Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem has attempted to show she is unbothered by the brutal South Park parody of her, by updating her social media profile.
Noem was ridiculed on Wednesday when the latest episode of the unapologetic animated series heavily satirized Noem’s penchant for cosplaying as a glammed-up ICE agent—plus that time she shot her 14-month-old puppy Cricket.
Though she criticized her depiction on the show as “lazy” and “petty,” Noem appears to be warming up to the send-up. In addition to sharing a slightly altered image of herself from the episode on X, she updated her profile picture with the same image.
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“JOIN.ICE.GOV,” Noem captioned the image. The post was reshared by the official Homeland Security X account with the all-caps statement: “THE DEPORTATIONS WILL CONTINUE.”
The South Park still is taken from a section of the episode in which Noem hosts a training video for new ICE recruits while gunning down puppies. The image she shared is based on that depiction but shows the DHS secretary with added “laser eyes” that were not in the episode.
Laser eyes is a meme used to suggest someone is growing stronger or reaching the height of their powers. It’s prevalent in “Dark MAGA” meme culture, and used to show that President Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes are “done playing the nice guy,” according to KnowYourMeme.com.
“It’s so lazy to constantly make fun of women for how they look,” Noem, 53, told Glenn Beck on his radio show on Thursday.
“It’s always the liberals and the extremists who do that. If they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that, but clearly they can’t, they just pick something petty like that.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Noem’s office for comment.
Noem is not the only MAGA die-hard ridiculed in the latest episode, nor is she the first to attempt to take control of the South Park narrative. Trump, who featured in the first episode of the new season, was depicted once again as being in a relationship with Satan.
Vice President JD Vance was depicted as a tiny, Trump Mini Me-esque character, reminiscent of Hervé Villechaize’s Tattoo from the 1970s TV series Fantasy Island. Vance commented on the parody of himself on X, saying: “Well, I’ve finally made it.”
Right-wing commentator and podcast host Charlie Kirk also came under fire in the episode. The hate-filled Eric Cartman character is seen to be furious that Kirk and others “stole his schtick” with their adversarial content. Cartman attempts to cash in on the podcast trend with a Kirk-style haircut and similar “master debating” style.
“MAGA is completely taking over everything cool,” wrote one MAGA account on X, which was reshared by Kirk. The Turning Point founder also updated his profile picture on X to match his cartoon parody.
While the show was branded “irrelevant” by the Trump administration, it appears they cannot stop trying to spin the ongoing derision.
