South Park season 27 episode 4’s takedown of Trump’s tariffs isn’t even the craziest thing to happen on the show this week

• South Park season 27 episode 4's biggest storyline is a takedown of Trump's tariffs
• The latest episode also features a pregnant Satan with Trump's baby, Jesus as a failed guidance counselor and a birthday party pentagram
• Labubus, the TikTok toy craze, are also in the firing line surprisingly

After yet another delay (which we now know is thanks to a permanent change in scheduling), South Park season 27 episode 4 has come back with a vengeance. Trump's tariffs are at the top of the target ticket, with Satan’s sex life, Jesus as a failed guidance counselor and a birthday party pentagram among some of the unhinged follow-up plots we're spoiled by.

Did I mention Satan is now pregnant with Trump's baby? No? Well it's not too surprising, given how much time the pair have spent in bed together during the first three episodes. But out of all of these deranged storylines I'm touching on, none of them are what caught me off guard in season 27 episode 4 the most.

Not even South Park's creators overtly stating that Trump actually is Satan even touches the lofty bar of surprise. That honor falls at the feet of the not-so-humble Labubu doll, with the hit 2025 craze now taking the fictional town by storm too.

Opinion: My head is spinning from all the Labubus in South Park season 27 episode 4

Imagine me sat slack-jawed and wide-eyed at my desk with the 'Ariana, what are you doing here?' meme running through my mind as I watch two young girls fighting over Labubus in this week's episode of South Park. I expect vicious political takedowns when I go to watch the hit Paramount show, but this? Not in a month of Sundays would I have guessed their inclusion.

Objectively, the move does make sense. The aim of South Park is the dissect and parody topical cultural and political moments in real-life, and the TikTok-driven Labubu craze certainly fits the bill. Plus, there's an easy win – the dolls look demonic, and that filters beautifully into the ongoing Trump-Satan saga.

“Oh yeah, Labubus are demonic" we hear in the episode, and I can't really dispute that. The unexpected punch-up kicks off proceedings, and it's a shrewd way of pushing us into the deep end of South Park chaos when we've been away from it for two weeks. But this time, it says as much about us as it does about the powers that be.

Sure, US politics is having a whirlwind of a time, but the Labubu craze proves that cultural phenomenons can be just as messy as the best of them. You don't often expect South Park be the mirror to our individual problems, but when it is, it stings.

For that, I have to take my hat off to the show for surprising me when I no longer thought it was possible. Hopefully, we won't be directly joining Trump and Satan's shared bedroom when we rejoin season 27 in two weeks time, but hey, you can't ever truly guess what's coming next.

You might also like

• Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler spin-off: Everything we know about the sequel series to Yellowstone on Paramount+
• Mayor of Kingstown season 4: everything we know so far about the hit Paramount+ show's return
• New Paramount+ series Avatar: Seven Havens will succeed where the Last Airbender live-action adaptation couldn't, and that should make Netflix panic