South Park Mocks Trump's Renaming Spree by Rebranding Itself 'South America'

Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced a fake name change for their long-running animated series, declaring it would henceforth be called 'South America' — a pointed parody of the Trump administration's ongoing campaign to rename U.S. geographic features. The satirical stunt dropped ahead of Season 29's September 16 premiere on Comedy Central.

The joke skewers two targets at once: Trump's executive orders renaming places like the Gulf of Mexico (now officially 'Gulf of America' in federal usage) and Lake Ontario ('Lake America'), and the quiet corporate compliance of Apple and Google, both of which have updated their mapping apps to reflect the administration's preferred names. Parker and Stone said they were 'inspired by the bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google' — dripping with sarcasm. They also took a shot at parent company Paramount, signing off with 'a Skydance Capitulation,' a reference to Paramount paying Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit over a 60 Minutes interview and agreeing to dismantle its DEI program during its Skydance Media merger.

The stunt lands just days after South Park won its sixth Emmy — Outstanding Animated Program — for a season that relentlessly mocked Trump, depicting him in a romantic relationship with Satan (echoing the show's earlier Saddam Hussein bit) and portraying VP JD Vance as Tattoo from Fantasy Island. The show celebrated the win on social media with an image of a cartoon Trump clutching an Emmy, trolling his long-held grievance that The Apprentice was repeatedly nominated but never won. The White House, for its part, had previously dismissed South Park as 'irrelevant for 20 years.'

Meanwhile, the real-world map-renaming fight has produced at least one unexpected winner: MapQuest surged to the top of Apple's U.S. App Store charts this week after publicly refusing to rename Lake Ontario 'Lake America,' while Google and Apple opted to comply. Trump has also floated renaming New Mexico 'New America,' though legal experts note he has no authority to rename a U.S. state.