At long last, “South Park” Season 27 has a premiere date. The long-running Comedy Central original will premiere new episodes on July 9. And based on the first teaser, Matt Stone and Trey Parker have been watching the news.
Wednesday’s new clip starts with a series of dramatic live-action images, including an empty swing and the wing of an airplane. “The acclaimed drama returns,” white text against a red background reads. The teaser then immediately jumps to Randy asking his daughter Shelly if she’s been taking ketamine.
“Because I think it could really help you,” he adds. And with that, “South Park” Season 27 is off.
The rest of the teaser cycles through images of South Park on fire, Butters panicking as he tries to stop planes from repeatedly crashing into each other, Canadians pulling down the Statue of Liberty, the boys flying through what appears to be space alongside Diddy and Randy cheerfully telling his wife Sharon he’s going to do some ketamine “and f–k around with the government a little.”
The video then ends with a creepy, slowed down version of “Blame Canada,” one of the fan-favorite songs from 1999’s “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.” Check out the teaser, below:
The time between Seasons 26 and 27 currently stands as the longest break the show has ever faced. Since 1997, “South Park” has consistently released a new season every year. But the last time the series proper released a new season was in February of 2023. Three “South Park” specials did air later in 2023 and in 2024 — “South Park: Joining the Panderverse,” “South Park (Not Suitable for Children)” and “South Park: The End of Obesity.” But because those are Paramount+ exclusives that are typically 45 minutes to an hour long, those are a bit different.
Still, this yearlong gap was intentional. After heavily covering the first Trump election and administration through Mr. Garrison, Parker and Stone said that they would not be releasing new episodes in 2024 in an effort to avoid covering yet another election.
“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,” Stone said in September.
Now known as one of the most recognizable series of all time, Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny first appeared in Stone and Parker’s “The Spirit of Christmas” animated short. The pair currently serves as executive producers on the series along with Anne Garefino and Frank C. Agnone II. Eric Stough, Adrien Beard, Bruce Howell and Vernon Chatman are producers. Christopher Brion is the creative director of South Park Digital Studios.
