South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone explained how they ended up keeping their initial impression of JD Vance. The co-creators appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
10:34 ET, 19 May 2026Updated 10:35 ET, 19 May 2026
Vice President JD Vance made his first appearance in the second episode of Season 27
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone didn’t plan to keep their specific impersonation of Vice President JD Vance for more than one episode.
The co-creators of the adult animated series appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, May 18. Trey and Matt spoke about South Park and parodying President Donald Trump and his administration. They shed light on how the initial impression of Vance on the show is based on Tattoo from Fantasy Island and how it came to stay.
Tattoo was the assistant of Mr. Roarke, who managed this island where people would go to fulfill their fantasies for a price. Hervé Villechaize portrayed Tattoo in the ABC fantasy drama from 1977 to 1983. Trey and Matt appearance on Jimmy’s late show comes as South Park was nominated for Webby Award for Social—Television & Film.
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“It was just going to be a one-off joke of just this joke about Mar-a-Lago being kind of like Fantasy Island and we’re like ‘Oh yeah we should have him be Tattoo. It’s going to be one shot’ and we all just loved it so much and we loved him as a little character that we were like ‘Lets keep it going,'” Trey explained.
Jimmy Kimmel interjected that sometimes a joke “doesn’t make sense but it doesn’t matter… you just go with it anyway.” Trey agreed, saying they think “that’s good for another 27 years.”
They shared that their impression of Vance as Tattoo from Fantasy Island was supposed to be a “one-shot” joke(Image: JimmyKimmelLive/YouTube)
Matt chimed in about making a spin-off show.
Season 27 and Season 28 of South Park had scathing parodies of Trump, his administration and his policies. Vance made his debut on the show in Season 27 in the episode titled, Got a Nut, which aired in August 2025.
In the episode, Vance and Trump were dressed similarly to Tattoo and Mr. Roarke in matching white suits. The storyline exhibited being a parody of Fantasy Island and the dynamic between Tattoo and Mr. Roarke.
Vance had taken to X (formerly Twitter) to react to his debut and depiction on South Park. The 41-year-old politician tweeted “Well, I’ve finally made it.”
Vance’s depiction on South Park is based off of Tattoo from Fantasy Island, portrayed by French actor Hervé Villechaize (Image: Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Within the episode, the show also poked fun at then-U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem with an ICE storyline that included her shooting dogs during a raid on heaven.
There was also a Charlie Kirk master-debater storyline in the episode. The episode ended up being pulled off air on September 10, after the assassination of the right-wing media personality.
Elsewhere in their interview with Jimmy, Matt and Trey announced that the new season of South Park will be coming out on September 16.
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