Animated sitcom South Park finds new relevance skewering the Trump era
A scene from the second episode of the 27th season of South Park featuring (from left) US President Donald Trump and US Vice-President J.D. Vance.
NEW YORK – When the 27th season of South Park premiered in July with a scene showing US President Donald Trump in bed with Satan discussing American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the White House attacked the animated sitcom as a 'fourth-rate show' and said it 'hasn't been relevant for over 20 years'.
But the episode drew strong ratings, and when the series returned on Aug 6 with its second episode, some of the Trump administration officials and allies who were skewered – including US Vice-President J.D. Vance – took a different tack and tried to show they could take a joke.
'Well, I've finally made it,' Mr Vance wrote on social media as he reposted a scene from the show that imagined Mar-a-Lago as Fantasy Island (1977 to 1984) and the vice-president as Tattoo, the short sidekick who was played by French actor Herve Villechaize in the original TV series.
Not all of the officials who were roasted laughed it off. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was portrayed as a serial dog shooter who was obsessed with her appearance. (She wrote in her 2024 memoir about killing her dog with a gun.)
Speaking on conservative talk show The Glenn Beck Program on Aug 7, she said it was 'lazy' to make fun of women for how they look.
'Only the liberals and the extremists do that,' she added. 'If they wanted to criticise my job, go ahead and do that. But clearly they can't. They just pick something petty like that.'
In the South Park episode, Got A Nut, Mackey, a school counsellor, loses his job because of budget cuts and takes a position with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He accompanies ICE on raids of a Dora The Explorer Live! show and of heaven, where he is told to round up only brown angels.
South Park, which has routinely roasted political figures with satire and dark comedy since its debut in 1997, has regained momentum, as its tart observations of the second Trump administration are commanding attention and breaking through online.
Before the episode aired, the Department of Homeland Security's account on social platform X shared a screenshot from a South Park trailer showing masked ICE agents – and added a link to its recruitment website.
The South Park social media account responded, 'Wait, so we ARE relevant?' and added a ribald hashtag.
The second episode also briefly portrays Mr Charlie Kirk, the founder and chief of the pro-Trump, youth-focused non-profit organisation Turning Point USA. The man himself embraced the parody and approvingly shared several clips on his social media accounts, including a segment in which Cartman fiercely debates 'woke liberal students'.
'Not bad, Cartman,' Mr Kirk wrote on X, where he changed his avatar to an image of Cartman sporting a Kirk-like haircut. NYTIMES
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Times
31 minutes ago
- Business Times
Trump deploys National Guard to DC, takes control of city police
[WASHINGTON] President Donald Trump announced he would take control of Washington DC's Metropolitan Police Department and deploy the National Guard as part of a push to reduce crime and homelessness in the nation's capital. 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,' Trump said on Monday (Aug 11) at a White House press conference. 'And we're not going to let it happen anymore.' The National Guard unit is expected to assist with logistics, transportation, and other tasks, with an eye toward freeing up more local police to make arrests. That's similar to Trump's deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles earlier this year to assist federal immigration officials carrying out raids. The move was made over the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and prompted days of protests. Trump is able to temporarily seize control of the city's police department under emergency powers granted in a decades-old law that gives the more than 700,000 residents of Washington the political autonomy to elect a mayor and city council members. The combined effort is designed to target homelessness and violent crime, Trump said. 'You want to be able to leave your apartment or your house where you live and feel safe and go into a store to buy a newspaper or buy something, and you don't have that now,' Trump said at the event, flanked by officials including Attorney General Pam Bondi and Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Violent crime has been dropping in the District for two years, according to local police data. As of Jan 3, violent crime in DC in 2024 was at a 30-year low, according to the US Justice Department. But the moves come after a former Department of Government Efficiency staffer said he was assaulted in a weekend carjacking attempt earlier this month, prompting the president to cast Washington as a crime-ridden city. The White House subsequently announced that law enforcement officers from more than a dozen agencies – including the FBI, DEA, and ATF – would deploy across the city for nearly a week. The president's efforts to exert greater control in the capital risks inflaming tensions with the city's residents, who overwhelmingly supported Democrat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election and who have borne the economic brunt of Trump's efforts to dramatically reduce the federal workforce. Trump previously signed an executive order that makes it easier for states and cities to remove outdoor encampments on federal lands and get people into mental health or addiction treatment, a shift in approach from existing policies that have worked to find housing for homeless people first and then seek treatment opportunities for them. He also signed an executive order that created a panel to coordinate efforts to improve safety and address graffiti and vandalism in the city. BLOOMBERG
