While South Park season 27 might touch on a variety of current events, it will be almost impossible for the long-running satirical comedy series to ignore one of the biggest news stories of 2024. South Park has been around since 1997, but the show only began focusing its episodes on topical events around season 4. Since South Park episodes are written, produced, and animated in only five days, the show is uniquely well-suited to commenting on current events as they unfold. South Park season 27’s release date is unclear, but it is likely the outing will arrive in late 2024.

There are many problems that South Park season 27 must fix, but the show’s release date makes coverage of certain news stories almost inevitable. In recent years, South Park released its six-episode seasons early in the year, between February and April, and followed these with two feature-length specials later in the year. Since they took months to produce, these specials satirized broad social and political trends instead of specific ongoing events. In contrast, South Park season 27’s delays mean that the outing’s six episodes may all be forced to center on the same noteworthy news story.

South Park Season 27 Has To Cover Its Fifth Election In 2024

Seasons 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 All Covered Elections

South Park season 27 needs to cover the 2024 US presidential election, which will mark the animated comedy show’s fifth time doing so. South Park dedicated episodes to the elections of 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, and 2016, but skipped the 2020 election since the show was on an unusual hiatus at the time. 2020’s “The Pandemic Special” and 2021’s “South ParQ Vaccination Special” did include nods to the outcome of the election, but they aired months before and after the event respectively. In contrast, South Park’s earliest election episodes featured broad parodies of the news cycles surrounding the candidates.

Over the decades, South Park’s approach to election episodes changed significantly as the show’s narrative style shifted. Since South Park’s original premise focused on satirizing the adult world through the eyes of children, the show’s first two parodies of US presidential elections used school events as stand-ins for the real thing. In contrast, South Park’s later seasons featured straightforward parodies of the political actors involved in each election. President Obama, John McCain, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, and President Trump all appeared in these South Park outings, although the latter was played by the existing character Mr. Garrison.

How South Park’s Election Coverage Changed Over The Decades

Two South Park Episodes Ignored The Candidates

In season 8, episode 8. “Douche and Turd,” South Park spoofed the Bush/Kerry election cycle by forcing the kids to choose between a “Giant Douche” and a “Turd Sandwich.” This strategy ignored the personalities of individual candidates to make a broader libertarian statement about the pointlessness of electoral politics, and it wasn’t the last time that South Park utilized this strategy. In the season 20 premiere “Member Berries,” South Park referred to 2016’s candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump by the same sobriquets, although the duo were also later depicted as broad parodies of their real-life selves.

This confusing approach didn’t pan out well later in season 20, with South Park‘s own creators later admitting that they mistakenly assumed Trump would lose to Clinton in the election. While South Park: Snow Day‘s critical disappointment was a tough blow for the show, its handling of the 2016 election was a similarly embarrassing misstep. South Park set up a promising plot comparing the assault allegations faced by Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, and Donald Trump, but this fell apart when Trump’s unexpected election changed the season’s overarching plot. In contrast, seasons 4 and 12 saw the show fare a lot better.

South Park’s First Election Episode Proves The Show Has Changed

The Show’s Satire Was Originally More Metaphorical

South Park’s earliest election episodes used metaphors to mock the candidates and this worked a lot better than the later straight-up caricatures of Clinton and Trump. Season 4, episode 12, “Trapper Keeper,” and “Douche and Turd” technically centered on the specific events of their respective elections, with the former focusing on the Florida recount controversy and the latter highlighting widespread voter apathy. However, both episodes succeeded primarily because their storylines offered metaphors that made these elections fit in South Park‘s world. “Trapper Keeper” turned the 2000 election into a kindergarten class presidential election, while “Douche and Turd” was about electing a school mascot.

In contrast, later election episodes directly depicted the elections themselves. This proved South Park’s early seasons were smarter than viewers gave them credit for, as season 12, episode 12, “About Last Night…” didn’t offer much in the way of satirical insight. South Park’s bipartisan satire struggled to make election episodes funny when the series focused on real-life politicians. “Oh Jeez” was badly derailed by the unexpected outcome of the 2016 election, the show essentially ignored 2020’s election, and season 16, episode 14, “Obama Wins!” focused on a tangentialy related plot about Cartman trying to shape Disney’s upcoming Star Wars movies.

South Park Season 27 Covering 2024’s Election Ends One Trend

The Series Hasn’t Depicted Joe Biden In 15 Years

Although “Obama Wins” succeeded with critics by largely sidestepping the election itself, South Park‘s season 27 stories will almost certainly see the show forced to tackle the candidates head-on. This will mark the end of a surprising 15-year trend that the satirical series has managed to keep alive until now. Even though it is ostensibly a political satire series, South Park hasn’t depicted President Biden onscreen since a wordless cameo in 2008. Even then, his appearance in “About Last Night…” was only in a passing gag in an episode that mostly centered on spoofing Obama’s first victory.

While South Park hasn’t shown Biden onscreen yet throughout his tenure as president, it seems inevitable that the upcoming season will need to change this. South Park season 27 needs Biden and Trump to appear together since the series already turned its recurring supporting star, Mr. Garrison, into the resident parody of the Republican Party’s candidate. Spoofing Trump via Garrison while largely ignoring the Democratic candidate was what made season 20’s satire seem confused and unclear, so season 27 must avoid this issue by focusing on the duo. In the process, South Park’s fifth election episode will end this bizarre streak.