Television - South Park 'Sarcastaball' review

'Sarcastaball' is a truly, deeply ridiculous story, and all the better for it. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never had much need for plausibility to drive their plots forward, but this episode took the biscuit. After discovering the student football team had done away with kick-offs due to the risk of concussion, Randy's sarcastic complaints leads to the school implementing his suggestions that the players wear tin foil hats and bras instead of helmets and padding, and hug each other instead of tackle. This new version of the sport soon becomes a nationwide phenomenon, and Butters a champion due to his ability to summon up the 'creamy goodness' from inside him.

Make sense? Not for a moment. Funny? You'd better believe it.

 

Television - South Park 'Cartman Finds Love' review

The first half of South Park's sixteenth season has been of mixed quality, but goes into its summer break on a reasonably strong note. As much fun as it is that the series now sets so many of its episodes on an epic scale, it's always nice when it pulls back to Cartman and co. interacting as schoolchildren, with a storyline grounded in whatever South Park might interpret as reality. This is a series with plenty to say about human nature, and children in a playground are perfect fodder for exploring the topic in a disarmingly innocent, if typically unbridled, way.

'Cartman Finds Love' pulled off the trick confidently, using the purity of childhood love as a springboard for tackling a society determined to overcomplicate and politicise everything. The children of South Park Elementary (and everywhere else in the world, probably) would like to consider themselves as grown-ups, able to interact with the world on the same level as their parents. When the best available adult role models are the citizens of South Park, though, that's not the best idea: this is a town ready to panic or raise uproar about just about anything, so mixed-race romances were never likely to go down well.

  

Television - South Park 'I Should Never Have Gone Ziplining' review

Several reviews and comments on 'I Should Never Have Gone Ziplining' have slated the episode as one of the worst South Park has ever done, which seems strange even considering the internet's usual propensity for overreaction, because I found it pretty funny. Hardly a classic, but a simple premise executed with a reasonable number of laughs throughout and only really stumbling through excessive repetition of certain jokes ("Long story short...") in the middle act.

The difference might be that people who have never been on one of the tours portrayed in the episode - not necessarily ziplining, but sightseeing or hiking or anything involving a small group of people led by an overenthusiastic guide - might not understand how dreadful they can be with the wrong group, or a guide who really misjudges his act. Maybe Trey Parker and Matt Stone took such a tour in their youth - hard to imagine them having the time or desire to subject themselves to one in the past decade at least - because the episode pretty much nailed what happens when tour groups... go bad. (Cue dramatic music)

 

Television - South Park 'Butterballs' review

It would be easy to say that what keeps South Park feeling relatively fresh after fifteen-odd years on air is its readiness to satirise current events through its raunchy, absurdist filter, but more important than that is how creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone nearly always layer that satire with pointed social commentary. When The Simpsons attempts to catch onto a trend these days, its approach rarely involves anything more than referencing it and expecting laughs because, hey, here's that thing you know about, but now in cartoon form. That's funny, right? Parker and Stone, on the other hand, get their series involved in the debate surrounding the issues they tackle, whether civil liberties, the impermanence of meme culture, or how the anti-bullying industry is indirectly responsible for propagating the very acts it is trying to stop.

There's every chance some might interpret 'Butterballs' as a creed against the creators of the recent Bully movie, and though there was a little criticism directed their way in terms of their naivety about the real-world effects it might have, most of the episode's ire was directed at those ready to exploit the initial good intentions for their own self-aggrandisement.

 

Television - South Park 'Jewpacabra' review

How much can really be read into an episode of South Park? This is definitely a programme which revels in its ability to disguise valid social and political commentary beneath layer upon layer of unhinged insanity, but sometimes you have to stop and wonder how much meaning creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone genuinely intended to thread into the narrative. At what point does the sight of a boy, smeared with blood and dressed as an Easter bunny, lying in the woods and dreaming up an anti-semitic mishmash of Biblical mythology stop being about religion, or belief systems, and just exist for the sake of a ridiculous, knowingly appalling situation?

