South Park S28 Ep 4 Review
You know what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving? South Park. They’ve dedicated the latter half of 2025 to mocking the current
presidential administration, and it being a holiday wasn’t going to stop that. The only difference is that this time, they weren’t looking to make fun of the President. Instead, they decided to go after someone that even their version of the President thinks is the worst: Pete Hegseth. Between him, the jabs at Saudi Arabia, and Cartman being Cartman, this was a surprisingly low-key episode in a story-centered year of South Park.
What are Matt and Trey planning for the last episode?
Turkey Trot, Sponsored by Saudi Arabia, I guess!
It’s Thanksgiving, and it’s time for the annual South Park Turkey Trot. However, no one is able to sponsor the run this year or the prize money. Tegridy Farms is gone, City Pop-Up Store has to deal with tariffs, and everyone else is flat broke. The silver lining is that we finally know what Mr. Mackey is doing: he’s a janitor at City Hall. Out of options, the town turns to someone who’s throwing out money: Saudi Arabia. It’s the South Park Turkey Trot, sponsored by Saudi Arabia (no disparaging remarks to the Saudi royal family allowed.)
I was actually thrown for a loop by this plot development. Apparently, Saudi Arabia’s trying to show the world it’s progressive and forward-thinking with things like a comedy festival. Given their less-than-stellar human rights record, they’ve gotten flak for it, as have the people who were willing to take the money. However, in the town’s defense, they’re giving $5k as the grand prize. With how the town’s wallets are, everyone, and I mean everyone in town wants the money, especially the Boys.
The Boys are Back in Town!
In what seems like the first time in forever, we finally got a South Park where the Boys manage to work together as a group. No being off doing their own thing, no getting dragged off to DC, just Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman being boys together. And after spending the last few episodes on the sidelines, we get to see Cartman be his normal, hateful self. In this case, he seeks to win the prize money using the power of “race science.” In this case, that involves him trying to get Tolkien to help them win the race. You can guess the logic that Cartman’s following.
And when Tolkien doesn’t want to play ball, what does Cartman do? Swipe his Xbox and force him to chase him through the Turkey Trot, of course. The funniest part is that Cartman actually manages to outrun Tolkien for most of the race. That was the last thing that I thought I would see happen!
But Cartman being Cartman is not the biggest threat to the Turkey Trot. It’s Pete Hesgeth.
Pete Hegseth is a f****** d*****!
With the birth of the Antichrist weeks away, the President and VP are desperate to stop them from being born. Unfortunately, their plan requires getting Peter Thiel out of SPPD custody, and they’re not cooperating. So they send in the one person that even the President can’t stand: Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War.
Given how Matt and Trey have gone out of their to make their version of the President insufferable, they had to really sell Pete Hegseth as being just…the worst. He acts like this over-the-top macho man so he can make content on social media instead of taking his job seriously, and is just an absolute jerk. The show even parodies “Danger Zone” by saying “Pete Hegseth is a ****** d****.” He takes one look at the Turkey Trot and pegs everyone as plotting a full-blown insurrection and responds accordingly: with tear gas.
You know, as crazy as it sounds, this is what I envisioned when I heard the government wanted to change the name of the Department of Defense to Department of War. It’s every bit as cringe as I imagined.
South Park Still Wins Against the President
Fortunately, the payoff to the joke is good when Detective Harris actually does his job right for once. The last we see of Hegseth is him joining Thiel in a cell. That’s 2 for South Park, and 0 for the President.
It gets even better, though. Thanks to Hegseth ruining the race, Tolkien wins by complete accident. Thus, the Boys end up getting their money after all.
I know not a lot of people are going to like this episode, but after how disgusting the last one was, I think that this was a nice breather. Sure, the Turkey Trot almost got ruined, but the Boys got what they wanted. Also, Hegseth is going to have to accept the mockery from South Park since retaliating will only validate them. Given how this was a breather episode, though, it makes me wonder what the show has planned for this year’s last episode. Given how it will air right in the middle of December, though, we’re looking at Christmas episode.
