South Park will not air the planned fifth episode of its current season Wednesday night, postponing it until next Wednesday, Sept. 24, Comedy Central has announced.
The episode was going to be the first from the show since the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was parodied in the season’s second episode last month.
“Apparently when you do everything at the last minute sometimes you don’t get it done,” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said in a statement. “This one’s on us. We didn’t get it done in time. Thanks to Comedy Central and South Park fans for being so understanding. Tune in next week!”
The network had done none of its regular promotion for the new episode, so there was no indication that South Park would be taking on the Kirk assassination directly. But given the show’s hyper-focus on the latest news so far this season, it seems likely that the episode would be touching on it in some way.
Immediately following the Kirk shooting, the activist’s MAGA following began to openly blame South Park for making him a target. One user posted, “South Park certainly fomented the hatred necessary to get Kirk assassinated,” while another added, “Trey Parker and Matt Stone are responsible for this.”
In turn, Comedy Central pulled a rerun of the episode, which features the character Cartman (redesigned to look like Kirk) debating students on college campuses, from the live broadcast schedule the night of the shooting. The episode, titled “Got a Nut,” is still available to stream on Paramount+.
Kirk himself reacted positively to his depiction on the show, proudly posting a clip from the episode on social media after it first aired.
“Honestly, my first reaction is that I kinda laughed," Kirk told Fox News of the moment he found out the show would be parodying him. Calling himself a lifelong South Park fan, he added, “They’re going to obviously make fun of me... but I think it’s kind of funny and it kind of goes to show the cultural impact and the resonance that our movement has been able to achieve.”
“We as conservatives should be able to take a joke,” Kirk concluded. “We shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously.”
South Park, which moved to a bi-weekly schedule this season, is now scheduled to air new episodes Wednesdays Sept. 24, Oct. 15, Oct. 29, Nov. 12, Nov. 26, and Dec. 10.
