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A marijuana farm is shut down after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid targeting Mexican migrants. A leisure trip to the nation’s capital looks like a war zone, complete with military tanks and armed soldiers. World leaders and tech moguls grovel at President Donald Trump’s feet, showering him with praise and gifts. Oh, and Satan has taken up residence in the White House.
This isn’t a play-by-play of the current news cycle in America, although it surely sounds like it. This is, in fact, the latest episode of “South Park,” once again scathingly calling out the Trump administration’s absurd antics in real time, and the show isn’t pulling any punches.
A crackdown on immigration and Trump’s sinister actions are just a few timely topics tackled in the third episode of Season 27 of “South Park,” which mostly satirized an overreliance on ChatGPT. The most glaring plot, though, involved the return of a beloved character, Towelie, heading to a militarized Washington, D.C., just as Trump has deployed hundreds of National Guard troops in real life to address the city’s “crime emergency” (despite the U.S. Attorney’s Office saying crime hit a 30-year low earlier this year).
It’s no surprise that “South Park” has continued to take on the current political climate. Comedy Central’s staple satire has been aiming at Trump and his administration ever since its record-breaking season premiere last month, which earned explosive ratings for skewering the president like never before — nearly one year after “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said they “don’t know what more we could possibly say about Trump.”
Season 27’s kickoff episode, which aired July 23, was a roast of epic proportions that not only constantly mocked the president’s “teeny tiny” genitals but also his penchant for litigation, as a Trump character threatens to sue the residents of South Park for protesting Jesus appearing in local schools, forcing them to settle.
The latter was a direct shot at Paramount’s $16 million settlement over a “60 Minutes” lawsuit from Trump amid its massive merger with Skydance, and the brutal storyline came just after “South Park” creators inked a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount. The show didn’t mince words in nodding to more Paramount drama, either, specifically the sudden (and widely criticized) cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” — which occurred shortly after the host slammed CBS’s settlement.
“You guys saw what happened to CBS? Well, guess who owns CBS? Paramount. You really want to end up like Colbert?” Jesus asks in the episode.
Funny, the makers of “South Park” don’t seem too concerned with suffering the same fate. And if they are, they’re going out guns blazing.
“South Park” is known for its extremely dark humor and unflinching social commentary on just about anything — race, religion, celebrity culture, current events, etc. Nothing and no one, no matter how sacred or sensitive, has been off limits over the last 20+ years.
However, these days, the show has a more pointed political focus, seemingly more interested in addressing the injustices happening under Trump’s rule than entertaining its usual pop culture parodies.
Sure, there have been plenty of MAGA punchlines and Trump parodies created previously to get a rise out of its subjects and the far-right. But the show’s latest cartoon assault feels much more personal coming from Stone and Parker — and it’s just what Americans need right now. At least, those who oppose what Trump has been doling out since stepping back in office.
As part of the right-wing Project 2025 plan, the Republican president has been doing his damnedest to reverse American progress with an agenda that’s quickly and aggressively turning back the hands of time. From demonizing diversity, equity and inclusion programs to freezing education funding to unprecedented deportations and more, Trump has been relentless with his autocratic approach.
With corporations, media entities and Ivy League institutions all shamefully bowing to pressure from Trump, someone should have the courage to call out the erosion of this country’s democracy for what it is. And it seems “South Park” has no problem doing that.
Immigration has been a hot-button issue so far in Season 27, just as it’s been IRL since Trump supercharged ICE arrests across the country, which The Guardian reported have more than doubled in 38 states. So have the disruptions of the Trump administration, which is doing just as much damage to the show’s titular town as it is to this country right now.
With that track record alone, it’s safe to assume that the remainder of Season 27 will satirize what’s to come from the White House and Trump in as raw, uncut and untamed a fashion as possible.
That’s always been the nature of “South Park,” to say what people think is too inappropriate or offensive to say out loud. But in these current trying times, where human rights are being stripped away and public media is being silenced, the show’s rhetoric is necessary in holding the administration to the fire.
What we’re seeing now is a fed-up Parker and Stone exercising their right to free speech in a way that Paramount seemingly wasn’t willing to tolerate from Colbert. But the joke’s on them, because the “South Park” creators share the same disdain for Trump’s crushing power, if not more, and they don’t care to polish up their digs to avoid offense. Nor do they have any remorse for jokes that are far less heinous than the acts the president is committing from the White House.
“We’re terribly sorry,” Parker said at San Diego’s Comic-Con last month, followed by a long, deadpan stare and smirk.
The creators want the Trump administration to hear them loud and clear. They have, and will continue to do so, since Parker and Stone’s Paramount deal includes at least 47 more new episodes (the next airing on Sept. 3).
That’s a whole lot of material for three more years under Trump. He’d better buckle up.
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