'South Park' season 27, episode 5: "Conflict of Interest." 'South Park' Season 27, Episode 5; "Conflict of Interest" Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text Months after the second Trump administration took shape and the president's flurry of executive orders began to generate the chilling effects of potential authoritarianism, South Park fearlessly kicked off with an almost unbelievably shocking moment. Struggling through the desert, an actor portraying the president of the United States lying naked and sunstroked, desperate to deliver America's voters from temptation, listened to an endorsement message from his tiny, talking penis. Months later, South Park's latest run now looks like it will conclude with the leader of the free world fathering the Antichrist via his extramarital affair with Satan. In between, South Park's flapping-head cut-out depiction of Donald Trump - petulant, philandering, self-serving and deceptive to all - has made clandestine attempts to abort his unborn child and bedded his VP in the Lincoln Bedroom and then manipulated the media into believing footage of the tryst was a mere deepfake. Related Stories News Ryan Lizza Claims Olivia Nuzzi Would Share "Opposition Research" With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. TV 'South Park' to Debut New Thanksgiving-Themed Episode as Cartman Brings Chaos to Town In a political era defined by Trump's reactionary take-downs of anything and everything that disagrees with his worldview, bruises his ego or contradicts the MAGA agenda, an acid-tongued tweet or fireball of a Truth Social post would be expected to land on the desks of South Park masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Yet, as was seen during Trump's first presidential term, when the hit show used its complex teacher character Mr. Garrison as a stand-in for Trump, the president has been radio silent in response to what has become, without a doubt, his harshest, most controversial and hands-down funniest lampoonings. At the same time, he appears to have gone to great lengths to decimate the late night comics who jab at him day over day, in a campaign that seems to have taken one scalp and nearly taken another. In fact, for a decade, Trump has not hesitated to launch midnight broadsides at everyone from Robert De Niro to Nordstrom. So, what makes South Park, which has enjoyed record-breaking viewership across its last two back-to-back seasons, so untouchable in the vengeful eyes of the leader of the free world? Comic and actor Patton Oswalt recently offered an opinion on this in an appearance on The Daily Beast's podcast, The Last Laugh. The anti-MAGA comic - whose new audio-only special opens with a mock disclaimer that to avoid the aforementioned authoritarian blowback, he's now a Trump loyalist - offered that blockbuster ratings and the almighty dollar are some of the few things that can keep Trump's claws from coming out. "South Park - not only does it make an insane amount of money, it [also] gets insane ratings. And Trump can only be so angry at that, because what Trump ultimately will respect, even if it doesn't respect him, is something where the numbers are through the roof, and the money is through the roof," the comedian said, later adding. "Something that is as massive and as undeniable as South Park, both in quality, which people like you and I can see, but then in numbers and money, which Trump can see, he just falls silent. If Colbert was making South Park money and getting South Park eyes on him, Trump wouldn't know what to do." Oswalt may be correct here. We know from experience that the president has an obsession with ratings - he's quick to point out real or perceived declines in ratings and audience share when blasting his foes, whether they are subject to Nielsen analysis or not. Hell, he even said this himself in a candid campaign trail interview last year, telling a reporter, "There's only one thing that matters: ratings. You can be nice or you can be mean. You can be evil. You can be horrible. You can be crude or elegant. If you don't have ratings, it doesn't matter." The logic certainly applies to Trump's late night takedown. The cornerstone of his tirades against Jimmy Kimmel was the declining rating of his ABC show; the argument was also made by the president as CBS announced the shuttering of Stephen Colbert's show, but in his unique way, Trump managed to claim Colbert had low ratings, and in the same breath, indicate he actually has the best late night numbers. South Park's ratings in the Trump administration-centric latest seasons have been their best: the season 27 premiere episode drew the highest audience for a premiere episode since 1999 at 5.9 million viewers across Comedy Central and Paramount+ in its first three days. The second episode, featuring a plastic-surgery rava