South Park's latest episode, "Conflict of Interest," which aired on September 24, 2025, targeted prediction markets in a satirical take, specifically naming platforms Polymarket and Kalshi as part of its critique. The plot involved children becoming obsessed with betting on everything, including controversial topics like whether a character's mom would "strike Gaza and destroy a Palestinian hospital," leading to conflicts and regulatory discussions.
Prior to the episode, prediction markets themselves created markets on whether they would be mentioned. On Myriad Markets, launched by Decrypt's parent company DASTAN, only 27% of predictions expected Polymarket, Kalshi, or Myriad to be named. Similarly, on Kalshi and Polymarket, the probability hovered around 20% just before broadcast, indicating a widespread failure to forecast the specific brand mentions.
DASTAN CEO Loxley Fernandes commented that this outcome highlights prediction markets as "financialized consumer sentiment aggregation" rather than infallible truth sources. He suggested users likely expected generic parodies due to assumptions about copyright issues or humorous derivative names, rather than direct brand references.
The episode sparked immediate reactions from the crypto community. Polymarket acknowledged the attention with a casual "oh, hi SouthPark" on X, while Kalshi's head of crypto, John Wang, expressed surprise. Bettors engaged heavily, with Polymarket markets on which characters would trade generating over $10,500 in volume, and dialogue-focused pools moving $9,000. A Myriad market with a $13,200 pool heavily favored "no" at 70.4% odds for exact name mentions.
This isn't South Park's first engagement with financial technology; the show previously satirized Bitcoin in 2021's "Post COVID" special, depicted NFTs, and mocked Crypto.com ads, reflecting its history of critiquing emerging trends.