CNA
31 minutes ago
- CNA
Trump says he will take control of DC police, deploy National Guard to capital
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said on Monday (Aug 11) he was putting Washington's police department under federal control and ordering the National Guard to deploy to the nation's capital to combat what he said was a wave of lawlessness, despite statistics showing that violent crime hit a 30-year low in 2024. "I'm deploying the National Guard to help re-establish law, order and public safety in Washington, DC," Trump told reporters at the White House, flanked by administration officials including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi. "Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals." Trump's announcement is his latest effort to target Democratic cities by exercising executive power over traditionally local matters. He has dismissed criticism that he is manufacturing a crisis to justify expanding presidential authority. Hundreds of officers and agents from over a dozen federal agencies, including the FBI, ICE, DEA, and ATF, have already fanned out across the city in recent days. The Democratic major of Washington, Muriel Bowser, has pushed back on Trump's claims, saying the city is "not experiencing a crime spike" and highlighting that violent crime hit its lowest level in more than three decades last year. Violent crime fell 26 per cent in the first seven months of 2025 after dropping 35 per cent in 2024, and overall crime dropped 7 per cent, according to the city's police department. But gun violence remains an issue. In 2023, Washington had the third-highest gun homicide rate among US cities with populations over 500,000, according to gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety. The deployment of National Guard troops is a tactic the Republican president used in Los Angeles, where he dispatched 5,000 troops in June in response to protests over his administration's immigration raids. State and local officials objected to Trump's decision as unnecessary and inflammatory. A federal trial was set to begin on Monday in San Francisco on whether the Trump administration violated US law by deploying National Guard troops and US Marines without the approval of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom. The president has broad authority over the 2,700 members of the DC National Guard, unlike in states where governors typically hold the power to activate troops. Guard troops have been dispatched to Washington many times, including in response to the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters. During his first term, Trump sent the National Guard into Washington in 2020 to help quash mostly peaceful demonstrations during nationwide protests over police brutality following the murder of George Floyd. Civil rights leaders denounced the deployment, which was opposed by Bowser.
CNA
35 minutes ago
- CNA
India pushes ahead with US trade talks despite tariff hike to 50%
NEW DELHI/MUMBAI :India hopes trade talks with the U.S. will continue even as the U.S. hiked tariffs on its exports to 50 per cent due to New Delhi's purchase of sanctioned Russian oil, two lawmakers said on Monday, citing a briefing to a parliamentary panel on foreign affairs. Last week, President Donald Trump imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on Indian goods due to Delhi's continued purchase of Russian oil, bringing the total duty on Indian exports to the U.S. to 50 per cent - among the highest of any American trading partner. "Our relations with the U.S. are multi-dimensional, and should not be seen only through the prism of trade," one of the lawmakers said, citing the foreign secretary's briefing to the panel. Shashi Tharoor, an opposition Congress party leader, who heads the panel, said trade talks would continue. "As of now, there is no change in the existing plans for the sixth round," he said, referring to a scheduled visit of a U.S. trade delegation to New Delhi from August 25. Earlier, junior finance minister, Pankaj Chaudhary told lawmakers that about 55 per cent of India's merchandise exports to the United States would covered by the new tariff. His estimate factored in the initial 25 per cent levy, he said in a written response to a lawmaker's query. "The Department of Commerce is engaged with all stakeholders" for their assessment of the situation, Chaudhary added. Goods trade between the United States and India - the world's biggest and fifth-largest economies, respectively - was worth about $87 billion in the last fiscal year, according to Indian government estimates. The panel separately voiced concerns over Pakistani army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir's reported remarks on nuclear threats in South Asia during a visit to the U.S.
