Max Nocerino 
Discover how South Park tackles the Labubu doll craze in a wild episode filled with humor and unexpected twists. Tune in!
First, ChatGPT, now Labubu. South Park satirizes another wild trend that has taken over America in 2025: the rise of creepy monster dolls that have become a phenomenon among young children. They are called Labubus, and the girls of South Park are no exception to their popularity.
The episode begins with two girls comparing different Labubu dolls in the South Park Elementary school hallway, and for some reason, Cartman is excited!? He alerts Craig, who immediately knows what Cartman is talking about. South Park sets up the tension perfectly as kids gather around the two girls, almost expecting an incredible spectacle to occur. Both girls start with complimenting each other, but then, in manic South Park fashion, they turn aggressive and assume the other girl is insulting their Labubu. The girls then call each other awful names and literally slam each other into lockers, in classic South Park ridiculousness. THIS is what Cartman and the crowd wanted to see. Power Christian Principal quickly breaks up the fight and sends them to the counselor’s office.
JESUS RETURNS!
The school counselor, Mr. Mackey, was fired after 27 years of service (due to Trump cuts and a cheeky nod to the show’s overall age), and the new counselor is none other than Jesus Christ himself. Jesus replaced Mackey two episodes ago, and it satirizes how Trump’s America is attempting to reintroduce Christianity into our schools, forcefully imposing it upon us.
Jesus actually is a pretty good counselor, though, and is concerned about what these Labubus are doing to kids. Yet to my amusement, the kids actually think he’s a “crap” counselor and that the doddering Mackey was much better. Jesus wants to get to the bottom of the spell the Labubu has cast over the children and learns that they are coming from an Asian pop-up store.
CITY WOK
This store is what was once City Wok, a Chinese restaurant that all South Park fans are aware of, and a wellspring of tons of racial humor directed at Asian people. The owner is a stereotypical Chinese man who speaks with a heavy Asian accent and pronounces his own store as “Shitty” instead of “City”. He would often ask the residents if they wanted to order “Shitty Beef” or “Shitty Chicken” as the Asian accent has difficulty with the s sound. The effect created is that it sounds like he is essentially saying upfront that his food is bad. He is also conniving, cheap, and duplicitous in his sales practice.
South Park sneaks in some political-economic humor, as the owner makes Labubu’s products so expensive due to the tariffs the Trump administration has placed on Chinese-made goods. The owner explains that this is basically revenge for the tariffs, and while his wife angrily tells him in Chinese not to prey on children, he keeps insisting that wok is dead. This is a clever play on words, referring to how “Woke” is supposedly dead in the current pro-Trump climate of America, and wok is a word for a cooking pot that many Asian cultures use.
TIRED SATIRE OR CUTTING-EDGE CRITICISM?
I was finding myself a little tired of South Park’s famous comedic strategy of play on words and phrases, but now, for some reason, I love it more than ever. “Keep your hands off my labubus,” was stated at the beginning, creating a humorous double entendre for a girl to say, as we subconsciously recognize it as referring to inappropriate touching of a woman’s breasts. Also, throughout the entire episode, the news media is wondering if “Donald Trump is effing Satan,” and while in their world, they are wondering if Trump is in a sexual relationship with the Prince of Darkness himself, it means to us, the question posed. Is Donald Trump Satan? Is he truly evil and divisive as the leader of our country?
I want to touch on the continued dark satire of the Labubu. South Park shows how these creepy dolls are basically satanic items that little girls want to buy so they can make TikToks of demonic rituals they perform with them. This is an apparent dig at the doll’s appearance and how they are warping the minds of our children by making them so obsessed with buying tons of variants of the same doll. And it doesn’t help that while cuddly, the doll has devilish-looking, sharp teeth.
DEMONIC DOLLS?
It’s just so funny to see the little girls draw pentagrams on their bedroom floors, sacrifice chickens by stabbing them, and engage in rituals by chanting “Labubu” (and then posting it on TikTok, another American children’s obsession). South Park always absurdly blows things out of proportion in its bizarro world, but it’s really such a great lens to look at how things are happening in reality.
Butters also thinks a girl likes him when she personally invites him to her birthday party, when in reality, she wants him to purchase a rare Labubu for her. Butters, being the naive little boy that he is, thinks that this girl is romantically into him and does not suspect she is merely using him for personal gain. It’s somewhat exhausting to joke about Butters’s social cluelessness constantly, but as I mentioned, I’m back on board if it means criticizing things in the world I dislike.
REMEMBERING CHEF!
Lastly, Jesus seems to have assumed the open role of the late Chef, the only adult character who had any clue of what was going on. Chef was the Chef of South Park Elementary and the voice of wisdom and advice for the kids, when their parents were always clueless idiots. He “died” when the voice actor (Isaac Hayes) left South Park, due to his affiliation with Scientology. In one of their first greatest take-downs, the writers of South Park embarrassed the Church of Scientology and Isaac Hayes for this decision. Isaac later died (for real), and while it’s a little spiteful, the mockery of Scientology was extremely humorous.
Anyway, Jesus brings his reservations to the School Board, and is horrified when the adults nonchalantly and calmly reveal that they know full well that Labubu’s are satanic and don’t think it’s a problem. Christ cannot believe his ears that the other teachers don’t care. As the man who died for our sins, he knows he has to take matters into his own hands.
VERDICT
I don’t want to reveal all the plot points, as you need to see this for yourself, but there are a few more gems at the end that were quite funny. Even though South Park’s formula has remained unchanged for years, it is still the perfect sounding board for issues in this country, presented through the lens of satire, absurdity, darkness, and double entendre. More please.
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!
