South Park S27 Ep 1 Review
Last year, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the creators of South Park, announced their show would sit out 2024 (besides the specials). They wanted nothing to do with the Presidential election that year, and judging by their last episode, hoped Trump wouldn’t return. Not only did November 2024 dash their hopes, but thanks to Trump’s influence on their parent company of Paramount, South Park has been through the wringer. It got delayed two weeks thanks to the merger talks with Skydance. The show got pulled internationally from Paramount+. Heck, the fact that we didn’t get a teaser for the new episode until the last minute made some wonder if there would even be a new season of South Park! If Matt and Trey didn’t like Trump before, then recent events have made them crash out altogether.
Which is why, for the premiere of its 27th season, South Park decided to do what it does best: tear everyone a new one. And if it can be counted as a crash out, then I loved every second of it.
Everything Stinks in South Park
It’s now 2025, and the town of South Park couldn’t feel more miserable. PC Principal has gone from being Politically Correct to Power Christian. Jesus is now contractually obligated to be in school and spread his teachings, which he doesn’t like. And Cartman is upset because his favorite radio show, NPR, got cancelled, so he can’t laugh at their liberal views. Woke seems to be dead in America, and what do all these things have in common? They’re because of the new President running the country. Except it’s not who you think it is.
The episode spends a good third of its runtime making us think that Mr. Garrrison, it’s onetime stand-in for Trump, was President again. However, the show already learned its lesson from 2016; Garrison is still a teacher. Instead, South Park does what it should’ve done in the first place: drop all pretenses and outright have Donald J. Trump in their show for the first time in decades.
Trump is Back
In the show’s earlier seasons, South Park featured a parody of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as a recurring antagonist and Satan’s ex-boyfriend, and it was one of the funniest things the show ever did. Now it seems Matt and Trey decided to return to that joke, but with Trump now filling in for Saddam, and they don’t hold anything back. They let people know what they think about the man, and it’s not flattering. Besides being animated in the same style as Saddam, he’s an abusive, egotistical, narcisisitic man-child who’s insecure about his tiny junk and will sue anyone who attempts to badmouth him. Case in point, when the adults of South Park rightfully complain about Jesus being in school and violating separation of church and state, he sues them for billions.
It doesn’t stop there, though. Because the show is of the opinion that woke is dead, Cartman is miserable. One would think he would be happy about this, but as some fans pointed out on Twitter and Discord, Trump’s far-right views make him look moderate by comparison. It’s the show basically saying that people are becoming so offensive, they can’t hope to top it! It gets to the point where Cartman convinces Butters to join him in a suicide pact! While that would be horrible, the show manages to make it funny by virtue of their attempted suicide, death by car fumes, is foiled because the Stotch’s car is electric.
South Park Has Screwed over Paramount
The show and its creator’s crash out isn’t just because of Trump, though. Near the end of the episode, they have Jesus give a sermon on a small mount where the religious figure admits that he’s only doing this because Paramount’s folded to the President. That sets the precedent for him to sue anyone who badmouths him, citing Colbert’s recent cancellation. Paramount claims it’s because it’s losing money, but the fact that they just reached a $1.5 billion deal with Matt and Trey for more seasons of South Park says otherwise. Ultimately, they settle, but they have to make pro-Trump material from now on. In true South Park fashion, though, they do it in the most back-handed way possible-and the fans loved it. Though I can’t show it here, I can give the link.
When I watched this episode, I had to force myself to keep from howling with laughter at the show’s depiction of Trump, out of respect for the family members I live with. Which was incredibly hard, because it was so hilarious. If this is what it looks like when South Park decides to crash out, then they should have done it years ago, because the fans loved it. Look on social media or the show’s official discord, and you will find the fandom calling it the best the show’s been in years. What makes it even funnier, though, is that thanks to the billion-dollar deal, Paramount can’t afford to cancel them without looking bad. This episode wasn’t just a crash out of the highest order; it was South Park daring its detractors to take them down. Knowing Matt and Trey, they might even consider getting cancelled over this a win, since it means they got under their targets’ skin. If the rest of the season has this kind of fire to it, then we are in for a wild ride. Welcome back, South Park!
