NOTE: Graphic language below
Animated comedy South Park is used to putting episodes together very quickly, but the unexpected Donald Trump victory forced the TV show to do some 11th-hour revising of the storyline. (In the original storyline, Hillary Clinton won the election.)
South Park is known for its timely coverage of pop culture and hot topics because longtime writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone don’t start writing or drawing episodes until just a week before they’re broadcast.
Famously operating on an extremely tight schedule helps the writers poke fun at the latest headlines, and over the last two seasons the 2016 U.S. presidential election has been a major focus for South Park. In the show’s world, voters must choose between Giant Douche (Mr. Garrison, a Trump-like character) and Turd Sandwich (a Clinton-like character).
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Wednesday night’s episode addresses the results of Tuesday’s election, but had to be rejigged when Clinton — who was expected to be America’s 45th president — was beaten by Trump.
Deadline reports that the original storyline had a Hillary-esque character beating a Trump-like opponent, and the episode was titled The Very First Gentleman. Following Clinton’s concession, however, the episode was rewritten and retitled, now called Oh Jeez. The episode was teased Wednesday afternoon on Twitter.
“We’ve learned that women can be anything,” Randy says in the preview, “except president.”
While promoting the show’s 20th season, South Park put up seven site-specific mobile billboards around the country to depict scenes that coincide with the trucks’ placements.
New York City was one of the locations, and mobile billboards were parked outside Manhattan’s Trump Tower and Clinton’s nearby headquarters.
You can see the full logline for the original episode here.
With files from ET Canada
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