For nearly three decades, South Park has been carving out its own irreverent niche in the world of animated satire, but Season 27 is hitting new heights—or perhaps new lows, depending on your perspective—by putting President Donald Trump, tech moguls, and the ever-advancing world of artificial intelligence squarely in its crosshairs. The show's latest run has not only lampooned the Trump administration with gusto, but also cast a wide net over Silicon Valley's elite and the cultural anxieties swirling around AI, all while keeping its trademark blend of absurdity and biting social commentary intact.
According to Mashable, the third episode of this season, “Sickofancy,” takes particular aim at the symbiotic (and sometimes sycophantic) relationship between Trump and tech CEOs, with Apple’s Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg making memorable appearances as themselves—well, sort of. The episode doesn’t hold back, with Cook presenting Trump a plaque on a gold stand, a nod to a real-life incident, and Zuckerberg gifting a jewel-encrusted VR headset. Each visitor to the White House is required to bring a present and, in a running gag, affirm to Trump, “You do not have a small penis.” The show’s signature blend of crude humor and pointed satire is on full display, poking fun at the transactional nature of political influence in the tech world.
But the episode isn’t just about Trump and his tech-world admirers. The main plot follows Randy Marsh, who, after becoming obsessed with both ChatGPT and ketamine, decides to launch an AI-powered weed company. Convinced that the only way to make billions is to have Trump reclassify marijuana, Randy sends his business partner, Towelie, to Washington, D.C. What Towelie finds is a city transformed: iconic landmarks like the Washington Monument and Union Station are crawling with troops and tanks, a satirical reference to Trump’s real-life deployment of the National Guard and federal takeover of D.C. police. The militarized setting isn’t just for laughs; it’s a pointed commentary on the current state of American politics and the lingering effects of Trump’s law-and-order rhetoric.
As VOI reports, the episode’s depiction of Union Station as a fortified zone gained unexpected resonance when, on the very day the episode aired, Senator JD Vance visited the actual Union Station—which, while not quite as militarized as in the cartoon, was nonetheless a site of political activity. In the episode, Towelie’s journey through the capital is marked by bureaucratic absurdity: before meeting Trump, he’s told to “make sure you already have a reservation and your prize is ready.” Ultimately, Towelie becomes the “prize” himself, ending up trapped in the White House with Satan, who delivers the bleak line, “There is no escape from this place.” It’s not subtle, but as the VOI article puts it, subtlety has never been South Park’s style.
The show’s approach to its targets—whether Trump, Tim Cook, or Mark Zuckerberg—has always been to skewer those who sit at the intersection of power, absurdity, and public notoriety. PR expert Kieran Elsby, speaking to Daily Express US, suggests that it’s only a matter of time before other figures in Trump’s orbit, like Ivanka Trump or Kimberly Guilfoyle, find themselves in the satirical spotlight. “Ivanka, with her mix of political ambition and lifestyle branding, is easy to parody, particularly as she tries to keep one foot in and one foot out of the MAGA spotlight,” Elsby observed. He also predicted a range of reactions from the MAGA crowd, from outrage to dismissiveness, with some even embracing the attention as proof of their ongoing relevance. “Ultimately, South Park doesn’t just pick sides, it picks on the spectacle. And in today’s political climate, the MAGA sphere provides a near-limitless buffet of spectacle.”
Of course, not everyone is laughing. While South Park has always prided itself on being an equal-opportunity offender, the show’s renewed focus on Trump has sparked debate about whether its satire is becoming too repetitive or overtly political. Actress Janeshia Adams-Ginyard, who voiced a Black, female Eric Cartman in the season premiere, defended the show’s approach in an interview with MSN. “They go after everybody, everybody is up for grabs on South Park. I think that South Park does an amazing way of mirroring what is actually happening in the world right now,” she said, adding that conservatives “have a sense of humor, it’s the liberals that don’t.” Adams-Ginyard even called on the show’s creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, to target California Governor Gavin Newsom next, underscoring the show’s willingness to lampoon both sides of the political spectrum.
The White House, for its part, has largely dismissed South Park as “irrelevant,” according to MSN. But as Adams-Ginyard points out, the show’s cultural impact remains significant, and its willingness to tackle real-world absurdities keeps it in the public conversation—even if not everyone appreciates the joke. Some fans argue that the heavy focus on Trump risks alienating parts of the audience, but others see it as a necessary reflection of the current political moment.
Behind the scenes, the business of South Park is booming. As VOI and the Los Angeles Times detail, creators Parker and Stone recently inked a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount, securing global streaming rights for the next five years. This deal followed Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media, which was approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission after Paramount agreed to pay Trump $16 million to resolve a legal dispute. The merger also led to the cancellation of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” allegedly to smooth the way for the deal. While there’s no evidence Trump played a direct role in the FCC’s decision, the episode’s satire of corporate and political entanglements feels especially timely.
In a thoughtful reflection published by The Guardian, one commentator admits to being more of a Simpsons fan but acknowledges that South Park’s latest season has managed to find humor in the bleakness of Trump’s second term. The article points out that the show’s approach is less about grandstanding and more about “gratifyingly mean caricatures of deserving figures such as Trump, JD Vance and homeland security secretary Kristi Noem.” Unlike some of its competitors, South Park isn’t interested in “clapter”—applause for the right kind of joke—but in genuine, if sometimes uncomfortable, laughter. The show’s depiction of Trump as a photo-puppet, voiced in the same style as its infamous Saddam Hussein character, drives home the point that, for Parker and Stone, nothing is too sacred or too absurd to be parodied.
Even as violent crime in Washington, D.C., has declined since a spike in 2023, the city’s portrayal as a militarized zone in “Sickofancy” serves as a reminder of the lingering tensions and divisions that define American politics in 2025. Whether South Park will actually move the needle on public perceptions of tech bros, Trump-world figures, or debate-me podcasters is anyone’s guess. But for now, the show remains a vital, if polarizing, voice in the national conversation, unafraid to point and laugh at the spectacle—wherever it may be found.
With its latest season, South Park proves that, even in an era of political exhaustion and cultural polarization, there’s still room for sharp, unrelenting satire that refuses to pull its punches. Whether you’re laughing, cringing, or both, the show isn’t going anywhere—and neither, it seems, are its targets.