More than most weeks, I'm wondering how valid my reading of 'Jewpacabra' really is - on the one hand, the story repeatedly returns to similar ideas and motifs in the way that a developing theme should. On the other, South Park is rarely subtle about what it wants to say, and if this was an episode to be taken at more than face value, it certainly demanded an uncharacteristic level of work from the audience to unpack it.

 

Television - South Park 'Faith Hilling' review

Last night's South Park approximated real-life quotes from the Republican candidates, but unlike 'About Last Night', the episode from the twelfth season which pulled a similar trick with Barack Obama less than a day after he was elected President, there was little effort to use them in any particularly important way in the story. At best, there might have been a thematic link between the way 'Faith Hilling' skewered the impermanence of meme culture and the way in which the Republican primaries have been largely reduced to the dissemination of appalling soundbytes over the internet, rather than any in-depth political discussion.

Such a point would seemingly ignore how its the extreme views of the candidates themselves which has brought out this situation, with none but hardline right-wingers seemingly engaged by the debates on a serious level. If intention, it was also a point that required a fair bit of speculation on the part of the viewer to seep through a muddle of other possible interpretations, few of them developed as fully as they needed to be.

 

Television - South Park 'Cash For Gold' review

South Park's new season got off to a solid start last week, satirising a popular concern through an absurdist lens in order to make a controversial point: in that case, that people are as much to blame for backing down in the fight over their civil liberties as governments are for violating them in the first place. The series doesn't always need to strive to make a point, but is often at its strongest with a clear target in mind and a strategy for how to skewer it most effectively and for maximum humiliation.

Shock value is a more difficult approach, not least because most people watching South Park have grown up with animated children swearing on television and steadily moved into seeing all sorts of sights on the big and small screen that would make their parents faint in horror. This is a desensitised generation, so getting around those in-built defences requires greater subtlety than the days when a little arterial spray or loose cursing could set protest groups reaching for their placards. 'Cash For Gold' aimed for shock value, but turned out an episode few will remember, let alone debate.

 

Television - South Park 'Reverse Cowgirl' review

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Television - South Park 'The Poor Kid' review

A terrific season of South Park came to an end with an episode which might have disappointed some for not being as outwardly dense as the exceptional You're Getting Old, which closed the mid-season, but was a lot of fun and once again subverted expectations with where the series is willing to go.

On the one hand, you could see this as yet another 'Cartman hatches a devious scheme which goes badly wrong' episode, seeing as how, having seen Kenny and his siblings taken away by social services, he comes up with a plan to be taken into foster care himself when he realises that his friend's absence means he is now the poorest boy in school. That was really the second plot, though, as 'The Poor Kid' was really all about Kenny and how a previously one-note character has slowly transformed into the series' most understated hero. It was also about fitting as many Penn State and 'Yo Momma' jokes as possible into a twenty-minute running time.

 

Television - South Park 'A History Channel Thanksgiving' review

This season, South Park has tackled the difficulties of growing up, American reliance on immigrant workers, tabloid journalism, and how the '1%' riots have been no more useful in resolving the financial crisis than the people originally to blame. The series' mix of social commentary with bawdy, absurdist humour has proven a winning combination time and time again, helped in no small part by each episode being written and created only a short time before going to air. Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone can tackle current events with an immediacy denied to most conventional comedies, an advantage they have embraced frequently and with gusto.

There are also times when they have just seized upon a fairly random and meaningless idea, blown it out of all proportion and waited to see what stuck. 'A History Channel Thanksgiving' was one of those episodes.

 

Television - South Park 'One Percent' review

Growth seems to be a recurring theme since South Park returned. The series has always enjoyed a fair amount of elasticity in terms of its setting, moving from from small town stories to epics about the summoning of Cthulu or the invasion of Imaginationland, but its four central characters have remained more or less the same as when we first met them - with the possible exception of Cartman's psychosis being kicked up a few notches with the Scott Tenerman situation, and the abandonment of the dead Kenny jokes.

