We’ll say this for South Park‘s current zeitgeist-gripping run: The show is continuing to cast a wide net of real-world villains to target in each new episode, rather than just playing the hits. (Other than the ever-present Donald Trump and JD Vance, at least.) Having previously brutalized Kristi Noem, Brendan Carr, and other administration-friendly figures, the Comedy Central series has now taken aim at former PayPal guy Peter Thiel with Wednesday night’s episode, mocking the tech mogul’s recent obsession with the Antichrist and his conspiracy-minded rumblings, of the kind that only sound smart to some people, because Peter Thiel is very rich. And while putting Thiel front-and-center only continues to make it feel weird that the show has held off in recent months on his former business partner (and former series guest star) Elon Musk, it’s not like Thiel wasn’t owed some quality time in the spotlight of his own.
South Park put a heavy emphasis on Thiel in its latest episode, “Twisted Christian,” which is either the sixth episode of its 27th season, or the first episode of its 28th, depending on who you ask. (The Comedy Central schedule lists it as S28 E1, but South Park has pulled so many shenanigans with its season numbers in recent years that there’s literally a $200 million lawsuit about it, so, really, god only knows.) The important thing is that the show did its usual blending of current cultural obsessions with wider satire, tying the current “6-7” meme that’s brain worming the nation’s children into Thiel’s paranoid ramblings, and tying those in turn to the ongoing plotline about Donald Trump and his micropenis impregnating Satan with the Antichrist. The net effect was to generate a lot of Exorcist-style imagery of the show’s ghoulish version of Thiel covered in puke (courtesy of an Eric Cartman who can’t stop laughing at “6-7” jokes), and some fresh shots of Trump’s various genitalia. Which actually feels kind of…tame?… for this series, in this time, especially while coming back after three weeks away.
The more potent stuff, as was the case with the previous episode’s Israel material, happened essentially in a B-plot, following the travails of Jesus Christ as he works to fit in in the modern world. Showing the Messiah be essentially browbeaten and worn down into accepting a more violently hateful version of the religion that bears his name (courtesy of PC Principal), the plotline suggests that series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are interested in still saying stuff with the series beyond “Which conservative figure can we try to bait into sound-biting about our show this week?” Just not without also getting in its broader, more easily commercialized kicks in the process.
