‘South Park’ Heads to a Militarized D.C. in Next Episode, Then Will Skip Yet Another Week

The Trump Resistance-era of South Park continues with the show’s latest season 27 episode.

In a promo for the new episode (below), Towelie heads to Washington D.C. and discovers the town overrun by soldiers and tanks. “Wow, Washington D.C.!” Towelie enthuses amid shots of a town overrun by the military. “This seems like a perfect place for a towel.” The episode is titled “Sickofancy.”

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The footage suggests South Park is tackling President Trump’s controversial decision to deploy a significant number of federal law enforcement and immigration agents into the nation’s capital as part of a crackdown on crime and homelessness. The White House has said the move has resulted in hundreds of arrests. Critics have called it an unnecessary authoritarian takeover of the District, which has seen its crime statistics fall in recent years.

It comes at a time when South Park — long famed for refusing to be perceived as taking political sides and mocking all comers — has taken a decidedly strong and recurring stance this season against the Trump Administration (at least, so far).

Comedy Central also announced that after Wednesday’s episode, the next episode of South Park won’t air until Sept. 3, and then won’t air again until Sept. 17. In other words, the show will be running every other week for the near future. This follows last week being skipped (the network claimed it was to celebrate the show’s anniversary, and aired a marathon of past episodes), as well as the show skipping a week after its ratings record-breaking season premiere.

While the network and South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone haven’t commented on the schedule shifts, one might assume they’re using the extra time to edge away from the show’s usual breakneck six-day production schedule and give themselves more breathing room to make episodes at a time when the show is under perhaps unprecedented scrutiny and enjoying a surge of viewership.

South Park‘s ratings have been setting records for Comedy Central. The season 27 premiere delivered 6 million cross-platform viewers and had the show’s biggest share in 25 years. The second episode then delivered 6.2 million viewers and had the show’s biggest share ever.

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The second episode took aim at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and resulted in some back and forth between the Trump Administration and the series. Noem was portrayed as a serial puppy shooter with a face that kept melting off, while the Secretary shot back, “It’s so lazy to make fun of women for how they look.”

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