I used to have the first seven seasons of South Park on DVD back in the day, though I haven't dug any of them out in a long time now. Then I grew up and got tired of the show. (Except Make Love, Not Warcraft, lol.) Anyway, since then more broadly I've watched South Park on occasion when seized by bouts of nostalgia for old media and have been surprised to see it still going. I enjoyed some of the anti-woke episodes too myself just because it was rare for other comedy toons to really go there for a while. There really was something refreshing sometimes about tuning into South Park during the woke era, I gotta say. It stood out. But that said, this new season though is the first season in nearly two decades that I'll probably be watching every episode of.

Gotta say I found the first couple episodes of this new season pretty funny and don't seem to be alone in that. Sermon on the 'Mount, as the first entry was called, reportedly garnered nearly 6 million viewers across various platforms during its first three days after initial broadcast, making it the most-watched South Park season premiere since 1999. We don't have the full data yet for the second episode in the season, Got a Nut, but the television broadcast itself (which accounts for just a small portion of total viewership these days) doubled the ratings of Sermon on the 'Mount. People are liking the show's new direction is what that all tells me.

Sermon on the 'Mount satirized Trump getting Colbert cancelled for criticizing him, the blatant Christianization of public schools in some states lately, and, mostly pointedly for me really, the end of woke culture...and what has replaced it. It portrayed things in, y'know, a gross and exaggerated way, as the show does for effect (or, y'know, just because), but it struck a chord for a lot of people because it got at something real and in a direct and satisfyingly feral way. It was funny. Without spoiling too many gags, I liked the new characterization of Trump, who's portrayed exactly the same way the show used to portray Saddam Hussein back when. There's a kind of sick irony captured in that. We used to mock and topple corrupt police states like that, then we became one, so who really changed who in the end? (The prior Trump stand-in was kinda weak and not really reflective of how most of us detractors see him. THIS is more like it!)

The new episode though, Got a Nut, was even better, IMO. I laughed. A lot. The main plotline of the episode has Mr. Mackey, the school counselor, getting fired by DOGE cuts (or was it the settlement with Trump from the prior episode?) and joining ICE because it pays well and now hires quite literally anyone. He helps them round up attendees of a Dora the Explorer live show. When an anti-ICE protester states a belief that there are many Latinos in heaven, ICE invades heaven to deport them, lol! For his bravery in the line of duty, Mr. Mackey is then flown to Mar-a-Lago to have sex with Trump and Satan, but his conscience finally gets the better of him. At one point Krypto the superdog flies in to save the day, but is promptly shot by Kristi Noem (you know, the dog shooter). I don't want to spoil too many more details, but I must add that the episode also features a side plot satirizing Nick Fuentes, Charlie Kirk (the Turning Point USA guy), and the podcast bro scene. Hilariously. For a long time. The scene where Clyde challenges "woke" students to debate him and it turns out it's just like the general student body at the elementary school that has a problem with him and his dipshit, well-rehearsed talking points was particularly amusing and satisfying to me. As was Cartman's Charlie Kirk haircut. And everything involving JD Vance, omg!

It all carries more weight than many more conventionally liberal comedy shows today do in part because the South Park guys aren't per se liberals and have used the show to air many critiques of woke culture over the years (some more clever than others). Anyway, just wanted to throw out the recommendation to those who, unlike my country, have strong constitutions. Both episodes have been condemned by White House officials in case you need more incentive (example 1, example 2). 

The new season has been really good so far. Figured the rest of the season would get worse since the first episode seemed gloves off, so how could it get better, but looks as though they're going 12 full rounds, all out.
Only thing I think they made a mistake on was making fun of Kristi Noem's face. It's SP, so it's not unexpected that could happen, but it's a tasteless joke, and what sucked more was it took away from her dog joke. If they would've left the face joke out, or just touched on it once, in a more tasteful manner, the dog joke would've hit so much harder and would've had me rolling. The dog joke was solid and the repetition kept raising the bar, but the face joke, also repeating, needlessly took away from it.

I'm just waiting now to see if they really are as center as they claim, by bringing Biden and Harris into the season. If they do, this is likely going to be one of the best seasons they've ever done.

I use to love this show until they started replacing the characters like the principle etc. and going serialized. I also didn't like how they blended the line between the kids and their parents. You can't have Randy smoking weed and getting high and still retain the tension necessary to make half the bits funny, imo.

I'm going to get on this season at some point in the next three months. I've always been a big fan of South Park.

And yes, I know there's a lot of negativity around the show... but that's not necessarily a case of the show being worse so much as the tendency of internet fandoms to inevitably drift toward ultra-active attention-seekers... almost always manifesting in either perversity (like absurdist sexual fanfics) or cheap negative reactions... usually in the form of "dis sux now!" or reposting (for the 100,000 time as though it's an original thought) some sanctimonious opinion that often involves something like "I'm a former true fan!" or some kind of offense that they've made that differs from earlier iterations. In South Park's case, it's often the "Why are they only picking on my culture now?" - it seems that they're taking stuff personally and only paying attention to that... because South Park still makes fun of a ton of things.

When a show/game is hot, it will also have to deal with the crusaders who review bomb because it gives their lives some kind of purpose... and I think South Park somehow still attracts those kind of responses as well, even if not to the level of major game releases. IMO, this "1 or 2 stars to every episode!" review bomb crusade is more a reflection of the relevancy of South Park rather than its irrelevancy or any kind of negative quality. There are those who feel it's important enough to do that.

S28 now

Oh damn.... after the last week... South Park has SO much to cover.