When South Park took the airwaves and Internet by storm in July, it triggered an angry backlash from the White House.
But this week, Vice-President JD Vance showed them how to roll with the punches and put a good spin on being mercilessly teased in the second episode of the new South Park season. It’s a good lesson for all politicians when they are mocked by comedy shows — a maturity that we used to have but seem to have lost in the last few years.
In response to the July premiere of the new season “Donald Trump‘s White House has responded to Wednesday night’s explosive ‘South Park” Season 27 premiere, which portrayed the president begging for sex from Satan and featured a Deepfake-assisted PSA where Trump goes fully nude,” wrote Zack Sharif and Jack Dunn with Variety magazine.
“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,” said a White House spokesman, according to Variety. “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,” the statement continued, also calling it a 4th rate show.
Trump also went on the attack against comedians like Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon for mocking him (just like any other politician), saying “’The word is, and it’s a strong word at that, Jimmy Kimmel is NEXT to go in the untalented Late Night Sweepstakes, and shortly thereafter, Fallon will be gone,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social on July 22. ‘These are people with absolutely NO TALENT, who were paid Millions of Dollars for, in all cases, destroying what used to be GREAT Television. It’s really good to see them go, and I hope I played a major part in it,’” wrote Katie Scott with Global News.
But Vance seemed to understand how to play the humor. When the second episode featured Mar-A-Lago like Fantasy Island, with Mr. Roarke played by Trump and Vance as Tattoo, and made fun of Vance, the VP took it in good stride.
“Although the White House lashed out at the portrayal of Trump in the show’s season premiere two weeks ago, Vance attempted to take a different approach. ‘Well, I’ve finally made it,’ he wrote on X on Thursday morning in response to a post from the South Park account that showed a diminutive cartoon version of him standing beside a cartoon Trump,” wrote The Huffington Post.
Saturday Night Live had Chevy Chase making fun of Gerald Ford, while Dan Ackroyd mocked Jimmy Carter. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton took their turns. Dana Carvey became a legend by spoofing George H. W. Bush, who was good-natured enough to connect with him. Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Joe Biden all took their turns being teased, without White House threats. Hillary Clinton and Janet Reno and Bill Clinton were skewered by South Park when they started. I couldn’t find any evidence of them calling for the network to be shut down or investigated.
But I did find a Chicago Tribune article that showed presidents and their administrations, from Ike’s press secretary to JFK to LBJ to Nixon going after comedians, from Art Buchwald to Mort Sahl to the Smothers Brothers, showing the ‘good old days’ weren’t always good for humor.
Given today’s thin-skinned environment for comedy, HuffPost shouldn’t be taking Vance to task for brushing off being the object of parody. They should be praising him for returning us to a time when politicians mocked by comedies laughed it off, and we respected them for that.
John A. Tures is Professor of Political Science and Coordinator of the Political Science Program at LaGrange College, in LaGrange, Georgia. His first book, “Branded”, is available on Amazon. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu.