‘South Park’ Alum Trolls Trump’s Takeover Of The Kennedy Center
Joke is on them! Months before the Kennedy Center was officially renamed for TrumpA political satirist quietly snapped up Internet domain names tied to the controversial rebrand, effectively beating the administration to the digital punch.
As before reportedthe Kennedy Center's board of trustees voted on December 18 to rename the institution the Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, a move that quickly attracted national attention.
After the announcement, it was revealed that the comedy writer Toby Morton had already purchased domain names attached to the new name of the center.
Morton, who has worked on Mad TV and South Park, said The Washington Post that he bought trumpkennedycenter.org and trumpkennedycenter.com in August, pending the renaming. Morton confirmed the purchases in an email to USA Today on 21 Dec.
Domains currently parked, not live
Morton said the domains are not yet active and are currently parked through GoDaddy. As a result, the URLs display automatically generated placeholder content.
“Both domains are currently parked through GoDaddy,” Morton said USA Today. He said the pages are “automatically generated by their parking service, which injects random syndicated content until a page is live.”
Morton added that the content currently appearing on the sites is not created or approved by him and will be removed when the domains are connected to active hosting.
Morton said the reaction to the news of the domain purchases has been largely positive.
“I've received a large number of messages from creative people, writers, designers and artists offering to contribute and help raise what's to come,” Morton said.
Morton said the parody website will focus on Trump's branding and the broader cultural implications of attaching a political figure's name to a civic institution.
“That enthusiasm is shaping the direction of the upcoming site, which will focus on Trump's narcissism, market impulses, and the broader cultural implications of attaching his name to institutions that were meant to be civic, not personal,” Morton said.
Morton has a history of creating parody websites that look like official sites while satirizing public figures and institutions, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, televangelist Joel Osteen, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Morton describes himself on Instagram as the “creator of anti-fascist websites.” Talking to The Washington Post, he said the Trump-Kennedy Center parody would reflect what he described as “the absurdity of the moment.”
“Some things are really hard to parody,” Morton said.
Until the end of December, the official website of the Kennedy Center will remain kennedy-center.org, according to USA Today. Trump's name has been prominently added to the site's branding, but it remains unclear whether the institution plans to change its official domain.
No timeline announced for launch
Following news of the domain purchases, Morton posted on Instagram that additional supporters have expressed interest in contributing to the parody project.
Morton has not announced when the parody websites will go live, and no timeline has been provided for the launch of the project.
