South Park’s new episode, due to air tonight, has been rescheduled. The series creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, make every episode on the fly and often in response to current events. Episodes aren’t completed months in advance like most shows.
The series is usually so punctual that an entire documentary called 6 Days To Air was made about it. In the show’s very long history, they’ve only once previously missed a deadline. That time, it was due to a power outage.
Parker and Stone issued the following statement about the episode’s delay: “Apparently when you do everything at the last minute sometimes you don’t get it done,” they said. “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!”
That announcement has no real information, leaving us all to speculate about what’s going on. Since we know South Park never misses deadlines, I think it’s safe to assume this has something to do with the slaying of Charlie Kirk. Last month, South Park used Cartman to lampoon Kirk, and in the wake of his assassination, the show has been taking heat.
Comedy Central, the network responsible for the show, has since pulled the episode from availability on its network. It’s unclear whether this move was approved by Parker and Stone, who’ve remained silent on the matter.
There is now considerable pressure on South Park to address the situation. It’s possible the team was halfway through making the current episode before they decided they needed to pivot to do just that. It’s equally possible the episode had Cartman back doing his Charlie Kirk impression, and after his death, the duo thought better of it and are now hard at work editing that out.
We’ll find out when South Park returns, probably next week.