South Park has returned for its 27th season, proving yet again that this show will probably outlive us all. In just four episodes, the creators of the show, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, have done what all great satire must do: Make us laugh while deliberately leaving us with an uneasy feeling.
And if, for any reaso,n you thought that past seasons have been unhinged, then prepare to leave your jaw at the door as Parker and Stone explore ideas ranging from Jesus doing school assemblies to Donald Trump accidentally impregnating Satan.
The show has seemed to lean into the chaos that controversy creates, making it yet again the talk of the town. But South Park didn’t just push boundaries this season—it bulldozed right past them as it centered their jokes around the most ‘powerful’ man in the country: President Donald Trump. Although the show has its legal team working overtime to keep them on Paramount+, Season 27 started with a big bang, scoring an astonishing 9.4/10 rating on IMDb from over 13,000 reviews.
- Episode 1: “Sermon on the ‘Mount'”
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“Sermon on the ‘Mount’” is the first episode, in which we open with Eric Cartman grieving the cancellation of NPR as he states that “NPR was the only place [he] could hear liberals, lesbians, and Jews complain all the time.” In his overblown grief, Cartman decides to stage a double suicide with Butters by locking them in a car (which was electric, by the way) and succumbing to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Over at South Park Elementary, PC principal rebrands himself as “Power Christian Principal” during an assembly, proclaiming that “This school will now reflect Christian values—because that’s what the President wants!” PC Principle then introduces a guest speaker who is none other than Jesus Christ himself. Jesus did not come to offer salvation, though, and instead, issues a warning about litigation, saying that “If you don’t cooperate with Mr. Trump, you’ll be canceled just like Colbert.”
@SouthPark on Instagram Over at the White House, we see President Trump getting in bed with Satan, pleading for sex, before he undresses himself, causing Satan to scoff that “[he] can’t even see anything, it’s so small.” As the episode concludes, the town of South Park protests the presence of religion in schools sanctioned by Trump. But ultimately, they get hit with a $5 billion lawsuit from him, which they settle for $3.5 million and an agreement to produce 50 pro-Trump public media announcements. The episode ends with a deepfake A.I. ad featuring Trump walking in a desert as he passes out, and his animated penis speaks to the audience.
- EPISODE 2: “Got a nut”
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Fellow South Park Elementary student, Clyde, decided to start a podcast, dropping “truth bombs” on topics ranging from women’s rights to abortion to African Americans and even “the Jews.” This obviously upsets Cartman, whose entire personality is based on hating all the aforementioned things. As Cartman and Clyde duke it out for the ‘who is the worst person’ award, Mr. Mackey, the school counselor, is let go due to a widespread budget cut.
Out of a job and low on money, Mackey decides to join ICE after being promised a $100,000 salary. Under direct orders from U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, Mackey and the rest of the ICE agents start their raids — including showing up to an arena where Dora the Explorer is performing live and detaining her and anyone else who is Hispanic. The show goes as far as to show the agents driving up to Heaven, where they shove any angel who is Latinx into their vans and drive them away.
I also can’t help but mention that South Park focused half of their episode on showing Noem shooting puppies, referring to how she confessed that she put her own dog down because it was “untrainable” and “less than worthless … as a hunting dog.”
@Southpark on Instagram
Due to the content of the remaining two episodes, I have opted out of discussing them in this article. South Park was also supposed to rerun an episode this week that parodied Charlie Kirk, but Comedy Central pulled it after the conservative activist was shot and killed on Sept. 10, at an event at Utah Valley University. The network did not issue any public statement but confirmed that the episode was “temporarily pulled” from cable rotation.
Despite the mockery, Kirk posted a reaction to the initial episode, saying that “South Park gets this right” and adding that “We have a good spirit about being made fun of. This is all a win. We as conservatives have thick skin, not thin skin, and you can make fun of us and it doesn’t matter.” Yet after Kirk’s death, Jesse Kelly, a conservative radio host, told his listeners on live air that “South Park thought it was funny to turn Charlie into a cartoon joke. Now his wife is planning a funeral,” according to Fox News Baltimore.
The Daily Beast also reported comments on social media saying things such as “Let’s blame South Park. Blame the media. Blame leftist rhetoric. These people hate you and want to see you dead.” The Daily Beast also reported these social media comments: “South Park certainly fomented the hatred necessary to get Kirk assassinated,” and “[South Park creators] Trey Parker and Matt Stone are responsible for this.” Meanwhile, a popular account by the name of Johnny MAGA called South Park “monsters” for the episode.
South Park has always been known for their raunchy humor and desire to mock everyone. However, if you thought it could not get worse than shooting puppies and deepfake A.I., then you clearly don’t understand the capabilities of the South Park writers, because when there is a will, there seems to be a way for Parker and Stone.
With the show averaging around 10 episodes a season, it is safe to say that no topic is off the table for them. As we move along in season 27, South Park reminds us time and time again that the boundaries of taste, logic, and reality only exist to be laughed at.