South Park Mocks Beef Prices and Food Trends, and Shows Off Grand Theft Auto VI Footage

South Park returned to Comedy Central on Wednesday with an episode that turned rising food costs, elite dining trends and President Trump's recent tariff pause on beef into the targets of its satire. The installment also included new footage from Grand Theft Auto VI, one of the year's most anticipated game releases.

The preview appears about two-thirds of the way through the episode. The boys, who now live in South America (formerly South Park), visit a cattle ranch. There they meet Ruth Chris, a new character who is not a real person but strongly resembles Ruth Fertel, the founder of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. She offers them a look at "what's coming in November."

The reference ties into a running joke by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who have used the game's release next month as a metaphor for the coming midterm elections. The footage shows the game's main character, Jason Duval, fighting a man on Vice Beach and features a bag of dog waste, which may stand in for partisan politics.

"Look at that, the graphics are seriously next level. You see the world-building?" Ruth Chris says. She goes on to explain that players can pick up the dog waste, throw things at a person carrying it, and even use it to attack someone who fights back. "That is what's coming in November," she says. Rockstar Games will release the title on Nov. 18.

The episode opens with Eric Cartman climbing the walls of the newly renamed South America Elementary to the sound of Gary Glitter's "Rock & Roll Part 2." He is waiting for his lunchtime Sloppy Joe, but record-high domestic beef prices have led the school to drop the dish from its menu.

That sets the show's four main boys on a quest to win back the beef produced in their town. The group now includes Stan's father, Randy, who has taken Kenny's place after shrinking to kid size from the youth-enhancing creams he used in the previous episode. Stan is shown coping with his tiny father joining his circle of friends.

The beef itself turns out to be a problem. Those who can afford it suffer such severe diarrhea that they explode, in a Scanners-style effect, in the middle of restaurants. The creators link eating the so-called patriotic beef with being a true American patriot, and the gag repeats throughout the episode. Some scenes feature interviews with the resulting piles, which are, as the episode puts it, still full of it.

The Hollywood Reporter's assessment was that the installment struggles to connect its ideas into the tightly structured satire the show is known for, and that the repeated exploding gag wears thin. It described the episode as a mid-season entry whose best work is setting up the November payoff.