The obvious stuff first: South Park just ended season 27 after only five episodes - and then, for reasons no one explained, immediately jumped into season 28 three weeks later. They’ve missed air dates, admitted to not finishing episodes on time, and seem to be flying even closer to the chaos than usual. And sure, the chaos has always been part of the charm - South Park is literally made in a week - but this time, it’s starting to show.
What worries me isn’t the scheduling, though. It’s the comedy. Because the comedy always falls first.
The latest episodes still look like South Park, still sound like South Park, still tackle big topics with that wild “did-they-just-say-that” energy - but they’re just… not funny. And I don’t mean that in a “they’ve gone soft” or “they’ve lost their edge” way. South Park has never been about shock for shock’s sake. The outrageousness was always just the setup - the real magic was in the punchline.
Take the legendary “Fishsticks” episode. The joke wasn’t “oh my god, they called Kanye a gay fish.” It was everything around it - two kids inventing the dumbest schoolyard joke imaginable, and that joke somehow snowballing into a national phenomenon until Kanye West himself has a full-blown identity crisis over it. The comedy wasn’t in the shock - it was in the absurd escalation, the ego, and the fact that this completely ridiculous premise was treated with total seriousness. It’s that perfect South Park mix of stupid and smart that made the show unstoppable for so long.
Compare that to one of the latest episodes, where the girls of South Park are sacrificing Labubu dolls to Satan and somehow summon Donald Trump. It’s wild, it’s topical, it’s pure South Park chaos… but it’s not really funny. There’s setup, there’s edge, there’s commentary - but no actual joke that lands. I didn’t laugh once, and that’s something I never thought I’d say about this show.
If Trey and Matt feel they can’t keep up the pace anymore - they shouldn’t. South Park has nothing left to prove. It changed television, influenced generations of comedians, and built one of the most unique creative empires in pop culture. I would rather have no new South Park episodes than ones that feel like a parody of themselves.
Because when South Park is great, it’s not just funny - it’s genius. And it deserves to stay that way, even if it means slowing down a bit.
