South Park is back with another episode ahead of Thanksgiving, and the timing couldn't be better. The animated comedy has made headlines left and right for drawing ire from the President of the United States, and possibly featuring a cameo from the children's show character Bluey. The Comedy Central series also just dropped some preview images for its holiday-timed episode, but something seems off.
While South Park did recently joke about the notion of the show "sucking" because of its political jokes, the latest still from this upcoming episode suggest a complete deviation from all it's done so far. It has me a bit suspicious for a couple of reasons, and I have two theories for what's going on here.
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With this latest installment, Cartman is looking spry and healthy in the aftermath of his rescue from being held hostage by Peter Thiel. Now, Cartman seems to be back to some of his classic antics. The town is preparing for the holiday in "Turkey Trot" and, according to the synopsis, will use "Questionable cutting-edge science" to win the race. This sounds like a standard episode, almost like one of the dozens of Thanksgiving episodes the show has produced over the years (which are currently available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription). It also seems like Tolkien is involved, and it'll be nice to see him again.
All of this is strange, however, because the promotional images don't feature Satan or politicians like Vice President J.D. Vance. While the same was true with what was released during the previous deepfake episode, which had a clip from the episode promoting the adventure. Is South Park just taking a break from its ongoing storyline to do a more classic-feeling episode?
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On the other hand, I also think there's a possibility South Park is fooling its audience yet again, similar to what the producers did with a fake trailer to promote the season. With so many people traveling over Thanksgiving to visit family and spend time together, I wouldn't believe Trey Parker and Matt Stone would miss an opportunity to really get people talking over the holiday.
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This is to say, I'm not sure I buy that while this episode looks like some one-off more in line with what some consider the best episodes of South Park, I'm skeptical. I'd much sooner believe it's bait to pull in more eyes, especially wary family members who wouldn't usually be tuning in. Then, just when everyone's guard is down, they get hit with another episode that bluntly critiques the United States government or some political figure.
Of course, I could be completely wrong about this and, truthfully, Comedy Central could've just picked two images that intentionally steer away from the political element with the hopes of trying to draw bigger audience. I guess the only way any of us will know for sure is if we tune in, and I was already planning on doing that anyway.
South Park airs on Comedy Central on Wednesdays at 10:00 p.m. ET amid the 2025 TV schedule. I can't wait to see what the writers cooked up for the holiday episode, and I hope it's worthy of discussing at the dinner table while the turkey is being carved.
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