Series Review: South Park: Season 27 Premiere

South Park, Season 27 Episode 1
Directors: Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Comedy Central, Park County
Streaming: Paramount+

If South Park is fundamentally the same show it was when it first premiered in 1997 and its satirical ethos still a guiding light some two and a half decades later, then it’s also worth noting that Paramount, who owns Comedy Central and in turn South Park, is a fundamentally different company than it was only a month ago. 

Paramount made news in early July by agreeing to pay $16 million to President Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit against 60 Minutes, a flagship show on CBS (also owned by Paramount). Many saw this move as a bend of the knee, acquiescence to a president who has the power to allow a highly sought after merger between Paramount and Skydance Media, a production company. One person who saw it that way was Stephen Colbert, host of CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a staple in late night television since the franchise first launched in the early 1990’s with David Letterman at the wheel. Colbert scoffed at the deal and a few days later it was announced that his show (and the entire Late Show franchise) would be canceled. People again saw this as appeasement to the government in hopes of a successful merger. 

Through this all, South Park laid dormant. Their new deal with Paramount had yet to be approved — the show’s current season had even been delayed to further work out details — but on Wednesday, just hours before air, Paramount and Park County, the production company behind South Park, agreed to a deal for the staggering sum of $1.5 billion and fifty new episodes over five years. And when South Park aired the first episode of its 27th season later that night, well, biting the hand that feeds it may not be a strong enough metaphor. 

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of South Park, adopted a scorched earth policy, eviscerating anything and everything in their path. The season opens with Eric Cartman discovering his favorite channel, NPR (which he only claims to listen to ironically), has been shut off due to lack of government funding. “The government can’t cancel a show,” Cartman laments before going on to say, almost as a dare to the network, “What are they going to cancel next?” 

From there, Parker and Stone unleash a barrage of satirical bullets. The first ten minutes of the show alone cover: Anti-woke backlash, growing concerns of religion in schools, tariffs, the cancelation of shows, the bombing of Iraq, no, sorry, Iran (“Iraq, Iran, what’s the difference?” Trump says in the show when he claims to have bombed the wrong country) and, of course, Trump: the lawsuits he’s filed and the voters who are turning on him over Jeffrey Epstein. The show also addresses his drift towards authoritarianism by bringing back the voice of South Park staple Saddam Hussein to play Trump. Even the name of the episode, “Sermon on the ‘Mount,” is a not-so subtle dig on their bosses.

If this sounds like a lot, it’s because it is. Still though, the episode works both as a thoughtful commentary on the news of the day and as comedy itself. South Park, at its best, is a show that understands comedy the way that nobody else can. It has juxtaposed fourth graders against the real world in a way that has been side-splittingly funny. Over 27 seasons though, there have been some misses — remembering here the flop of trying to serialize during Trump’s first term. But the show has regained its footing and if Wednesday’s episode reflects the upcoming season, then South Park will be nothing short of must-watch television. – Norm Schoff

Read more series reviews here:
Series Review: Adults
Series Review: Andor: Season Two