Warning: This article contains spoilers for the first four episodes of South Park Season 27.
We may only be four episodes into South Park’s latest season, but it seems safe to say Season 27 is one for the history books. Rarely has the series been this witty, this timely, and this downright angry in its takedown of the current political climate. For proof, look no further than the Season 27 premiere, which shocked the world with its scathing, nudity-filled parody of Donald Trump.
There are any number of reasons why Season 27 is resonating in a way few have before it. The series certainly picked a great time to make its long-awaited return, given how bizarre and infuriating the news headlines are of late. But more than anything, it seems to be the new release format that has reinvigorated the series. Staggering new episodes two weeks apart is the best thing that ever happened to South Park.
South Park’s 2016 Woes
South Park is renowned for its ability to reflect current events and breaking news at a speed that is simply impossible for other animated sitcoms. The show’s intentionally crude animation style allows creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and their team to craft new episodes in a matter of days, not months or years. That’s allowed South Park to be extremely topical over the years, whether it’s poking fun at Steve Irwin’s tragic death in 2006 or the series getting itself banned in China for making fun of Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. The teams behind The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Rick and Morty only wish they could work that quickly.
But for all South Park’s timely humor is a constant source of amusement, it does have its drawbacks. As the series has shifted in a more continuity-driven approach to storytelling in recent seasons, the South Park crew have attempted to balance timely humor with the need to build coherent, season-long narratives. It hasn’t always entirely worked out.
Season 20 is probably the most glaring example of the show being tugged uncomfortably between these two opposing forces. Season 20 followed an ongoing narrative centered around Internet trolls, the dangerous allure of nostalgia in the form of “Member Berries,” and the 2016 presidential election. That narrative hit a major pothole midway through when Trump defied expectations and won the election, an event reflected in the November 2016 episode “Oh, Jeez.” Even Parker and Stone were taken aback by that turn of events, which forced them to substantially rework an episode that was originally titled “The Very First Gentleman” (obviously referencing Bill Clinton).
Even as it propelled Trump stand-in Mr. Garrison into the White House, Season 20 arguably never fully recovered from that surprise turn of events. Like they had in 2008 and 2012, Parker and Stone gambled on the outcome of the election, only this time they bet wrong. As entertaining as Season 20 was, it never managed to tie its disparate plot threads together into a satisfying conclusion. It was a reminder that there are risks to trying to keep pace with current events and constantly rewriting and reconfiguring a show on the fly.
Surely, there were lessons learned in 2016, and the series seemed to take a step back from aggressively tackling every news headline it could in subsequent seasons. South Park’s release cadence has also slowed of late, with a more than two-year gap separating Seasons 26 and 27. At some point, the novelty of seeing current events play out in animated sitcom form cooled a bit, leaving the show to focus on crafting coherent storylines and a slightly more timeless form of satire. And, much to the chagrin of many viewers, the series has been really fixated on Randy’s Tegridy Farms phase lately.
The Secret of Season 27’s Success
Now Season 27 is here, and with it comes a revamped release schedule. Rather than airing weekly in one or two blocks, South Park is being spaced out in biweekly doses. The series is tackling current events and headlines with a zeal it hasn’t shown since 2016, but at the same time, it’s doing so at a more methodical pace. That pace has really made all the difference.
Certainly, South Park hasn’t been holding back in its attacks on the Trump administration. Where the show relied on Mr. Garrison as a Trump surrogate during his first term, now the series is directly lampooning Trump himself, depicting him as Satan’s latest abusive boyfriend (leading to the repeated refrain in Episode 4, “Trump is f***ing Satan.”) Other Trump administration officials like J.D. Vance and Kristi Noem have been in the show’s crosshairs of late. In the first four episodes of Season 27, the series has tackled everything from ICE immigration raids to ChatGPT to the Labubu craze.
But the key is that the series is doing so in a much more cohesive and narratively satisfying way than it did back in 2016. There’s no longer the all-consuming sense of urgency to reference current events as soon as they happen and pivot with every new plot twist. Given the nonstop deluge of disturbing headlines these days, that way lies madness. Parker and Stone seem more willing to take a step back and consider how all of these elements fit together. Having an extra week in between new episodes gives the South Park team more time to focus on storytelling. If they aren’t able to immediately satirize some new development, so be it. It’s more important to get the jokes right than get them out fast. And, mind you, two weeks is still pretty darned fast.
The result is that Season 27 is already shaping up to be one of the show’s best in a long time. The political humor is bold and insightful. At the same time, there’s a clear story being told about the latest crisis brewing in South Park, CO. Everything, from South Park Elementary’s Christian makeover to Cartman’s “woke is dead” disillusionment to the reveal that Satan is pregnant with Trump’s child, feels like a logical piece of a larger puzzle. If the series has been a bit scatterbrained and unfocused in the past, it’s showing a real laser sense of focus in 2025.
There’s always a danger that things could eventually go off the rails. One has to assume the writers were sweating a bit this past weekend when rumors briefly swirled of Trump’s death. There’s no guarantee that some new political crisis won’t come along to blow up the overarching plans for the season. That’s the inherent risk of the show’s “ripped from the headlines” approach.
But still, with this added buffer between new episodes, there’s more room to do what wasn’t always possible in 2016. There’s time to think and consider the best path forward. There’s a greater emphasis on quality over speed. And in an age where more and more people and organizations are afraid to speak truth to power, it’s all the more important that South Park be on its A-game. It’s good to have the series back, and especially when it’s in top form.
For more on South Park, find out how you can stream Season 27.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
