TV Review: South Park - Season 27's Second Episode Continues To Take Aim at The Government
If there was any doubt that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were going to tone it down after the outrageous first episode that kicked off Season 27 of one of animation’s longest-running television shows, South Park, you’re not paying attention. Following up on the season premiere that showed - among other things - Donald Trump in bed with Satan - Parker and Stone have continued to satirize what will become known as the worst Presidential Administration in history.
In a world that is lacking any affection or consideration for others, PC Principal has laid off Mr. Mackie, the long running guidance counselor for the school. In order to “make his nut” - a term used throughout the episode to explain the amount of money one needs to pay for their expenses each month - Mackie reluctantly joins ICE, where they’ll take anyone with a pulse to round up undocumented immigrants, wherever they might be residing, whether that’s a live Dora The Explorer show or past the pearly gates through Heaven. Joining them on the ICE raids is none other than Kristi Noem, portrayed as a dog-killing, Botox-injection-filled behemoth that uses phrases like “if it’s brown, take ‘em down”. They stretch Noem’s representation to the extreme (even though it’s not far off) by showing her killing dogs at every turn, a reference to a disturbing recollection she made in a memoir years ago about how she shot and killed a family dog on her farm because it was misbehaving. Yes, South Park is satirizing the current administration, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to make things funny because of how abhorrent the people in this administration are. Satire is used but, in a way, Stone and Parker are simply “telling it like it is”. Sound familiar?
Meanwhile, Clyde is getting attention and making “his nut” by hosting a weekly podcast out of his room, uttering things about how “women belong in the home” and “Jews are power hungry and run the world”. Yeah, sound familiar? I thought so - it’s Eric Cartman’s entire shtick, the one he’s run with since the show began in the 1990s. Cartman doesn’t take kindly to this, usurping Clyde and showing up to debate unprepared liberal college students on campuses. He appears to look exactly like conservative shit stain Charlie Kirk, and it’s not subtle. It’s so obvious and funny to realize that all of these basement-dwelling podcasters who have run rampant over the last decade have almost note-for-note been copying Eric Cartman, a character who they have almost always believed to be on their side. Cartman becomes the ultimate “master debater” in one of the funniest running gags of the episode.
Mackie ends up getting invited to Mar-A-Lago, greeted by spa workers who all look a little too young (we haven’t forgotten about Epstein now, have we?) And of course, the Dictator returns to the scene, once again sharing a bed with Satan and with a caricatured J.D. Vance in tow. It’s as outrageous of an episode as you could image. Noem - naturally - was upset with her portrayal, calling it a lazy attack from “liberals and leftists”. Parker and Stone - who have never been affiliated with any one political party - responded by making the caricatured Noem’s Botox-melted face the proflie photo for all of the South Park social media platforms. Did you expect anything different?
South Park airs Wednesdays on Comedy Central, and next day on Paramount+.
