South Park has aired its second episode of Season 27 and has not altered its trajectory of shishkabobing the current administration.
I’m starting to think Trump won the 2024 election just so South Park could have ripe and ample material to work with. South Park has aired its second episode of Season 27 and has not altered its trajectory of shishkabobing the current administration. This week, they take aim at Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security. While it was pretty funny, in many ways, the caricatures they used were quite predictable (at least for this 32-year-old reviewer who has been watching the show for almost 2 decades). Noem has been criticized heavily for turning ICE into a band of sociopathic thugs who wear masks and make migrant children disappear in the night.
While it’s always great to see these horrible people called out, I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t as clever as I had hoped. I KNEW they would take aim at how Noem is very done up with make-up, too “attractive” and “glamorous” a woman to be working at this type of job. Plus, her constant killing of animals she deems dangerous was depicted with almost uncanny accuracy. Perhaps I am getting too old to be surprised, but we see her shoot random dogs during her ICE raids, and that was exactly what I expected to happen.
MR. MACKEY
The real fun of this episode was Mr. Mackey being fired from his job as South Park Elementary’s school counselor, because his role was deemed “unnecessary spending” by the government initiatives under Trump. This was HILARIOUS and seeing P.C. Principal (Power Christian) unceremoniously telling Mackey to “pack his sh-t” after 27 years of service made me crack up. Mackey, now unemployed, turns to the only job that would help him maintain his “nut”, a job with the ICE.
Mackey’s good nature and meekness were a perfect comedic foil for the ruthlessness of his new occupation. The training video for the ICE, which requires no experience or any credentials, was funny, but again, very predictable. Family Guy even did this same technique almost a decade prior for an Uber driver (although it was a quick gag, and South Park went into much more detail)
CLYDE THE PODCASTER
The B story of Clyde becoming a racist, sexist, and antisemitic podcaster invoked a lot of Nick Fuentes vibes. Cartman becoming jealous that he stole his “shtick” was again funny, but not very creative or hard to predict. It would actually be funnier if they made him a woke opponent to debate Clyde, as they did that successfully on the last episode.
I shouldn’t be so critical when I was legitimately laughing all the time, but I hold South Park to a much higher standard than, say, Family Guy or American Dad. South Park’s bread and butter for years was its clever play-on-words jokes that were full of innuendo that the characters had no idea they were doing. Cartman keeps calling himself a “Master-debater,” and the way it comes out so fast, actually sounds masturbater. When his mom catches him with his laptop late at night, he says, “Mom, I’m master-debating to these college girls!”
Yeah, this is the show that gave us the Fishsticks joke, but that was almost 20 years ago, and I have to say, this new iteration missed the mark a bit by just being played out. Also, they used the term “nut” (which is a Gen Z slang word for money or a high-paying job) simultaneously. They structured it so that it made Mackey sound like he was referring to his genitals. Two word pun jokes in the same episode. Sloppy and excessive.
ICE RAIDS
Yet despite some of these aging trademark gags, I did like the creativity and “tastelessness” of the silly, absurd ICE raids. Mackey and his team went to arrest immigrants at a Dora the Explorer play on stage at a stadium, and when a white person was interviewed by the local news, saying that many Latinos were good people and in Heaven, seeing the ICE trucks drive down the cloud-roads of Heaven’s pearly gates, was just… glorious. THAT’S the kind of stuff I expect from South Park.
It’s incredibly inappropriate, ridiculously absurd, and unbearably uncomfortable. I wouldn’t have the comedic IQ to come up with it, and THAT’S what I love about this show. The ICE agents even ask one Hispanic man (dressed as a stereotypical angel with wings) how he got into Heaven. “Well,” he says in a Spanish accent, “I was just a nice guy who gave to a lot of charities.” This exchange is just dripping with delicious irony and dark comedy, and I could not stop chuckling.
MAR-A-LAGO
The last segment with Mar-a-Lago was also stratified, built with used-out and expired South Park staples, but also sporting some fun perspectives. Mar-a-Lago is made to look with the feel and vibe of a false paradise; a Sandals with an actual sinister intention lurking beneath the surface. Yet the guys failed with their mocking depiction of Vice President J.D. Vance. Their desire to hit these awful people is admirable, but it screams of desperation. It just isn’t subtly funny like making Kanye West too stupid to understand the Fishsticks joke or making Isaac Hayes a brainwashed pedophile.
Trump and Vance don’t even say that many funny things that I even remember, and what was with the ending? It sputtered out like the current Family Guy formula of not knowing how to write a narrative and wrap it up successfully.
VERDICT
All the pieces are there. I see all the brilliance that Matt and Trey have cultivated over the decades. However, some of the sloppy elements need to be worked on. We need to trim some of the fat.
South Park Season 27 is now streaming on Paramount+.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