With the 'You're Getting Old' and 'Assburgers' two-parter bringing a wisp of tragedy to Stan Marsh's otherwise blank slate existence, 'One Percent' seemed similarly taken with the idea of forcing Cartman to accept the need for growth and change. Who knows if Matt and Trey will follow it through - it looks as though Stan's drinking habit has been left behind - but even in one of the less hilarious episodes since the series' spectacular return a few weeks ago, the idea carried considerable weight (no pun intended) in this half-hour at least.

 

Television - South Park 'Broadway Bro Down' review

Given how Matt Stone and Trey Parker have a show running on Broadway right now, there was a certain inevitability that the topic would crop up on South Park eventually. 'Broadway Bro Down' could be seen as twenty minutes of build-up to a single joke, but that joke was magnificent in its rapid delivery and timing, and a pitch-perfect pay-off for what was easily the funniest episode of what has been a sensational return to form for the programme since returning for its winter run.

What was particularly unexpected was how heartfelt the episode was beneath all the dirty jokes: no question that it was mainly about musicals brainwashing women into giving blowjobs and Randy subsequently staging the blowjobbiest (word) musical of all time, the regally named Splooge-Drenched Blowjob Queen, but it concluded on the rather more delicate note of he and Sharon, who had been at each other's throats not so long ago in Ass Burgers, realising that a successful marriage requires a bit of give and take on both sides. A budding young romance also ended with a deliciously ironic death, which was perhaps a little less touching but all the more hilarious.

 

Television - South Park 'Bass To Mouth' review

As you may have noticed, I have been busy with the London Film Festival this week, so apologies for this review turning up a day late. With my time is at a premium right now - this is probably the only time I will ever be pleased to go a week without Community and Parks & Rec - it is the same reason for Word of the week going on temporary hiatus, to return next week.

Anyhow, South Park continued its upturn in quality with another hilarious, thought-provoking episode, pulling a neat about-turn by starting off as what appeared to be a morality tale about school bullying, but quickly turned into a guinea pig's mission, as decreed by the ghostly Frog King, to defeat his gossip-spreading evil brother, named Wikileaks. Cartman also got thrown under a bus and Mr. Mackey was propelled down the school corridor by a jet stream of laxative-induced diarrhoea.

Just another day in South Park Elementary, really.

 

Dialogue Exchange: South Park review

TELEVISION REVIEW

SOUTH PARK: 'Last Of The Meheecans'

'Last Of The Meheecans' may not carry on last week's unexpectedly affecting story, but it does continue what is looking like something of a revival for South Park. Like many of the series' best episodes, it has plenty of clever, subversive points to make, but is first and foremost incredibly funny, as well as featuring Cartman taking a game way too far, a hummable tune, plus one of those inspired Randy Marsh non-sequiturs that have made the character so beloved.

It is also testament to what an inspired addition to the series Butters has been. I complained that last week's Community landed in an uncomfortable middle-ground where the group taking out all their anger on one good-hearted man came across as mean rather than funny because they didn't take it far enough. Butters is a perfect example of how to do that sort of comedy right: a near-angelically naive little boy, punished in the most ridiculous and over-the-top ways for his attempts to be the best friend to the world he can.

 

Debbie Downer: South Park review

TELEVISION REVIEW

SOUTH PARK: 'Ass Burgers'

The big question following South Park's mid-season finale was how Trey Parker and Matt Stone were going to follow up an ending that suggested the series had turned into everything it once mocked. Many speculated that a Russell T. Davies-esque reset button would be used, while others wondered whether everything from the previous episode would be glossed over as though it had never happened. South Park has been returned to normal from some spectacularly odd situations before - was it really so far-fetched that Stan's parents might have reunited while the series was off-air and he recovered his optimistic outlook?

To their credit, Parker and Stone not only refused to sweep the events from 'You're Getting Old' under the rug, but elaborated on them in such a way that only added more questions about where the series will go from here. Even if everything has returned to normal by the next episode, the final shot of 'Ass Burgers' was a bleak and audacious twist that could alter the series' underlying tone for as long as it is left hanging.

