To get this out of the way: Yes, the latest episode of South Park features Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr. Yes, it makes light of his crusade against Jimmy Kimmel and the ensuing controversy about free speech. And yes, it features Carr consuming a soup full of so many morning-after pills that he defecates violently enough to blast himself out of the White House. And yet, I must admit, I still found the episode to be something of a cop-out.
There was enormous pressure on creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker heading into this week’s episode. Given South Park’s recent resurgence in cultural prominence thanks to the pair’s willingness—nay, zeal—to take on the second Trump administration like few others have, expectations were astronomical heading into this fifth episode of the show’s 27th season. That’s because the entire American political, media, and comedy landscapes have changed dramatically since the fourth episode aired at the start of this month. The Sep. 10 killing of Charlie Kirk and subsequent suspension of Jimmy Kimmel have been all-consuming media events that have sparked endless debate, controversy, and scandal—exactly the type of public firestorm that Stone and Parker have feasted upon for years. When this latest episode was suddenly postponed last week because it was apparently not finished in time, it seemed highly probable that the creators were really working out just what they wanted to say and how they wanted to say it. Understandably, then, a large part of me was hoping the show would come in and make sense of things in a way that only South Park can: crudely, but with undeniable astuteness. In the end, though, it appears that, for the most part, Stone and Parker decided to err on the side of caution and talk around current events. The resulting episode was brave; it just wasn’t ballsy—which is maybe the worst thing you can say about South Park.
To be fair, I can appreciate the enormous pressure placed upon the show—and, indeed, all comedians—in this unique cultural moment. South Park’s pressure was particularly unique, given the series had satirized Kirk just weeks ago by parodying provocateur types who want to debate people about whether women belong in the kitchen. The references to Kirk were so obvious in that episode that he even made a still of Eric Cartman (complete with Kirkian hair) his profile picture on X, calling it a “badge of honor.” But after his death, that episode was pulled from the rotation on Comedy Central, signaling that the new bosses at parent company Paramount Skydance didn’t want to risk upsetting anyone. (Never mind that one of Kirk’s executive producers said that the late conservative activist would’ve wanted the episode to continue airing.) Given the eagerness shown by the Trump administration and MAGA acolytes to destroy the lives of anyone remotely critical of Kirk or the response to his death, perhaps you can’t blame them, although the pair has previously demonstrated a brazen willingness to defy their corporate overlords.
Instead, the episode takes on another sacred cow: Israel’s actions in Gaza. The war arises because the students at South Park Elementary—like people everywhere—have become addicted to prediction market apps (aka gambling) and are placing bets with abandon. Among the bets is the question of whether Kyle’s mom, Sheila Broflovski, is going to destroy a Palestinian hospital. This flagrantly antisemitic query prompts outrage from Kyle, who calls up the app’s so-called strategic adviser for predictive markets: Donald Trump Jr. (The real Trump Jr. has indeed assumed such a position thanks to an investment in the platform Polymarket.)
Here’s where I have to pause things for just a moment. As a longtime viewer of South Park, I can’t recall anyone being animated on the show like Trump Jr. is. Usually, real-world figures are animated in the series’ signature two-dimensional cartoon style. President Trump (and Saddam Hussein before him) are outliers to this rule, with South Park animating the pair using actual photographs. (Vice President J.D. Vance is animated through an exaggerated photo that references both a meme about him and Hervé Villechaize’s character on Fantasy Island.) And yet, I’ve never seen a character animated via both a photo and animation like Trump Jr. was in this episode. We see Don Jr.’s real signature slicked-bar hair and forehead, but it’s fused via bad plastic surgery with an animated grin that’s eternally huge. It’s instantly off-putting, which I suppose was exactly the point. But I digress!
Not only does Trump Jr. work at the prediction market app in the South Park universe, he also works for the government body that regulates it, as well as the FCC. When Kyle’s call finally makes it to this agency, we see Carr for the first time sitting at a desk surrounded by photos of himself. Kyle’s complaint about the antisemitic question does seem to cause concern in the administration, but there’s just one problem: President Trump is too preoccupied trying to induce the abortion of the love child he’s fathered with Satan, the Prince of Darkness.
Yes, the revelation from the previous episode that Satan is expecting a “butt baby” with Trump isn’t sitting well with the commander in chief, who is not happy that the infant-to-be is being showered with gifts, nor that his life is going to have to change when he becomes a father (again). “No more dinner parties in the Rose Garden! No more baseball games! No more traveling! No more long nights at Mar-a-Lago!” Vance warns him. This news sends the president on a mission to end Satan’s pregnancy by any means necessary—except via a traditional medical abortion because, as Satan says, “I don’t think your followers would be very happy if we got an abortion.” Instead, Trump tries to sneakily suggest alternative means like Satan sitting in a hot tub while smoking a cigarette, tripping down a set of stairs greased with Crisco, inhaling said soup laced with morning after pills, or getting covered in cat feces to induce a case of toxoplasmosis. Through a series of bumbling interventions, however, it’s Carr who ends up the victim of each of these schemes.
It’s here that Stone and Parker appear to finally feel comfortable nodding at the news of the week. As Carr lies in his hospital bed, with broken bones and a feces-covered bandage on his groin, his doctor warns that, while Carr may regain the ability to walk, he “may lose his freedom of speech.” We also learn here that the minion Vance has been the secret architect behind pushing Trump to get rid of the Hellspawn, fearing his own position as president-in-waiting might be threatened. “If you continue to interfere, I will make things very difficult for you,” Vance warns the FCC chair, before using Carr’s real-world words against him. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
Meanwhile, Sheila has indeed traveled to the Middle East after becoming incensed about the South Park townspeople’s questions about what she intends to do about Gaza. “Like us Jews in America have any control over what’s going on in Israel! Why is everyone suddenly confronting us about the politics?” she cries. However, she’s not there to cause any damage—something that prompts a panicked Cartman, who has made a big wager using his mother’s credit card, to call the White House and have the bet about Sheila finally removed. (The presidential adviser is also Trump Jr. because, yes, that one family controls a lot of the country right now.) Instead, Sheila confronts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a screed about him “killing thousands and flattening neighborhoods, then wrapping [himself] in Judaism like it’s some shield from criticism.”
Sheila’s speech feels earnest and righteous, and as if it’s coming directly from Stone, who is Jewish. But delivered at the episode’s end and without any final punchline, it also feels tonally confusing. Moreover, it hints at the episode’s central problem: If South Park felt comfortable wading so clearly into the crisis sparked by the deaths of thousands, why not more directly weigh in on that sparked by the death of just one? Heck, the other late-night hosts had way less time than Stone and Parker and came out with much sharper messages about the right’s use of the moment to go after political enemies and suppress free speech. As Kimmel himself noted in his return-to-TV monologue on Tuesday night, the circumstances of Kirk’s death may not be so appropriate for comedy or satire—but it’s fair to say that the response to it certainly is.