South Park returned to Comedy Central on Wednesday with a new episode full of shit, literally, as the cost of inflation, elite dietary trends and President Trump’s recent tariff break on beef became the unexpected topics skewered by the long-running Emmy-winning animated show. But perhaps more importantly, the episode featured new footage from the most anticipated release of the year, Grand Theft Auto VI.
The reveal took place while the boys from South America (née South Park) were visiting a cattle ranch, where Ruth Chris, a character introduced here who is not a real person but who bears a striking resemblance to Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse founder Ruth Fertel, gives them a glimpse of “what’s to come in November.” (Recall that the output of GTA VI (next month is the metaphor Trey Parker and Matt Stone are drawing for the upcoming midterm elections.) The footage shows main character Jason Duval fighting a man on Vice Beach and involves a bag of dog poop which perhaps represents partisan politics here.
“Look at this, the graphics are really next level. See the world building?” Ruth Chris tells the boys. “It’s a pooping dog. And people can pick up the dog poop. You can throw things at the person with the dog poop, and if they choose to fight back, you can pick up the dog poop and attack them with the dog poop. That’s what happens in November.”
This moment is sure to drive fans crazy as they salivate over Rockstar Games’ November 18 release. It gets about two-thirds into the final episode, which struggles to tie its various ideas together into the cohesive, perfectly structured and executed satire we love, as the series often does.
Gary Glitter’s controversial stadium anthem, “Rock & Roll Part 2,” is heard as the episode opens with our own Eric Cartman scaling the walls of South America’s new elementary school, waiting for his lunch, Sloppy Joe. Unfortunately, that’s not happening because record national beef prices have led the local public school to eliminate the Joes.
This catalyst sets our four main boys – which now includes Stan’s father Randy, replacing Kenny after he shrank to child size after taking rejuvenating creams in the previous episode – on a journey to collect the tender, buttery beef flowing out of their (South American) town. They probably don’t want it back, because it’s been a little hard lately on the digestive systems of those who can afford to eat it. You see, it gives them diarrhea so bad that it literally makes them explode. Literally – Scanners-style, right there, in the restaurant.
It’s a disgusting sight that’s certainly funny the first time a cartoon explodes into a pile of diarrhea, but it happens again and again. Of course, the South Park the creators cleverly associate eating the so-called patriotic beef with being a true American patriot, so many idiots convince thenseld=vesro that the episode weaves in Stan dealing with his little father joining his social circle, much to his regret, and it’s nice to see Stan directing Randy.
But as the episode moves towards its inconclusion, viewing it becomes difficult; after seeing so many anime men and women explode into piles of shit, that’s all you can really expect. Of course, they get some benefit from interviewing piles of shit, which, in the end, are always full of shit. But most importantly, we have a mid-season episode that does its best to set up what is sure to be a big reveal of what’s to come in November.
Gn tech
