The latest ‘South Park’ episode shocks viewers as Cartman’s violent reactions to a viral meme hint at something darker than his usual antics.
South Park stomped back onto screens this week with a premiere that felt part horror-movie parody, part cultural takedown — and one very messy question: is Eric Cartman actually possessed, or is his violent vomiting just another outrageous stunt?
The episode opens with the kids at South Park Elementary obsessed with the baffling “6-7” meme, and Cartman’s reaction is immediate and grotesque: he vomits repeatedly, makes strange noises, and seems to lose control.
The show leans hard into classic possession imagery — think The Exorcist nods and frantic adults calling for answers — but it also frames everything through the series’ usual satirical lens.
Enter Peter Thiel, who arrives like a paranoid movie villain crossed with a tech evangelist, commandeering school cameras and insisting Cartman’s condition is something supernatural tied to the Antichrist plotline that’s been simmering all season.
Longtime viewers know South Park loves to blur the line between literal and symbolic. The creators have played with demonic births and spiritual chaos before — so the idea that Cartman might actually be under some otherworldly influence isn’t out of left field.
Yet the show also delights in ambiguity: the vomiting could be a gross gag that lampoons how fast nonsense goes viral and how adults react with hysterical overreach. Is Cartman possessed? Or is he weaponizing public panic — again — for attention and power?
Clues in the episode give both answers room to breathe. Thiel’s exorcism-styled intervention and his later declaration that Cartman “may be the only hope” push viewers toward a supernatural reading.
On the other hand, Cartman’s history of manipulation and attention-seeking behavior makes it entirely plausible this is performance art from the kid who once faked his own death for laughs. The show appears to want fans debating, not settling.
That debate has already exploded online. Some fans point to prior South Park episodes with Satanic or apocalyptic themes as proof the show is going literal.
Others argue the episode is a meta-commentary on memetic culture — that memes can feel like possessions in their own right, hijacking behavior and social discourse.
Whatever the truth, the premiere lands where South Park often does best: at the messy intersection of shock and satire.
Part two of the two-parter will likely tip the scales one way or the other — but expect Trey Parker and Matt Stone to keep us squirming (and laughing) no matter what. Share your theory: possessed, performed, or both?
