Considering the rapid pace at which “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone work, it’s to be expected that the pair was all but finished with this week’s episode when Donald Trump was named U.S. president-elect in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
The episode, “The Very First Gentleman,” was announced by Comedy Central on Monday and scheduled to air at its usual 10 p.m. ET time slot on Wednesday evening. In a release, the network summarized the plot: “PC Principal tries one more time to make peace between the boys and the girls. Meanwhile, Gerald comes face-to-face with the Troll Hunter.
But following the election of Republican nominee Trump, Parker and Stone frantically rewrote portions of the script and renamed the episode “Oh, Jeez,” as Esquire first reported. The episode opens with a silent, shocked crowd ― comparable to that at the Javits Center on Tuesday night ― watching in horror as Mr. Garrison (i.e. Trump) is elected president.
Double-checking, a news anchor asks, “We’re sure this is for real, right?”
It is, and soon Mr. Garrison states his intention to “begin fucking them all to death,” a running gag since Garrison first announced his campaign for the presidency on the show.
As the A.V. Club notes, the episode is a bit uneven, and appears to lean on large plot points from the episode as it was originally written. (For example, Bill Clinton opens a gentlemen’s club in South Park.) But that’s to be expected of an animated episode that altered just hours before it aired.
There were some genuinely appropriate moments, too, as when Stan’s dad, Randy Marsh, is high on nostalgia-inducing Member Berries at the dinner table with his family (if you don’t get it, don’t ask). There, Randy declares, “Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I sure am excited. America’s going to be great again. Aren’t you excited, gang?”
“No, I’m not excited. It sucks, Dad,” Stan’s sister, Shelly, replies. “This county’s going to suck for four years.”
To which Randy replies, aptly, “Oh, come on, Shelly. We’ve learned that women can be anything — except for president.”
You can watch the entire episode below:
