The Department of Homeland Security is using South Park’s depiction of ICE in an upcoming episode to promote its job openings—just days after declaring the show “irrelevant.”
The show, which savagely mocked Donald Trump (and his “teeny tiny” manhood) in its premiere episode on July 23, returns this Wednesday with a new installment that will take on ICE and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Based on episode one, the show will likely feature more sharp criticism of Trump’s administration, after the show depicted him in the nude and canoodling with Satan in bed.
But the Trump administration took the risk to promote itself with an image from the series anyway on Tuesday, using an snap from the teaser to promote several jobs that stop “the invasion of criminals and predators” in exchange for a $50,000 bonus and help paying off student loans.
A new image posted to the show’s X account Tuesday reveals that Wednesday’s episode, titled “Got a Nut,” will parody Noem and her glammed-up photo-ops as she rides along on ICE raids. “When Mr. Mackay loses his job, he desperately tries to find a new way to make a living,” the episode’s description reads.
More Trump loyalists will feature in the upcoming episode, to the delight of MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk, who called the cartoon image of himself as Cartman in the teaser “a badge of honor” and changed his X profile photo to match. “I’m so watching this,” he wrote to his millions of followers last week.
Despite MAGA’s recent embrace of the series (even if only ironically), after it premiered to the largest share of cable viewers for a season opener since 1999, the White House called the series “uninspired” in its attempt to push back. A White House representative told the Daily Beast that South Park has “no authentic or original content, which is why their popularity continues to hit record lows.”
“This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread,” the administration also said, though it seems to be changing its tune on the show, inexplicably before it even knows how badly it will roast Trump and his officials this time around.
Speculation that heat from Trump may have intimidated Paramount parent company Comedy Central grew last week when the network announced that South Park would be delaying the follow-up to the scathing premiere by a week. That decision came amid the company’s $8 billion merger with Skydance and other moves appearing to appease the president, including the firing of Late Show host Stephen Colbert.
The teaser for Wednesday removes any doubt that the show will continue to go after Trump, and hard, with a quick clip that shows the president seductively rubbing Satan’s thigh.
