The 'South Park' Season 18 Teaser Has Arrived

The eighteenth season of defiantly long-lived animated sitcom South Park is almost upon us, and we now have the first footage from the upcoming series in the form of a minute-long teaser trailer uploaded to YouTube overnight by the Trey Parker- and Matt Stone-owned South Park Studios.

The minute-long teaser goes straight for the jugular, too, showing resident pot-stirrer Eric Cartman cheerfully explaining to executives working for the team formerly known as the Washington Redskins why it's OK for him to use their name for his new business, despite it being "offensive to their people"; it's a beautiful skewering of the Washington team's executives, who repeatedly offer up banal platitudes of the ilk Cartman serves up to them to groups offended and/or angered over the club's continued use of the Redskins name.

It all points to yet another year of socially aware, viciously satirical comedy from Parker and Stone, and looks to maintain the consistently upward trajectory on which the show has been since at least season nine or ten. Bring on the weekend!

Season 18 of South Park starts in the States this Wednesday, September 24. Australians will get to see it "express from the US" from 9.25pm this Sunday, September 28, on SBS2.