Ever since South Park returned for its 27th season, the show has been gunning for Donald Trump and his administration.
In just three episodes, the satirical cartoon has portrayed the US president as a would-be dictator who’s in a sexual relationship with Satan.
To add insult to injury, South Park has also depicted Trump as having an ‘teeny weeny’ penis that’s so small the Devil can’t even see it when they make love.
As a result, South Park has been lauded by those critical of Trump and his agenda, while some fans fear the notoriously thin-skinned President may take revenge on the show.
There may, however, be some method to the series minuscule manhood madness.
According to The Mirror, the showrunners are relying on an obscure piece of libel law known as the ‘small-penis rule’ to defend themselves from Trump’s rage.
The informal defence is pretty simple. Basically, for a libel case to be actionable, the defamed must be recognisable to those reading the defamatory material.
With that in mind, an author normally creates a fictional version of the person they want to defame and then they give them a small penis.
The idea being that no one would come forward and say ‘that fictional character with a small penis is clearly based on me’.
It’s worth noting then (according to our media lawyers) that this would not be a traditional ‘small penis defence’ as South Park’s version of the president is expressly Trump
Still, it’s possible that South Park is hoping that by portraying Trump as having a small penis, the President will be put off suing to avoid drawing more attention to an unflattering portrayal.
It’s also worth noting that the First Amendment – which guarantees freedom of speech-sets a far higher bar for defamation than we have in the UK.
As a result, it’s far more difficult for celebrities to sue for damages unless they can prove that there was actual malice behind the supposedly libellous claims.
South Park, as a comedy which makes fun of seemingly everyone and everything, as well as their clearly exaggerated portrayal of Trump, is probably safe from the president’s legal team.
That said, their Trump parody has clearly got under the skin of Trump’s administration.
Trump spokesperson Taylor Rogers said: ‘The Left’s hypocrisy truly has no end – for years they have come after South Park for what they labelled as ‘offence’ content, but suddenly they are praising the show.
South Park’s most controversial moments
Making fun of Trump is par for the course for South Park. Here are five other times the show crossed the line…
- Episode 200-201: South Park Episodes 200-201 are banned from streaming. Why? Well, they depicted a group of angry celebrities trying to steal the Prophet Muhammad’s power to remain free from ridicule.
- Super Best Friends: This episode was banned as well for the exact same reason as Episodes 200-201, they depicted the Prophet Muhammad.
- Scott Tenorman Must Die: An episode full of murder, cannibalism, and good old-fashioned sadism – it was always going to make the list.
‘Just like the creators of South Park, the Left has no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows,’ he continued.
‘This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.’
South Park’s 27th season has received record viewership, and its creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker recently inked a five-year deal with Paramount to produce 10 new episodes per year.
This deal is worth a reported $1.5 billion.
South Park season 27 is available to stream now on Paramount Plus.
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