One of the creators of South Park sarcastically apologized to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for ridiculing him in the first episode of his 27th season.

The episode, which aired Wednesday, featured several jokes about the president, including putting him naked in bed with Satan.

After it aired, the White House described South Park as a "fourth-rate" show that was "hanging by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate bid for attention."

Trey Parker, the show's co-creator, was asked for an official reaction at a panel at San Diego Comic-Con International. With sarcasm and a fake serious face, he responded, "We're so sorry," to roars of laughter from the audience.

Parker was participating in a panel discussion with fellow South Park creator Matt Stone, "Beavis and Butt-head" creator Mike Judge, and actor Andy Samberg, co-creator of the animated series Digman!

A White House spokeswoman, Taylor Rogers, addressed the episode Thursday, the day after it aired. “This show hasn’t been relevant in over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate bid for attention,” he said. “President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any president in the history of our country, and no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump’s streak,” he added. The long-running satirical animated series on US television often taps into topical issues and takes aim at authority figures. Stuart Heritage, a columnist for The Guardian, called it “South Park’s angriest episode ever,” highlighting the voiceover at the end of the show that said of the president: “His penis is small, but his love for us is great.”

Parker said during the panel that they received a note from the show's producers about the episode in question before it aired.

"They were like, 'Okay, but we're going to blur the penis,' and I was like, 'No, they're not going to blur the penis,'" she said.

The episode, which aired on Paramount+, aired the day before the U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved the merger between Paramount Global and Skydance Media.

The merger between the independent film studio and one of Hollywood's oldest and most storied companies was announced for 2024.

The The approval came just weeks after Paramount Global agreed to pay $16 million to settle a legal dispute with Trump over an interview that aired on Paramount-owned CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris. It also comes after CBS announced this week that The Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert, will end in May 2026 after 33 years on the air. Colbert is known for being one of the most vocal Trump critics on late-night television.

Jesus makes an appearance

South Park addressed the legal dispute between Paramount and the president in its latest episode, just hours after its creators signed a five-year deal with Paramount+ for 50 new episodes and the streaming rights to previous seasons.

The new episodes will first air on Paramount's Comedy Central cable channel before being uploaded to Paramount+.

The Los Angeles Times and other outlets have reported that the deal is worth $1.5 billion.

In the new episode, Trump sues the town of South Park and then appears Jesus - another recurring character - telling them to come to an agreement.

“You saw what happened to CBS... Do you really want to end up like Colbert?” asks Jesus.

Rolling Stone's Alan Sepinwall praised the episode's script: “Yes, South Park went there, and it's glorious.”

“The episode - titled 'Sermon on the Mount' - mocked Trump's obsession with using lawsuits to silence the media and political opponents, the ChatGPT, the injection of religion into US public schools, the government censorship and corporations caving to pressure.”

Kevin Dolak of the Hollywood Reporter described the episode as “shocking,” adding that it was a “hilarious and, as expected, controversial premiere.”

In 2017, Parker told the Los Angeles Times that the show had fallen into the “trap” of mocking the US president in its weekly episodes.

“It became like, ‘Tune in to see what we’re going to say about Trump. ’ Matt [Stone, co-creator] and I hated him, but we kind of got stuck in that,” he acknowledged.

At the time, he and Stone said they wanted to get the show back to its roots: “Kids being kids and being ridiculous and outrageous.”

This article was written and edited by our journalists with the help of an artificial intelligence translation tool as part of a pilot program.