South Park Season 27 Pushes Boundaries With Satire of Trump, ICE, and Paramount
In Its Boldest Season Yet, South Park Spares No One—mocking Trump, Ice and Even Its Own Network While Breaking Viewership Records.
For 27 seasons, South Park has delighted and outraged in equal measure, but Season 27 is its most ruthless yet—mocking Trump, ICE, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and even its own parent company Paramount, all while drawing record-breaking audiences.
The season opener, “Sermon on the ’Mount,” debuted on July 23, 2025, shortly after Matt Stone and Trey Parker secured a massive $1.5 billion agreement granting Paramount+ exclusive streaming rights to the franchise. True to form, the episode turned its satire inward as well as outward—taking aim at both Donald Trump and Paramount itself.
The storyline referenced the company’s $16 million legal payout, the abrupt cancellation of The Late Show, and what the creators portrayed as the network’s willingness to bend to Trump in pursuit of corporate deals.
Viewers responded in droves: nearly 6 million across Comedy Central and Paramount+ watched the premiere in its first three days—making it the largest audience the show has seen since 1999
The follow-up episode, “Got a Nut,” took the show’s satire to an even sharper level.
Mr. Mackey becomes an ICE agent, participating in raids on a Dora the Explorer Live! show and even storming Heaven to round up only “brown” angels, as the show lampoons Trump’s immigration policies with surreal dark humor.
The episode’s portrayal of Secretary Kristi Noem as an aggressively vain, dog-shooting caricature—riffing on her real-world memoir—provoked sharp backlash. Noem called the satire “lazy” and “petty,” especially regarding comments on her appearance.
One of the most striking reactions came from the Department of Homeland Security—it used imagery from the show to recruit ICE agents, prompting a cheeky response from South Park’s official account: “Wait, so we ARE relevant?”
Political figures offered varied responses. Vice President J.D. Vance, also parodied in the episode, joked about his depiction on Fantasy Island-themed Mar-a-Lago and responded with humor, while the White House dismissed the show as irrelevant, calling it “fourth-rate”—an answer that arguably underscored South Park’s cultural punch.
According to TV critic Kathryn VanArendonk, the creators initially felt they had little new to say about Trump, but his reelection and a more aggressive administration changed the calculation. The billion-dollar Paramount deal, paired with network maneuvering viewed as too cozy with Trump, only fueled the urgency.
Comedian Ashley Ray points out that the real shift lies in the audience: a show once adopted by contrarians and conservatives as a counter to liberal culture is now directing its harshest jokes at the very political figures many of those viewers thought it was protecting.
Together, these episodes underscore something critical: South Park’s satire remains vital precisely because it targets power without restraint—from presidents to networks. Its sharp, unapologetic humor may rile critics, but is clearly resonating with audiences hungry for unfiltered commentary amid America’s tumultuous political climate.
In an age when political satire often feels timid or scripted, South Park reminds us that its brand of brutal, boundary-pushing comedy still holds a unique power—provoking outrage, laughter, and perhaps even self-reflection from viewers and institutions alike.
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