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Irreverent animated comedy South Park has become the unlikely forum for the latest Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay reveal.
GTA 6, widely considered the most hotly anticipated video game of all time, is set to finally release on consoles next month, 13 years after its predecessor.
While publisher Rockstar Games has maintained careful control of the gameplay footage released to the public – with the exception of numerous unauthorised leaks – the surprise segment of South Park constituted entirely unseen footage.
The clip featured during Wednesday’s episode of South Park (now technically known as South America, after the long-running series was officially retitled earlier this season, in a dig at US president Donald Trump).
In the episode, the South Park kids are seen visiting a local cattle ranch in order to see a preview of the game.
The footage shown to them is actual material from the forthcoming game, with the most noteworthy clip involving the player-character Jason using dog excrement as a weapon.
“Look at that, the graphics are seriously next level. You see the world-building?” the South Park children are told. “It’s a dog taking a poop. And people can pick up the dog poop. You can throw things at the person with dog poop, and if they choose to fight back, you can pick up the dog poop and actually attack them with the dog poop.
“That is what’s coming in November.”
Rockstar are thanked in the closing credits of the episode.
While the episode lightly lampoons one of GTA 6’s big selling points – the depth of in-world detail and behavioural choices available to the player – the clip is in fitting with the tone of the popular video game franchise, which has always embraced outlandish satire and crude comedy.
It is not the first time South Park has integrated actual video game footage into its animation, with a fan-favourite early episode incorporating the PC game World of Warcraft.
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South Park’s current season has been most noteworthy for its continued attacks on the US president, with the show causing a stir earlier this month in an episode that depicted a live-action deep-faked Trump.
The facsimile of the US president was seen using the toilet, and talking to his own penis, in the headline-making skit.