South Park Recap: “Conflict of Interest”

After a week-long delay on top of its bi-weekly schedule, we’ve been wondering if and how South Park would handle the whole Jimmy Kimmel situation. With this week’s episode, “Conflict of Interest,” we have our answer. The episode focused its ire squarely on FCC chairman Brendan Carr, who publicly threatened that, with regards to TV stations can take action against Jimmy Kimmel “the easy way or the hard way” before later trying to backpedal his statement as a joke.

The episode ostensibly was about the rise of unregulated internet gambling, which it managed to turn into a story about the kids betting whether or not Kyle’s mom would literally bomb a Palestinian hospital in Gaza, with Cartman trying to fix the odds so he can profit in the end. However, he ultimately winds up losing out when he thinks she’s actually going to do it when she goes off to the Middle East, only to realize that she doesn’t blame Palestine, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The episode is actually really good about not conflating Jews with Israel, and it’s always nice to see Cartman’s schemes backfire. Likewise, it’s a pleasant surprise to see Sheila Broflovski have an awesome moment of genuine righteousness, taking Netanyahu to task.

The other half of the episode is about President Trump trying to escape being a father by causing Satan to have an abortion or miscarriage. Oh, yeah, if you didn’t watch previous episodes, yeah, Satan is pregnant with Trump, because “Trump is fu*king Satan.” However, all of Trump’s machinations wind up falling onto Brendan Carr. Over the course of the episode, he falls down a flight of stairs, eats a stew poisoned with Plan B abortion medicine, which gives him diarrhea that sends him flying through the air like the spaceship from Asteroids, and gets covered in a massive pile of dirty cat litter, getting toxoplasmosis from the cat poop.

In a great one-two punch, Carr is depicted in a hospital stretcher, with his hand, in a cast, stretched out into a Nazi salute. On top of that, the doctor says that the toxoplasmosis could cause the FCC chairman to “lose his freedom of speech.” All the while, they never directly mention the Jimmy Kimmel situation, but the message is clear: South Park does not approve of the FCC pressuring TV affiliates to censor TV hosts that are critical of the President, no matter who’s in charge.

Elsewhere, the show has a genuinely unnerving depiction of Uday, I mean, Donald Trump Jr, as a “strategic advisor” to various corrupt entities within the Trump government. Hence the episode’s title, “Conflict of Interest.” Time will tell if Qusay, I mean, Eric Trump, will appear in a future episode.

Finally, the episode also adds a sinister edge to JD Vance. Thus far, he’s been little more than a goofy caricature of Tattoo from Fantasy Island, but this episode shows him to be an evil mastermind aiming to replace Trump when he inevitably retires/resigns/is impeached/moves to Russia. I think that’s giving real-life couch enthusiast JD Vance a little too much credit, but I think the message is more like South Park commenting on the complacency of the entire Republican side of government, who are silent as the country slides further and further into fascism.

Overall, this episode was tightly scripted with the rapid-fire pacing and intertwining storylines of the best of 30 Rock, as well as the righteous political satire that has long been South Park’s bread and butter. It seems like the extra week of production time really worked in the episode’s favor. Hopefully, the same is true of the next episode, which is currently scheduled for release in three weeks, on October 15, with subsequent episodes airing every other week until the December 10 season finale. At least, that’s the current plan. We’ll see what happens as the season goes on, especially if the FCC chooses to get involved.

Related: South Park: Matt Stone Insists Nothing Shady Behind Episode Delay