South Park S27 Ep 4 Review
If anyone hoped that the next episode of South Park would follow up on the end of Tegridy Farms, they need to keep waiting. Instead, it’s business as usual as Matt and Trey continue their campaign of tearing the President to shreds. It’s getting to the point where I was starting to worry I might get bored of it…is what I thought at first. After watching the latest episode, though, I can’t help but get the feeling that maybe Matt and Trey have some method to their madness. It all comes down to the relationship between the President and Satan, the cost of tariffs, and Labubus.
What’s a Labubu?
There’s a new fad in South Park Elementary, and its name is Labubu. These cute monster toys from Hong Kong have been all the rage lately, and the girls at school are obsessed with them. So much so that two of them start fighting when one accuses the other of having fake knock-offs. It’s becoming a problem, and the only one able to do anything about it is Jesus.
It would seem that after Mr. Mackey was fired, Jesus was given the job of school counselor by default. It’s a job that he’s woefully unprepared for, something that he struggles with for much of the episode. The son of God is so used to be a spiritual advisor for mankind, he has no clue how to handle the Labubu’s. In fact, this episode hammers home how much he struggles with problems people face in modern times. I’m not sure if this was intentional on their part, but it feels like Matt and Trey commented on how some people turn away from religion when it can’t help them with problems that are too complex. Case in point, the Labubu fad, and it only gets crazier from there.
I Don’t Get the tariffs
The entire point of the episode, though, is criticizing two things: the Trump tarrifs, and things like Labubu’s. I get that the tarriffs are meant to encourage Americans to buy more American products; self-sufficiency is important. However, I think the government underestimated how determined Americans are to buy things shipped in internationally, especially when it’s related to Asian pop culture. People such as Lu Kim are shown to be taking advantage of this, with the man having turned his restaurant into an Asian pop-up store selling Labubus. He can get away with fleecing poor kids like Butters, who was suckered into getting a rare Labubu, by blaming it the prices on the tariffs. The point being that South Park thinks that while we may hate the rising prices for everything, we have no other option.
For the record, I had no idea what Labubus were before this episode, but my years in anime left me familiar with the business model of mystery boxes. Minus using them for demonic rituals, that is. That part is all South Park.
Wait, Who is What?
In keeping with this entire season’s theme of bashing on the President, the episode’s Trump-centered plot focuses on the relationship between him and Satan. By now, we all know that the two are dating, with the President being just as bad for him as Saddam was. Yet despite wanting to get as far away from the President as possible, Satan stays with him in this toxic relationship. Based on his remarks, many assume he stays because he knows Trump will find him whether he’s on Earth or the afterlife. As it turns out, the South Park girls Labubu summoning leads to the President and Satan appearing in South Park itself, and there we learn the truth. It’s got nothing to do with the Epstein List, though; it’s something sillier.
On the surface, this reveal is supposed to be nothing but silly. The fact that Fox News treats this like celebrity gossip hammers cinches that point home. However, I think that Matt and Trey might be onto something. Given how the President-Satan story has made up half the plot of each episode, it’s safe to say it will stay that way for the rest of the season. Ergo, Matt and Trey could have all of this build up to the birth of the President and Satan’s child. Can you imagine what sort of insanely dark, malevolent, and reality-warping entity that child could be? With how much the two seem to hate our current President, they would play this for all the dark comedy it’s worth. And it will be up to Jesus to stop the madness. Thankfully, he seems to be getting his footing as a counselor.
So while it’s a little disappointing that we don’t get an epilogue to Tegridy Farms (yet), I think the Labubus and jokes about the tarriffs made up for it. Plus, I do think that Matt and Trey are going to use the pregnant Satan story arc will affect the plot going forward. That, or the two will forget about it and move on to something else. Knowing those two, it could go either way.
