South Park S27 Ep 5 Review

Three weeks; that’s how long it’s been since we last got an episode of South Park. And in those three weeks, the nation’s been in chaos due to the death of a popular public figure. A figure whose death some blamed South Park for, despite them enjoying how the show portrayed them. This event and people’s reactions to it have led to a lot of debate about free speech and censorship. So, rather than addressing what happened, South Park decided to go after the root issue: ragebait. In addition, they go after the FCC for recent events, Israel for being a bully, social gambling apps, and reveal the true antagonist of the season. And that last one will surprise you!

Ragebait is Serious Business

The premise of the episode is that the kids and adults of South Park have been getting into social gambling apps lately, and the bets they have going on are starting to get out of hand. Case in point, Kyle learns there’s a bet over whether his mom will crash out and blow up a Palestinian Hospital in Gaza. Naturally, this sets Kyle off, both for how it directly affects him and how it trivializes what’s going on in Gaza. He then spends the rest of the episode trying to either figure out who started the bet or get it taken down. Inevitably, Sheila gets involved, but not in the way you would think.

As Awestruck Vox from The Roundtable puts it, Kyle and his mom have fallen victim to ragebait. Ragebait is what happens when people are manipulated into feeling outrage online, allowing them to spread awareness for a cause to make it more popular. Kyle and Sheila fell for it hook line, and sinker; Kyle from Cartman, and Sheila from the women of South Park. Surprisingly, though, it’s never revealed who started the bet, with Cartman denying doing so. On the one hand, that would be a classic Cartman thing to do, and it’s nice to see him return to form. On the other hand, even he knows Kyle’s Mom is not that crazy. He’s only using ragebait to drive up the bet so he can win big. He even encourages Kyle to get the bet taken down when it looks like Sheila might actually do it.

What Sheila does is way funnier, though.

As funny as it is to see Sheila mouth off to the President of Israel, this is a serious issue. At this point, many people think that Israel has gone too far in Gaza. Matt and Trey definitely think that Netanyahu is giving Jews around the world a bad name, and they’re not wrong. They’re turning into the same bullies who oppressed them for thousands of years, and they need to stop. Kind of like how the FCC needs to stop stepping on the First Amendment.

The FCC Almost Crossed the Line

The B-plot of the episode continues the President and Satan storyline, with everyone excited for their impending child. Everyone except for the President, who doesn’t want the responsibility and an end to his wild lifestyle. So he resorts to various Looney Tunes shenanigans to force a miscarriage, only for Brendan Carr of the FCC to fall victim to them. And he deserves it all!

While South Park was off the air, Jimmy Kimmel briefly lost his job and show at ABC for joking about recent events. Many think that the FCC bullied Disney into making this decision, and for them, that crosses a line. While Kimmel’s jokes might have been too soon, canceling him over it borders dangerously on violating freedom of speech. South Park holds free speech as sacred, as it is what allows them to make fun of everything. As a result, they put Carr through the ringer, to the point where he can’t even talk anymore. A fitting punishment.

But then the show drops a bombshell on us by revealing that it’s not the President people should be worried about. It’s the Vice-President.

JD Vance=Evil Mastermind in South Park?

As it turns out, the show’s take on J.D. Vance is an evil mastermind who’s been trying to pull his boss’s strings, all so that he can set himself up to be President one day. His and Satan’s child could ruin everything, so he manipulated the President into pulling his stunts!

This came as a complete surprise to me, but it also makes sense, if you consider what’s happening in real life. Even if the real-life President makes it to the end of his second term, people often expect the Vice President to run for the office. However, if anything happens to the President in office, the VP is put in charge. It seems that South Park’s version of Vance may not want to wait, though, and is actively working to seize power. Though techncially, his logic is off, as a President’s child can’t take over for their parent if anything happens. Then again, it’s South Park. They can get away with this.

We now have to wait another three weeks until we get our next episode, but this one is already setting the course for the rest of the season. Instead of not only mocking the President, the sho has expanded to speculating about the intent of those around him. Meanwhile, I’m more concerned with whether or not the President and Satan’s child will be the Anti-Christ. You never know!

Glad to have you back, South Park.

I Give “Conflict of Interest” a 4/5