The recent South Park episode “Got a Nut” has been temporarily removed from Comedy Central’s rotation in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death. The episode, which originally aired on Aug. 6, included scenes in which the character Clyde Donovan draws on the right-wing political influencer’s controversial ideologies and mannerisms.
In the episode, the character who hosts The Clyde Donovan Podcast is awarded “The Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters” following a podcast debate contest. In his acceptance speech, he says, “Thanks, everyone. The Civil Rights Act was a huge mistake, and, I don’t know, lesbians are an abomination of God.”
Kirk reacted to the parody on his own podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show, shortly after it aired. “For those that don’t understand, ‘South Park’ is very popular…it has a lot of cultural power,” he said. “Obviously, they’re very nasty towards conservatives, they were very nasty towards President Trump in the prior episode. But I personally think a lot of it was hilarious towards me. I gotta be honest. Some of it was very funny and I don’t think we should have too thin of skin.”
Comedy Central confirmed to Rolling Stone‘s that the episode will not be airing in linear rotation and that it is available to stream on Paramount+ and Comedy Central on Demand.
The 31-year-old Kirk was shot dead on Wednesday while speaking to students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, at an event on Turning Point USA’s “American Comeback Tour.” He was shot in the neck by an unknown assailant while sitting at a table under a small pavilion with a sign reading “Prove Me Wrong.”
In the South Park episode, the Clyde Donovan character hosts a debate in a similar format outside of a school. “It looks like a lot of whiny babies have a problem with what I say, so prove me wrong,” the character says. After watching the clip on his podcast, Kirk said, “First, I just think it’s hilarious. Secondly, the whole thing is like, wait, so a campus thing I’ve been doing for 13 years to debate random college kids has now been so important that it gets prominent prime time placement on Comedy Central?”
Kirk later sold “Master Debater” shirts on his website with a portion of the proceeds going toward funding his Turning Point USA fall campus tour. The merchandise has since been removed from the online store.
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Some MAGA supporters have lashed out at the show in the wake of Kirk’s death. The New York Post reported that a Turning Point USA staffer posted on Telegram, saying, “Comedy has consequences. Charlie was targeted in the culture before he was targeted in real life.” The right-wing radio host Jesse Kelly told his listeners, “South Park thought it was funny to turn Charlie into a cartoon joke. Now his wife is planning a funeral.”
The FBI is still searching for the shooter who killed Kirk. He is survived by his wife, Erika, and their two young children.
From Rolling Stone US
