South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had a lot to say when they took the stage at San Diego Comic-Con following a recent stretch that has seen plenty of headlines about the long-running Comedy Central animated series.

Parker and Stone addressed the Hall H crowd Thursday as part of a panel promoting the network’s adult animation programming, alongside Beavis and Butt-Head creator Mike Judge and Digman! co-creator Andy Samberg. At the start of the panel, moderator Josh Horowitz addressed the elephant in the room by asking the South Park creators if they had been following the noisy reaction to the show’s season 27 premiere that aired Wednesday and included an unflattering depiction of President Donald Trump.

Parker had a succinct response, saying jokingly with a straight face, “We’re terribly sorry.” That was the extent of the reply, although there would be more to come about the episode.

A more direct reference to Trump came when the South Park creators were asked how they originally connected decades ago. “For me and Trey, we met over Monty Python,” Stone said. “In this day, when PBS is getting their funding cut, that’s how I found Monty Python.” The comment, which comes as Trump has signed a bill cutting federal funding to public broadcasting, earned cheers from the crowd.

Parker said that the show’s team still finds the creative process to be as thrilling as ever. “We were at South Park this morning trying to figure out what next week’s show is going to be,” he admitted.

He pointed out that, even for this week’s season 27 premiere, the show’s team just recently finalized the episode’s story. “Just three days ago, we were going, ‘I don’t know if people are going to like this,’” Parker said. He added that he and Stone were reading news headlines and said to each other, “Let’s put that in there.”

As the conversation went on, discussion turned to notes from higher-ups, and Horowitz asked if there were concerns about the season 27 premiere. Parker referenced the episode showing Trump’s penis when he shared feedback from network brass: “They were like, ‘We’re gonna blur the penis,’ and we’re like, ‘No, you’re not gonna blur the penis.’” Stone said that the show’s team agreed to add eyes to the penis: “Then it’s a character.”

As far as his initial inspiration for Beavis and Butt-Head, Judge recalled doing an impression at school of a classmate who was smitten with an attractive teacher. “I started imitating in the back of the class, and it just caught on,” Judge said. “I was just trying to draw him, and it turned into something else.” He then added of his former friend, “He’s a nuclear engineer now, so he’s nothing like Beavis.”

Samberg recalled his Lonely Island sketches for Saturday Night Live being among the first viral YouTube clips, particularly “Lazy Sunday” from 2006. “SNL used to do the same characters over and over and over again because there was no place to rewatch it,” he said. “YouTube became something that people found out about the day after the Narnia one, and we had really good timing with it.”

Judge recalled getting a kick out of SNL‘s 2024 viral Beavis and Butt-Head-inspired sketch that starred Ryan Gosling and Mikey Day. “That was pretty cool,” Judge said. “That had me laughing.”

When the panelists were asked whether they have get recognized by fans in the public, Stone quipped that his fans are mostly men: “I’m older now, but it wasn’t that great to be recognized by just guys.”

Parker and Stone had been in a tense dispute with Paramount and future owners Skydance regarding the show’s streaming rights. On Wednesday, Paramount announced a new five-year deal with Parker and Stone’s production company, Park County, for a reported $1.5 billion. It will bring South Park to Paramount+ in the U.S. for the first time ever and see the show produce 10 episodes per year.

The Hollywood Reporter reported earlier this month that Park County believed it was set to finalize a 10-year, $3 billion deal with Paramount but that Skydance balked at approving a deal of that length, given uncertainty with the streaming market. Amid the dispute, Parker and Stone enlisted notable lawyer Bryan Freedman to help with negotiations.

Comedy Central announced earlier this month that the season 27 premiere, which would mark the show’s first new episode in more than two years, had been delayed as the show’s deal remained in limbo. Parker and Stone wrote in a fiery social media post at the time, “This merger is a shitshow and it’s fucking up South Park. We are at the studio working on new episodes and we hope the fans get to see them somehow.”

South Park’s season 27 premiere finally aired Wednesday on Comedy Central and includes a cartoon depiction of Trump, with one scene showing him nude while in bed with Satan. Satan brings up rumors about Trump’s name appearing on the documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. The episode also references CBS’ recent cancellation of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, which has spurred speculation about the axing being politically motivated ahead of the Paramount merger, mirroring debate surrounding Paramount’s 60 Minutes settlement with Trump. During the season 27 premiere, a representation of Jesus Christ warned South Park residents to take Trump seriously.

In a statement issued earlier Thursday about the episode, White House Assistant Press Secretary Taylor Rogers said in part, “This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.”

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission cleared the way for David Ellison’s Skydance to acquire Paramount Global in an $8 billion deal. Following the FCC’s approval, Skydance can soon complete its acquisition of Paramount, putting Ellison in charge of the owner of Comedy Central, CBS and other media properties.