South Park Takes on Betting Markets, Trump, and the FCC

South Park returned with a new episode on Wednesday, focused on online betting, Israel’s war on Gaza, and President Donald Trump’s attempts to abort a baby that’s due after he impregnated Satan. But FCC Chairman Brendan Carr seemed to take the most abuse during the episode, something that was to be expected after Carr tried to get Jimmy Kimmel Live! removed from ABC. Spoilers ahead.

South Park unexpectedly failed to deliver a new episode last week following the death of MAGA influencer Charlie Kirk. And while creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said it was due to their own procrastination, there was speculation that it may have had something to do with Kirk’s death. South Park did an episode mocking Kirk’s style of debate on Aug. 6, a month before he was killed on Sept. 10, and that episode has been pulled from the rerun schedule.

But the comedy show didn’t address Kirk at all on Wednesday, even if it touched on some of the downstream effects of his murder. The episode put Brendan Carr, this month’s great villain against free speech, through the ringer as he takes a tumble down some slippery stairs, explosively shits his pants, and is eventually hospitalized while making a Nazi salute.

The episode opens with the boys learning about prediction markets like Polymarket and how to make bets online. One of the bets available is whether Kyle’s mom will strike Gaza and destroy a Palestinian hospital, something that enrages Kyle, who objects to the anti-semitism inherent in the idea and tries to contact someone to get the bet taken down. Kyle tries to complain to the betting company, run by Donald Trump Jr., before he’s directed to a series of different agencies, also overseen by Donald Trump Jr.

Eventually, Kyle is told he needs to get in touch with the FCC, since the bet is “offensive” and the federal communications regulator apparently handles anything offensive these days. Meanwhile, Cartman realizes he can work all of Kyle’s outrage to his advantage, getting people to bet that Kyle’s mom will indeed order a strike on Gaza, while Cartman bets against it.

Trump, who’s largely been the focus of Season 27’s short five-episode run thus far, works hard to get Satan to have a miscarriage, spiking soup with an absurd amount of Plan B. Satan doesn’t want the soup, but Carr dives in, getting diarrhea so explosive that he zooms around the room before crashing out the window into the sky.

JD Vance returned as a character from the 1970s TV show Fantasy Island, seemingly sycophantic and trying to suggest gifts that President Trump can give to Satan’s child. Vance warns that one gift, a kitten, can be toxic for pregnant people, given that toxoplasmosis can cause miscarriages. This, of course, gives Trump the idea to outfit the White House attic with a bunch of cats and kitty litter, which can be released by a trap door onto Satan. Assuming Trump can get Satan to stand in the right place. Again, the FCC chair bears the brunt of Trump’s scheming, getting buried underneath the mountain of kitty litter and cat shit.

Cartman panics when he learns that Kyle’s mom is heading to the Middle East, worried that she may actually hit Gaza and his bet will be ruined. But Kyle’s mom didn’t travel to Israel to enact violence, just give Benjamin Netanyahu a piece of her mind.

Brendan Carr, battered and bruised, is visited by Vance in the hospital, where the vice president reveals himself to be more than just Trump’s lackey. Vance knows exactly what he’s doing by trying to get Satan to have a miscarriage. Because he knows that if Trump and Satan were to have a baby, it would be competition during Vance’s ascendancy to the presidency.

Viewers never learn what happens to Carr, but it seems like a safe bet that he’ll return in future episodes. And that’s consistent with his current trajectory in real life. The FCC chairman successfully campaigned to get Jimmy Kimmel pulled from the airwaves, but that was short-lived. Kimmel returned on Tuesday, and the New York Times reports that he’s still going to exert maximum pressure to get liberal voices purged from the airwaves.

President Trump, who also got Stephen Colbert cancelled, dropped the pretense Tuesday that the “controversy” around Kimmel had anything to do with Charlie Kirk’s death.

“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there. Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE,” Trump continued.

Then Trump made it clear that he’s never going to stop.

“He is yet another arm of the DNC and, to the best of my knowledge, that would be a major Illegal Campaign Contribution,” Trump wrote about Kimmel. “I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do. Last time I went after them, they gave me $16 Million Dollars. This one sounds even more lucrative. A true bunch of losers! Let Jimmy Kimmel rot in his bad Ratings.”

On paper, South Park has been safe from cancellation, if only because Carr and the FCC only regulate the major broadcast stations, not cable. But Trump can apply pressure to private businesses in any number of ways. Disney is reportedly preparing for just that in the wake of Kimmel’s return.