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South Park S28E04: "Turkey Trot": Pete Hegseth, Saudi Arabia & More

South Park S28E04: "Turkey Trot" went hard on Pete Hegseth, Saudi Arabia, Cartman's racism, Kristi Noem, and more. Here's what went down...

It came down to the wire, and if we're being honest, we thought they might postpone the episode until next week. But earlier today, Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park dropped images and an overview for tonight's episode, S28E04: "Turkey Trot." For this go-around, the town's annual Turkey Trot turns chaotic when Cartman uses some questionable cutting-edge science to win the big race. We have a feeling that we might be dealing with some seriously jacked-up turkeys [Ed Note: We were so wrong], and then there's always what they're not showing us to keep in mind. Here's a look at our real-time thoughts on tonight's pre-Thanksgiving episode, followed by Parker and Stone discussing the show's shift to politics and actor/comedian Patton Oswalt explaining why Donald Trump hasn't reacted to the show on social media.

South Park Season 28 Episode 4: "Turkey Trot" Real-Time Thoughts

It looks like Parker & Stone are taking on genetically jacked-up food. Reminds us of something…

Mayor McDaniels admits that South Park can't get sponsorship for the annual Turkey Trot because the town has fallen on hard times – so it's time for Saudi Arabia sponsorship, with a $5000 cash prize!

FYI: Mr. Mackey is now a janitor.

Cartman is "an expert in race science." Uh-oh. Cartman's proof of being a "race expert" is trying to get Token on the team because he's Black, and Cartman assumes that means he must be fast.

Chief Harris won't turn over Peter Thiel, so Pete Hegseth and the "Department of War" demand that he be turned over.

"Now get your little bitch-ass outta my town": Chief Harris literally kicks Hegseth out of the building.

Okay, that Pete Hegseth infomerical was pretty great. Unfortunately for Pete, Donald Trump isn't happy, but he's giving Pete all of the military might he needs to push back on South Park.

Trump sending the military into an innocent town… feels like we've seen this before…

TURKEY TROT DAY!!!! Cartman loses his shit when he learns that Token pulled out over Saudi Arabia sponsoring the race.

One person's Turkey Trot is another person's… Antifa insurrection?!?

Cartman's defence of Saudi Arabian investments in the U.S. as a way of making society more progressive was exactly the broken logic you would expect.

Pete Hegseth's obsession with his social media numbers was a perfect running joke. Pete's waging a "content war" on South Park.

UH-OH! Kristi Noem is trying to steal Pete's social media thunder, and he's not having any of it!

PROGRAMMING UPDATE: A new episode of South Park hits Comedy Central on December 10th.

Pete tear-gassed the runners, so there's no route to the finish line right now.

Not gonna lie. Watching Pete beating up South Park citizens was pissing me off.

Of course, Token somehow crosses the finish line first, and Cartman gets his win.

We're getting an interesting take on Chief Harris… and I'm not liking that threat against South Park at the end.

Patton Oswalt on Why Trump Doesn't React to Trey Parker, Matt Stone

During the latest episode of The Daily Beast's Last Laugh podcast, Oswalt shared his theory behind Trump's selective bullying. "Nothing shuts Trump up like money," Oswalt shared. "He can argue that Stephen Colbert isn't getting the ratings and isn't making the money, even though the show is brilliant. But it's not that Stephen Colbert is slipping in the ratings, it's that the whole infrastructure of late-night television is slipping."

It's a different situation with Parker and Stone's animated series. In the Paramount Skydance Shareholder Letter for Q3 2025, released earlier this month, we learned that South Park not only helped bring in subscribers during the most recent financial quarter but was also the top driver of growth. "Recent highlights include our five-year exclusive deal with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, co-creators of 'South Park' – the top acquisition driver on Paramount+ in Q3," read the letter (which you can check out here). That's one of the reasons why Parker and Stone were reportedly signed to a new five-year deal worth $1.5 billion.

"'South Park,' not only does it make insane amount of some money, it 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. He can't look at 'South Park' and see how brilliant it is, and he can't look at something like John Oliver and see how equally brilliant it is. All he can think of in terms of, look at this guy's numbers, look at their numbers, and that's the only way he sees the world." Oswalt added. "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."

Trey Parker, Matt Stone on Trump Focus: "Politics Became Pop Culture"

Parker and Stone had some interesting things to say about the long-running animated series's focus on Trump and its use of political satire during a recent interview with The New York Times. "It's not that we got all political. It's that politics became pop culture," Parker noted during the NYT interview, explaining why the Comedy Central series made a harder shift toward political satire. Adding to that was the growing vibe within the media community that pushing back against Trump was too "taboo" to consider. "Trey and I are attracted to that like flies to honey. Oh, that's where the taboo is? Over there? OK, then we're over there," Stone added.

Although some criticize the duo and the show for having a left-leaning perspective, Parker views the show's creators as walking a middle ground, targeting issues on both sides of the political aisle. "We're just very down-the-middle guys. Any extremists of any kind we make fun of. We did it for years with the woke thing. That was hilarious to us. And this is hilarious to us," Parker explained. But with the line between politics and pop culture all but nonexistent at this point, Parker knows that "there's no getting away from this" – and that means the show can't ignore it. "It's like the government is just in your face everywhere you look," he shared. "Whether it's the actual government or whether it is all the podcasters and the TikToks and the YouTubes and all of that, and it's just all political and political because it's more than political. It's pop culture."

Though noting that there will be a point when Parker and Stone are "sick of" having Trump and his lackeys getting the show's spotlight, it won't be happening anytime soon. "You know, next year will be different. If there's one thing we know, it is that our show will be a lot longer than theirs," Parker said, before ending with a line that echoes when Kyle had to share with Stan and Kenny at the end of the most recent episode. "So, we just got to do this for now," he added.

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