Comedy Central reportedly quietly pulled a rerun of a South Park episode lampooning Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk in the hours after his assassination at a Utah campus event Wednesday, a move that has drawn scrutiny both for its timing and for what it suggests about how the cultural establishment views conservative figures.
The satirical episode, titled Got a Nut, was originally the second installment of the show’s 27th season. As Arizona Republic first reported, it had been scheduled to air again this week as part of Comedy Central’s routine rotation of reruns.
Instead, it was swapped out at the last minute for a different episode.
The episode, which remains available on Paramount+ streaming, portrayed the character Eric Cartman imitating Kirk and launching a podcast where he spars with college students.
Its finale featured Cartman attending a ceremony for the fictional “Charlie Kirk Award for Young Masterdebaters.”
Kirk himself, far from being offended, had publicly embraced the satire during his lifetime. In an interview with Fox News before the episode aired, he called the parody “a badge of honor,” saying he planned to change his X profile picture to an image of Cartman dressed as him. “We as conservatives should be able to take a joke, we shouldn’t take ourselves so seriously – that’s something that the left has always done,” Kirk remarked. He also posted several clips from the episode to his own social media accounts.
For Kirk, the show’s attention underscored his growing influence in American political life. “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. “So I look at this as a badge of honor.”
But not all conservatives shared Kirk’s good humor. President Donald J. Trump’s White House blasted South Park as irrelevant after the series repeatedly depicted him with a micropenis — an insult the president’s aides dismissed as tired and juvenile.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was similarly scathing, calling the show “lazy” after it mocked her as a “puppy serial killer” with a collapsing face.
The decision to pull Got a Nut from Comedy Central’s broadcast lineup raises questions about selective sensitivities in the entertainment world. The network made no public comment on its rationale, though the substitution occurred just hours after news broke of Kirk’s murder at Utah Valley University.
For conservatives, the move is a reminder of the double standard in how cultural institutions treat political figures. Kirk himself had made clear he could take the joke, even celebrating it. Yet when tragedy struck, Comedy Central acted with the kind of caution rarely shown toward caricatures of right-of-center leaders.
Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA at age 18, had become a fixture on college campuses nationwide, rallying students and mobilizing the youth vote behind Trump’s populist agenda.
In the end, even his critics acknowledged his outsized cultural reach.
[READ MORE: Trump To Honor Kirk With Presidential Medal Of Freedom]