 

Some Kinda Britches Holocaust: South Park mid-season finale review

TELEVISION REVIEW

SOUTH PARK: 'You're Getting Old'

It's well documented that creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are struggling to maintain much enthusiasm for South Park after fifteen seasons. This episode, the last before a mid-season break, felt like them taking the opportunity to voice their frustrations at having to push through that creative exhaustion, at least until their contract runs out in 2013.

As Sharon says in her argument with Randy, too often the series tells the same story over and over again, resetting the pieces at the end before starting all over again, in an ever more ridiculous way. Like most episodes, 'You're Getting Old' could be summed up in a soundbyte - 'Stan starts getting cynical after his tenth birthday and everything literally starts to look like shit!' - but had an unusual air of melancholy to it. Are Parker and Stone going to follow through on the cliffhanger they set up? It's easy to assume not. After all, the dynamics of the series would be drastically altered if so, perhaps even losing one of the key members of the cast. They ditched Kenny for a while, but since he died in every episode up to that point anyway, it's not as though his loss significantly changed anything. But Kyle and Cartman becoming friends? That's like Superman and Lex Luthor cosying up together. 

I suspect the first episode of the next half-season will be spent restoring things to the way they were - Comedy Central probably wouldn't be pleased if it didn't - but this finale felt like Stone and Parker's anti-authoritarian spirit for the first time being turned back on itself.

 

Wouldn't Harm A Fry: South Park review

TELEVISION REVIEW

SOUTH PARK: 'City Sushi'

It's telling of how inconsistent South Park has become that it can take two of its funniest characters, Butters and the City Wok guy (did he have a name before last night?), put them to what could have been some entertaining concepts - Butters being diagnosed with multiple personality disorder by adults who don't have any concept of make-believe, and City Wok guy becoming infuriated as usual, this time at the opening of a Sushi restaurant next door to him - yet still end up falling flat.

Before spiraling out of control, the episode started strongly, with Butters' usual naïve over-enthusiasm triggering an 'Asian turf war', meaning a fight between the City Wok guy and a new Japanese restaurateur. A couple of good jokes came at the fact that these two seem to comprise the entire Asian population of South Park, notably in the street where they worked being designated 'Little Tokyo', again to City Wok guy's fury. After Butters is escorted home by the police, his parents decide to send him to a shrink, in a scene replete with very silly lines ("Does this mailman belong to you?"/"Well, it certainly isn't our parenting!"). Unfortunately, like one of the episode's central characters, there was a distinct split in personality between the beginning and the end.

 

Screw You, Sir: South Park review

TELEVISION REVIEW

SOUTH PARK: 'Crack Baby Athletic Association'

My coverage of South Park begins with an episode which epitomises the programme's biggest weaknesses and strengths. On one hand, where its moralising was once done through increasingly ridiculous metaphors, these days it tends to make its points more on-the-nose. Cartman starting up a 'sport' by filming crack babies falling over themselves to get a small ball of cocaine and keeping all the money for himself started out as a pretty funny reflection of the NCAA, although then had to go and make it explicit by having him visit the dean of the University of Colorado Boulder to ask his advice to ask about his college basketball slaves, before working out a deal for a videogame with EA Sports (and an hilarious likeness of real-life company head Peter Moore).

On the other hand, the show's inherent silliness continues to keep it above water. The dialogue in the dean's office was eye-rollingly blatant, but became slightly more tolerable when delivered by Cartman dressed as an old Southern plantation owner, complete with handlebar moustache, and concluding with an adapted version of the old catchphrase "Screw you, I'm going home!" Since he pulled an "I'm just big-boned" last week, I'm wondering whether this is Trey Parker and Matt Stone making deliberately daft callbacks, or just falling back on old jokes for easy laughs. Both of the programme's creators are said to be tired of doing the show and while last night's wasn't a vintage episode by a long shot, but at least had enough laughs to avoid that weariness coming through.