As an older Gen-Zer, I will say that one show I always loved was South Park. While I wasn’t around for the nitty-gritty early years, when much of what aired wouldn’t be allowed today, I was around for later seasons starting in the 2010s and, of course, into my college years and adulthood.
And I must admit, for some time, it felt like my favorite adult comedy was losing steam. With it so focused on politics, the landscape of laws, and so much more, it felt less like a comedy and more like the show was trying to say something without saying anything meaningful.
But now, the new season is here, and it already feels like South Park is better than it has been in years, and for one big reason.
Politics is no longer the central plot
Is there still politics involved in South Park? Yes, of course there is. There’s a reason why, in season 29, the creators decided to rebrand it as “South America.” It’s a clear call-out to the current administration of the United States.
And they mention the name countless times throughout the first episode — each time a little funnier than the first. But you want to know the difference between this season's politics and last season's? It’s not the main story.
Every time I’ve watched this show over the last few years, it’s usually been about politics in the plot. They have certainly made fun of current daily events, but that political storyline always ran as a B-plot, set at the White House and involving President Donald Trump and other familiar people from that orbit.
At first, I found it funny. It’s hard not to. Politics and leaders within those worlds have consistently been the subject of parody and the like for decades. This isn’t the first time, but the issue began when it felt like that was the only joke South Park had. For the last three seasons, it really felt that way.
It felt like we were sinking deeper and deeper into the realm of all things bad with the world, and it was starting to get tiresome, so much so that I just stopped watching at the end of season 28. I had caught up months later because it felt like the right thing to do.
But now? We're actually back in South Park — er, South America.
South Park is back home
I don’t mind having the occasional pop-in to the White House in this show. That’s what made the earlier parodies of past presidents and other political figures so fun. When it takes up half the episode, that’s where I have an issue.
The first episode really felt like the old South Park again. Maybe not as much as it was years ago, but closer. We weren’t on Tegridy Farms trying to sell marijuana anymore with Stan and his father, Randy.
We were back to basics — the ridiculous shenanigans of the core four boys: Stan, Kenny, Kyle, and Cartman.
If you haven’t seen the episode, it’s about e-bikes and an epidemic of kids riding them and causing mayhem in the streets because they go much faster than a normal bike and endanger civilians and people in cars. Actual bicyclists (led by Randy and the town's dads) band together on their little bicycles to put a stop to it: the epic “biker gang.”
Sure, it’s still very much a commentary on today’s children and society. There’s plenty of material to work with, and the use of e-bikes, as well as buying them off-market and the sketchy websites/stores people get their off-brand items from, is a great way to show it.
But it’s that aspect, while also combining it with a classic South Park misdirection, where the biker gang is really just a group of dads on bicycles, but they’re just as violent as you would expect from a biker gang, if not more. It’s hilarious, and it was a great way to start this season. I can actually see myself enjoying this cartoon again.
I really don’t know what this season will look like. I know that I’ll keep watching it on Paramount+ as the show releases because I’m curious to see where it goes. All I know is that it feels like we're finally leaning into something better. After all this time, the former South Park I knew might be making a return. And that’s worth the time to watch.
New episodes of South Park stream on Paramount+ the day after they premiere on Comedy Central.
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