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South Park creators rename show 'South America'

read original get South Park: The Complete Twenty-Sixth Season Blu-ray → more articles
Why This Matters

South Park's satirical rebrand to 'South America' turns a joke into a pointed critique of how major tech and media companies — Apple and Google updating Maps, and Paramount Skydance chasing a $111bn merger — have accommodated Trump's renaming decrees. It highlights the awkward position platforms occupy as de facto arbiters of geographic naming, and shows creators publicly needling their own corporate parent over perceived capitulation.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

South Park: The Complete Twenty-Sixth Season Blu-ray — If the show's latest stunt has you wanting to revisit Stone and Parker's satire, the Blu-ray season sets are a great way to binge without hunting through streaming rights. Great for fans catching up ahead of the newly renamed season.

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The creators of South Park, the animated TV show, have announced that its new series will be named South America, in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump's attempts to rename a lake and a gulf.

"Inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google, we are changing the name of South Park to SOUTH AMERICA," creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker wrote in a statement.

Trump signed an executive order in August to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America, and last year declared that the Gulf of Mexico be known as the Gulf of America.

The announcement from South Park, now in its 29th season, comes after the show won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program on Sunday.

It's not yet known whether the new name will be adopted permanently, or if it will revert to South Park later in the series.

The name change shared to the show's official social media account featured an image of the South Park sign with the word 'Park' replaced with 'America'.

"We especially want to thank our parent company Paramount - a Skydance Capitulation," its creators said in the post.

Paramount Skydance is the show's parent company. The Trump administration this year approved a $111bn (£82.8bn) merger with Warner Bros Discovery - one of the biggest media deals in history.

But the merger has since been paused until June 2027, after 12 US states filed lawsuits against the deal for fear of it harming competition and leading to higher prices for consumers.

A day before the show's announcement, Trump shared an AI-generated video of him placing the word 'America' over 'Mexico' on a "Welcome to New Mexico" sign.

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