Claim:
An image shows an official “South Park” promotional teaser for an upcoming TV episode featuring Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk.
Rating:
A rumor that circulated online in December 2025 claimed an image showed an official “South Park” promotional teaser for an upcoming TV episode featuring Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk. The image featured Erika Kirk standing in a sparkly outfit in front of four of the satirical show’s key characters, including Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick and Eric Cartman.
For example, on Dec. 25, an X user posted (archived) the image with the caption, “South Park never misses.” The image displayed the tagline “Let’s grieve together” — a reference to memes about what users labeled as Erika Kirk’s “grieving tour,” specifically pertaining to her use of sparkling pyrotechnics at public appearances.
Some users shared only an image of Erika Kirk without the four boys, including in one TikTok user’s post (archived) featuring the caption, “Erika Kirk set to star in an upcoming episode of South Park.”
Users shared the image, or the rumor Erika Kirk would soon appear on a new “South Park” episode, on Bluesky, Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads, TikTok (archived) and X (archived).
In short, the image was fake. The rumor Erika Kirk would soon appear on “South Park” was made up. South Park Studios, the show’s creative force, did not officially create or publicize the image.
Snopes contacted representatives for “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone to ask if they wished to comment about this matter, and will update this article if we receive further information.
“South Park” ended its 28th season earlier in December. The season featured only five episodes, the fifth publicly released on Dec. 10.
In 2021, MTV Entertainment Studios renewed “South Park” through its 30th season. No news media outlets documented the air date for the season 29 premiere, which bloggers and fans expect to arrive sometime in 2026.
AI tools and new ‘South Park’ season
Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo located a Dec. 24 post (archived) from the X parody account @HoopsCrave. That post featured only a depiction of Erika Kirk on “South Park.”
(@HoopsCrave/X)
Later on the same day, content creator Karim Jovian posted on Facebook (archived) and Instagram the larger image of Erika Kirk with all four “South Park” boys.
(Karim Jovian/Facebook)
A prompt with the Google Gemini AI tool SynthID Detector scanned both images for a SynthID watermark — a hidden label Google adds to images made or manipulated with its AI platforms.
Regarding the first image only showing Erika Kirk depicted on “South Park,” Gemini responded, “This image was not created with Google AI tools.”
For the larger image with Erika Kirk and the four boys, Gemini confirmed that Google’s AI tools generated the fake image. Gemini said, “The second image (containing the ‘Let’s grieve together’ text) was identified by SynthID as being partially generated or edited with Google AI tools. The first image did not trigger a SynthID detection, though it serves as the base for the second.”
We sent private messages to @HoopsCrave and Jovian to ask if they personally originated the two images, as well as if @HoopsCrave could identify the AI tool used to generate the “South Park”-stylized picture of Erika Kirk.
For further reading, we previously investigated a matter ultimately involving another Google SynthID watermark, regarding an alleged photo of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and President Donald Trump cuddling in a bed.
