Tonight’s episode of South Park will apparently feature a plot point revolving around prediction markets, providing a major pop cultural acknowledgement of the burgeoning industry. Word began spreading on social media last night as users noted the episode’s synopsis on TV and streaming guides.
South Park’s social media account this morning confirmed the episode’s plot:
“Kyle and Cartman are at odds when a prediction markets app gets popular with their fellow students.”
Kalshi and Polymarket add markets for tonight’s South Park episode
The episode caught the attention of leading prediction market platforms Polymarket and Kalshi, who excitedly shared posts on X about the forthcoming show. Polymarket shared a screenshot of the episode synopsis and simply added, “Oh, hi (South Park).” Another Polymarket X post asked its AI-powered @AskPolymarket account about the odds of a Polymarket mention in the episode.
51% chance.https://t.co/bWyAFJPxsi
— Ask Polymarket 🔮 (@AskPolymarket) September 24, 2025
By late morning, Polymarket had added markets related to the South Park episode:
- Who will trade on a polymarket in South Park?: This market had very low trading volume early on, but Cartman was leading the field with 85% odds. Other options include Towlie, Kyle, Stan, Trump and Satan.
- What will be said during South Park prediction market episode tonight?: Traders can pick from a range of mentions during tonight episode, including “Polymarket,” “Predict/Prediction 10+ Times,” “Trump 3+ Times,” and “Trade 3+ Times,” as well as other terms like “Broncos,” “Tylenol,” “Fed,” and “Crypto/Bitcoin.”
Then, Wednesday afternoon, Kalshi launched its own mention market allowing U.S. users to legally trade roughly two dozen strikes on the event:
The prediction platform Myriad also added a market this morning to trade on whether the South Park episode will mention Myriad, Polymarket or Kalshi.
Kalshi and Polymarket had previously offered other markets related to South Park. Kalshi’s market for what Cartman would say when he played a Charlie Kirk-like media personality even got favorably mentioned by the late conservative pundit himself.
This is a good time for prediction markets to get a South Park shoutout, as the show has a lot of eyes on it after its $1.5 billion streaming deal with Paramount and its subsequent extreme roasting of Donald Trump, which has some wondering if Trump will exert pressure to get the show canceled or even sue Paramount over the portrayal.
Prediction markets also got a pop culture nod recently via a commercial for the Call of Duty game Black Ops 7. Amidst scenes of future news coverage, the trailer briefly showed a mock Kalshi market for the likelihood that robot soldiers would be activated in the military in 2035.
Pop culture mentions raise mainstream awareness of prediction markets
Many in the media, particularly at financial, gambling and political outlets, are well aware of the rising profile of prediction markets, and their stories and references to them ensure that their audiences are becoming more aware of them too. But I think it’s safe to say that the majority of average Americans still have no idea what prediction markets are, if they even know that they exist.
South Park’s prediction market episode isn’t going to change that overnight. But at least many viewers who were previously unaware of the existence of Kalshi and Polymarket will likely have their curiosity piqued and maybe even sign up for an account to see how they work.
At the very least, in the coming months, further references to prediction markets in pop culture, potentially in everything from movie plot points to late night talk show jokes, will go a long way towards making them a more widely known commodity.
In recent years, we’ve seen new industries and technology like online sports betting, crypto and NFTs become more common cultural references in film and television. They’re not always positive — sportsbooks have been skewered by The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live, and Jimmy Fallon’s Bored Ape interview with Paris Hilton led to widespread mocking. But those industries quickly became part of the national conversation on a broader basis thanks at least in part to those media portrayals.
South Park will likely not be gentle with prediction markets in their portrayal, but many (including the aforementioned Kirk) see a skewering from the long-running animated show as a badge of honor.
Pop culture nods are effective form of free, organic marketing
Prediction markets have done a good job of marketing to different sectors via things like influencer collaborations and traditional advertising to sports fans. Kalshi’s wild, AI-generated NBA Finals commercial and social media ads promoting sports event contracts likely played part in the platform’s huge trading volume boost from sports prediction markets this year.
In a more organic way, mainstream media has also begun mentioning prediction markets more frequently. When prediction market odds more successfully forecast the 2024 presidential election outcome than traditional polling, outlets like The New York Times and CNN covered the phenomenon extensively.
This year, more non-financial media outlets have been referring to prediction market odds in political coverage, positioning them as they do with public polling, as an indicator of where public sentiment lies. Some outlets even run full stories centered on a single prediction market, like News Nation’s coverage of what Kalshi traders thought Jimmy Kimmel would say in his controversial ABC return or the New York Post’s story on prediction market odds for the NYC mayoral race.
Organic pop cultural references are a similar public awareness indicator, but they encapsulate a much broader pool of people. Might we see a Saturday Night Live sketch about a hapless Kalshi weather market trader at some point? Perhaps there will be a new Netflix series centered around an assassin whose escape plan includes a $50 million payday from a trade on Polymarket in favor of a world leader’s exit from office.
The South Park prediction market episode is likely the first of many higher profile nods from mainstream pop culture. And the wider exposure stands to not only increase awareness of prediction markets, but could also subsequently increase engagement and trading with prediction platforms.
