South Park

Tomorrow. Hour long. 8pm.

Yeah, the show does combine opposite topics, but that usually works to the detriment of both topics.

For example, their attempts to tie the Star Wars sequel trilogy to the rise of the alt-right doesn't really work because a lot of the backlash to the sequel trilogy came from the alt-right due to the Adaptational Diversity.

"White People Renovating Houses" was largely regarded as satirically weak and confusing because it threw together three different issues and as a result couldn't really make a strong satirical argument about any of them (because their take on the Charlottesville rally removed a lot of the serious Nazi connotations — it was little more than an aesthetic reference and an allusion to anti-immigrant sentiments, but with digital assistants in the place of immigrants).

"The Problem with a Poo" referenced the Kavanaugh trials, but since the plot was focused on a more specific kind of cancel culture, they couldn't really say anything interesting about the specific circumstances of the sexual harassment lawsuit.

There are times when combining topics works for satire, but you can't just do it for the hell of it. There are a few angles I can see them take the idea of "Qanon parody of Cuties," but it would only work from the angle of Hypocritical Humor (i.e. sexualizing/exploiting children while criticizing the media they deem "offensive"), and not completely misrepresent the tactics of Qanon for the sake of "well, we got to talk about this movie, I guess." The supposed obligation to talk about current events for the sake of it, without anything significant to say about it or make it make sense in the plot, is one of the bigger issues with modern South Park.

I mean that also works to its detriment as the more they try to be current, the more dated the episode becomes. They can still be funny but no one will get the context of the jokes.

Them attempting to many current events at once is in my view one of the reasons that the whole political satire stuff has gone from being a part of the show to a crutch that the show relies on.

heh anyone else seen the new disclaimer

It was the only part of the episode I saw, because I'm busy during this hour and wanted to watch the whole episode in one sitting. It was a cute little Take That!, though without having time to read it all, it's hard to tell if the joke is "lol fucking oversensitive libs" or "this is a very lazy way to address racist content."

Oh, I got that. Again, I wonder if the joke is supposed to be that The Muppets (sarcastically) shouldn't be watched due to racist jokes, or that The Muppets is not a good show?

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 10th 2021 at 8:59:18 AM

the disclaimer ends on much like the muppets this shouldnt be watched by anyone

The way the Vaccination Special ended. . . Was this supposed to be the series finale? It sure felt like it.

It felt more like a reset to me

Here's the disclaimer◊.

Overall, I liked this better than the last one. I liked how they called out CNN’s double standard when they criticized the people who stormed the capitol yet referred to the BLM rioters as “heroes” when both sides were violent assholes, regardless of their beliefs.

Edited by HBarnill on Mar 10th 2021 at 6:10:41 AM

There were two fundamentally differences in why these two things are not the same, including the escalation of violence perpetuated by police on BLM peaceful protestors lead to violent rioters.

The other is, unsurprisingly, a fascist coup who wants to endorse tyranny and perpetuate the violence that creates violent rioters from peaceful protests.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Mar 10th 2021 at 6:20:17 AM

...I don't think the Kommunity Kids were meant to be analogous to BLM at all.

Anyway, this was such Pandering to the Base but you know what? We fucking deserve it.

It could be a good series finale, but I feel like they'd hype it up more if that was the case.

pretty sure they were renewed till 2023. so 4 more specials at least. and also didnt they say they wanted to do a 2nd movie as a series finale type thing

At this point, I can see them just doing those 4 specials over the next two years and be done with the show.

So...In-Universe, how did they get the vaccinations? The first special ended with the pangolin being destroyed and Randy's semen was the cure. Offscreen, are we to assume Randy just gave the government his DNA and they found the cure with that? I really did miss the continuity that the previous special had.

it wasnt the only way to get a cure it would just make it go faster if they had a patient zero to go from. like real life they just got one made

From what I know, the whole pangolin thing isn't accurate to how vaccines are made anyway. All you need is one sample of the virus from anybody. The pangolin thing would've been more instrumental to understanding how the virus mutated and spread.

I went to their site to see the episode, but it says that it's currently unavailable. So I read a few reviews and the synopsis here on the wiki. I got the impression that Parker and Stone just don't care anymore, both because they're getting old and because there's no real point in satirizing a world that feels like a gigantic prank in itself. Unsurprisingly, some Qanons praised the episode for "telling the truth" and that is to be expected. Though to be fair, from what I gathered, the Qanons in the episode are made to look dumb, but there still is a reality-warping force in-universe, so in the end they were somewhat right?

In any case, watch this clip and tell me if it doesn't sound like Parker speaking through Mr. Mackey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecj43C-YW0s

I think that was already clear from the extensive Randy excursion over the past two seasons.

The "proven right" thing doesn't faze me much because the way they were proven right only works in the context of the show, since it's one long Breaking the Fourth Wall gag. Leave it to that group to somehow deliberately misread the episode as supporting them. Do they believe that Hollywood can warp reality? Christ on a bike.

Anyway, I'll take "Parker and Stone vent their frustrations through their characters" over "Parker and Stone troll their audience out of sheer apathy" any day. At least this leads to potentially interesting character development.

The joke is matt and trey being part of the hollywood elite like ellen or oprah or tom hanks

Don’t we read into these things too much? I don’t think they’re sick of the show, otherwise they wouldn’t have renewed the show for 3 more seasons. Plus, Comedy Central wants their channel to become animated centric so they still need the show to promote that idea.

Yes. Fans used to think "You're Getting Old" was a sign Matt and Trey wanted to cancel the show. They were wrong then and they're wrong now.

"You're Getting Old" was pre-Trump. It was a bit of a different time for satire. Plus it was a single episode that came largely out of nowhere, while there's been a lot of episodes lately that seem extremely meta or at least self-reflective, dating back to at least Season 20. Plus the Tegridy Farms arc is way more obvious about the Leaning on the Fourth Wall commentary, and indicates at least some disillusion with the material on their part.

Edited by mightymewtron on Mar 12th 2021 at 9:53:56 AM

Did the people who think that Qanon were proven right miss the subtle symbolism of the main Qanon guy literally becoming a giant dick? Or the part where the Hollywood Elite Matt Parker and Trey Stone solved the conflict and made everything better by doing the opposite of what Q wanted? Or how Garritrump thought that they were worthless morons and it was only their own delusions that turned his insults into messages in their favor? Or how the Q lady being murdered in Craig's room was the single funniest bit in—you know what, I really shouldn't give it this much thought.