Les Claypool has recorded new vocals for the South Park theme to match the show’s South America name change. The revised intro debuted with the Season 29 premiere, “South American Biker Gangs,” on September 16, 2026.
The Primus frontman adjusts the familiar vocal to accommodate the longer name, replacing references to South Park with South America. Stereogum reports that Claypool returned for the update, extending his involvement with a theme Primus originally recorded for the show’s 1997 debut. South Park Studios has released the new opening on its official YouTube channel.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone announced the change on September 8, framing it as a satirical response to Donald Trump’s efforts to rename geographic locations. Their announcement credited the “bravery and patriotism of Apple and Google” and included a sarcastic thank you to parent company Paramount. Claypool’s revised performance puts that joke inside the opening itself, making the new name part of the song that introduces the town.
Stone’s enthusiasm for Primus started the original collaboration. In a 2010 Pitchfork interview, he recalled using an album’s management credits to send the band a letter and their animated short The Spirit of Christmas. Claypool called a few weeks later. “He was my hero at the time,” Stone said. His musical instructions amounted to little more than describing a small Colorado town and leaving Claypool to work out the rest.
Even that first theme needed a vocal revision. Claypool told Rick Beato in a 2025 interview, covered by CinemaBlend, that Comedy Central considered the original recording too slow. With Primus short on time, he suggested speeding up the instrumental. Parker and Stone then visited a Primus show, where Claypool recorded replacement vocals into a small tape recorder. The slower instrumental became the music heard over the closing credits.
The new season opens with the boys taking to electric bikes while their parents struggle to recognize the town around them. Comedy Central has scheduled the next episode for September 30 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, followed by Paramount+ availability the next day in the United States, Canada and Australia.
