JD Vance Seems To Get the Joke With His Reaction to ‘South Park’
The latest episode features an ICE roundup in heaven, Kristi Noem with a melting face, and JD Vance as a short-statured sidekick.

In a switch from attacking “South Park,” administration officials appear to be getting on board with the latest episode of the wildly popular cartoon, which targets President Trump and other officials with outrageous humor.
In Wednesday’s episode of the Comedy Central satire, Vice President Vance is depicted as Tattoo, the character played by the 3-foot-11 actor Hervé Villechaize in the 1970s and 1980s show “Fantasy Island.” President Trump is depicted as the character Mr. Roarke, played by Ricardo Montalban in the series.
The official “South Park” X account posted an image from the show of Messrs. Trump and Vance with the tag line, “Welcome to Mar-A-Lago!” It’s a takeoff on the opening line from the TV show. Mr. Vance reposted the image, writing, “Well, I’ve finally made it.”
That stands in contrast to the administration’s response to the season’s first episode, in which Mr. Trump was depicted in bed with the devil and walking naked through the desert.
“This show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread,” a statement issued by a White House spokesman, Taylor Rogers, said after that episode.
The latest episode begins with a high school counselor, Mr. Mackey, being fired and seeking a job with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which in real life has been aggressively recruiting new agents.
The Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, appears in the episode as a cartoon character whose hair and make-up team must work constantly to keep her face from melting off.
In a welcome video for ICE recruits, Ms. Noem is shown shooting multiple puppies — a jab at her account of shooting her dog that appeared in a book she wrote last year.
The new ICE recruits then stage their first immigration raid, targeting a live stage production of “Dora the Explorer.”
When ICE agents stage another raid on heaven, Ms. Noem’s character instructs them to target only people who are brown. “If it’s brown, it goes down,” her character says.
Mr. Mackey is later rewarded with a trip aboard an ICE place to meet the president at Mar-a-Lago, which is a stand-in for the imaginary Fantasy Island.
Mr. Trump demeans Mr. Vance in the episode, and at one point kicks him. The show ends with Ms. Noem walking into a pet store and opening fire on the animals as the credits roll.
While Ms. Noem has not commented publicly on the episode, her department’s X account posted a frame from the series earlier this week showing masked ICE agents in patrol cars. A link led to the agency’s recruitment page.
“Wait, so we ARE relevant?” came the response on the “South Park” X account, referring back to Ms. Rogers’s jab.
