As RTVI reported, Trump and members of his administration were the main targets of satire during the 27th and 28th seasons of South Park: both were released in 2025. Against this backdrop, the audience for the animated series has grown markedly: Sermon on the Mount attracted almost 6 million viewers across various platforms, and its audience share on Comedy Central became the largest for a South Park season premiere since 1999.
Having received an Emmy, the creators of South Park decided to once again make fun of the president. A picture appeared on the cartoon series' Instagram account in which a drawn Trump stands in front of the show's characters with his pants down and holding a figurine. New episodes are also announced there starting September 16th.
“You've finally won your Emmy,” the image reads.
The joke refers to Trump's long-standing dissatisfaction with the fact that the reality show The Apprentice, which he has hosted since 2004, never won the award. Trump himself, as the executive producer of the program, was twice nominated for an Emmy in the reality television category – in 2004 and 2005. Both times the winner was The Amazing Race. In total, The Apprentice received eight Emmy nominations in various categories, but did not win a single statuette.
Parker and Stone previously explained the increased attention to Trump by the fact that politics has actually become part of popular culture. At the same time, they rejected claims that the animated series had become political.
“It’s not that we suddenly became political. It’s just that politics has become pop culture,” Parker said in an interview with The New York Times.
RTVI previously told who else received the Emmy Award.
