Last week, Comedy Central quietly pulled the "South Park" episode featuring Charlie Kirk from the station's rotation the day after Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Many conservatives, including Townhall's Matt Vespa, said they did not need to pull the episode -- which featured Cartman as a parody of Kirk. Kirk himself found the parody highly amusing and leaned into it. The episode remained available for those who subscribed to Paramount+.
On Monday, the Hollywood Reporter was forced to backtrack on a story that blamed conservatives for the episode being pulled, including admitting they fabricated a quote from conservative radio host Jesse Kelly.
Now "South Park" has announced tonight's scheduled episode is "delayed."
#SouthPark has delayed tonight's new episode.
— Variety (@Variety) September 17, 2025
"Apparently when you do everything at the last minute sometimes you don’t get it done. 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,"… pic.twitter.com/3Ad7Qkb6nF
Comedy Central will not air a new episode of “South Park” on Wednesday due to a delay in production.
The news came in a statement from series co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
“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!”
The delayed episode will be the series’ first since the death of Charlie Kirk. Following his killing at a Utah college campus event on Sept. 10, controversy swirled around the Aug. 6 “South Park” episode “Got a Nut,” which featured jokes that made fun of Kirk’s politics as well as his style of podcasting and debating.
Speculation swirled about why the episode was delayed, with one X user saying, "Translation: Paramount wouldn’t let us make fun of Charlie Kirk again." It is possible the delayed episode was going to feature Kirk, and the creators couldn't pivot to a new script in time.
Others pointed out the dangers of woke rhetoric:
Woke is deadly
— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) September 17, 2025
I don't know if you noticed @Variety but Woke killed someone last week.
— Ignatz (@maus_ignatz) September 17, 2025
Woke is still among us and it thinks murder is A-ok.
Another said, "May be worth mentioning that Evergreen High School which was shot up last week is Trey Parker’s alma mater. Possibly just too difficult a week to make the show." Two students were critically wounded after a fellow student brought a revolver to school and opened fire. The alleged shooter ended up taking his own life.
This is the 27th season of "South Park," and the show has missed episodes in the past. Back in 2013, a power outage prevented Stone and Parker from completing the Season 17 episode titled "Goth Kids 3: Dawn of the Posers." During COVID, the show aired longer specials titled "Pandemic" and "Vaccination" instead of regular seasons. Starting in 2023, "South Park" began having scheduled mid-season breaks between episodes.