The irreverent adult animation series South Park has released a teaser for its upcoming season. The teaser hinted at episodes that will poke fun at contentious figures and issues, including Elon Musk's ketamine use, a brewing war with Canada and France's decision to take back the Statue of Liberty.
"Times have changed," announced a voiceover at the beginning of the trailer, setting a tone for a whirlwind preview of this season.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and close ally of President Donald Trump, has recently risen to significant prominence in US and international politics. However, the billionaire has become an online pariah, notorious for his outlandish remarks and bizarre antics.
The trailer showed South Park's own Randy Marsh discussing and sniffing ketamine, referencing Musk's publicized substance use. He first questioned his daughter in the clip, "Shelly, have you been taking ketamine? Because I think it could really help you," before casually mentioning to his wife, Sharron, "I'm just going to do some ketamine and f--- around with the government a little."
The quip about "messing around with the government" might be a cheeky reference to Musk's contentious moves in the Trump administration.
While there's been speculation about Musk's use of ketamine, he's been transparent about using it under the care of a medical professional.
In a candid 2024 interview with journalist Don Lemon, Elon Musk opened up about his personal experiences with ketamine. "There are times when I have a sort of a... negative chemical state in my brain, like depression I guess, or depression that's not linked to any negative news, and ketamine is helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mine," Musk confided to Lemon.
Satire creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have lampooned the fraying ties between the U.S. and its allies in their latest work. The teaser also included scenes of Canadian troops storming a charred battlefield and French vessels grappling with the Statue of Liberty, as well as characters contracting bird flu and working as flight traffic controllers while planes crash around them.
Times have indeed shifted since South Park's previous season two years prior. Show writers Parker and Stone, who remained on the sidelines during the 2024 election, commented: "We've tried to do South Park through four or five presidential elections, and it is such a hard thing-it's such a mind scramble, and it seems like it takes outsized importance." Parker also remarked, "I don't know what more we could possibly say about Trump."
Despite this, the new season's trailer suggests they've managed to work with a wealth of content for the upcoming episodes, set to debut on July 9 on Comedy Central.
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