South Park has spent decades reveling in its own poor taste, but the people who bankroll the show have their limits. Comedy Central pulled a rerun of a recent episode mocking Charlie Kirk that was meant to air hours after Kirk’s death.
The episode, titled “Got A Nut,” follows the character Eric Cartman as he becomes a “master debater.” He takes on Kirk’s style of speaking, grin and hairstyle while hosting campus debates. His virality leads to him earning an award named for Kirk.
Cartman, as Kirk, explained his content creation process in the episode, saying he could take down “unprepared” college girls and “edit out all the ones that actually argue back well.” Kirk took the ribbing in stride, calling it a “badge of honor” to be lampooned by the long-running cartoon.
“They’re going to obviously make fun of me… but I think it’s kind of funny and it kind of goes to show the cultural impact and the resonance that our movement has been able to achieve,” he said. “We as conservatives should be able to take a joke; we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously.”
Kirk was killed during a debate event on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. His shooter is still at large. Shortly after the news broke that Kirk had died, online conservatives argued that the satire of the Turning Point USA founder played a part in his death.
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“Comedy has consequences,” a Turning Point USA staffer said in a post to Telegram, per the New York Post. “Charlie was targeted in the culture before he was targeted in real life.”
“South Park certainly fomented the hatred necessary to get Kirk assassinated,” wrote Kevin Post, a member of MAGA country singer Aaron Lewis’ backing band, on X.
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