“South Park” intensified its lampooning of President Donald Trump on Wednesday with the Season 27 episode “Sickofancy,” which aired on Comedy Central at 10 p.m. Eastern and will stream Thursday on Paramount+. The instalment shows the animated towel Towelie arriving in a militarised Washington, D.C., where troops and tanks guard federal buildings after Trump’s controversial federal takeover of the city’s police force. The storyline weaves in broader targets: Randy Marsh rebrands his Tegridy marijuana farm into an “AI-powered” venture guided by ChatGPT while micro-dosing ketamine, and tech chiefs including Apple’s Tim Cook and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg queue at the White House with extravagant gifts to win presidential favour. Trump is portrayed presiding over the capital’s crackdown and seeking sycophantic praise, continuing season-long gags about the president’s relationship with Satan and his vice-president, JD Vance. The White House last month dismissed the series as “fourth-rate,” yet audience figures have climbed. Episode 2 drew 838,000 U.S. linear viewers—nearly double the season premiere’s 430,000—while three-day cross-platform views rose to 6.2 million from 5.9 million, according to Comedy Central data cited by Forbes. Critics note the show’s real-time satire of the administration’s deployment of National Guard units and immigration raids as a factor driving interest. Parker and Stone, who in July secured a US$1.5 billion, five-year pact with Paramount for new episodes and streaming rights, are releasing Season 27 on a bi-weekly schedule. After this week’s broadcast the series will pause for two weeks, returning 3 September.