The writers and producers of Comedy Central’s South Park famously operate on an extremely tight schedule, starting and finishing entire episodes in the week before they air. But apparently even Trey Parker and Matt Stone can be caught off guard by a truly seismic event in the American zeitgeist, with Esquire reporting today that plans and promos for tonight’s episode of the show had to be scrapped after Donald Trump’s presidential victory Tuesday night.
The current season of South Park has been openly political, putting a reluctant Mr. Garrison in the place of America’s new President-Elect. But descriptions for tonight’s episode previously referred to it as “The Very First Gentleman,” with a promo showing Bill Clinton preparing to visit South Park Elementary. Those have now been pulled, and tonight’s episode—now titled “Oh, Jeez”—carries this promo instead:
Eight years ago—the day after Barack Obama was elected president—South Park released the heist-focused “About Last Night”, which was clearly designed to be easy to adapt to either an Obama or John McCain victory. But it sounds like—as with much of Hollywood—Parker and Stone were sincerely expecting Hillary Clinton to win last night, and were forced to rapidly adjust their plans once it was clear that was no longer going to be the case.