South Park

Dead Kids

Well, lets try to write a review for this one. Should be fun.

Who is this teacher again? Did we see her before? It's been a while. Admittedly I can't even remember all that much from last season.

And then a school shooting happens, but the class just keeps going like nothing is happening. I'm not sure what is more bizarre, the class not reacting to the shooting, or the SWAT teams not even interacting with them.

This scenario only makes sense, by the way, if South Park Elementary has a shooting like, every few days.

I'm not sure what Matt and Trey are going for, here. It's not like real life students are "getting used to it" to the point of not even acknowledging it.

"Do you want to tell your father what happened at school today?" Why aren't you telling him? Sharon is the one having a realistic reaction in this scenario, so why would she even bother waiting for Stan to bring it up?

"Oh, yes, some kid shot up the school." And apparently got shot in the aftermath, so I don't really see what the mystery is going to be about who the shooter is. Oh well.

"Who shot up the scho- was it you? Wow, thats quite the jump to make, Randy.

"Did you get shot?" I would think that would have been obvious, but then again, this is Randy.

Weird to see Sharon in the role of "overreacting adult" this time.

Annnd there's the "hysterical women are on their period" joke. This episode is going to make a thing out of that, isn't it? Sigh.

And Cartman is going off about Black Panther. Of course he is. This is all pretty predictable. I hope they'll make more of this than "Cartman is racist" jokes.

And Token apparently never saw it. Okay.

And another school shooting. They really ARE happening every other day here.

Now Mackey is running around telling students and teachers to get down. But the other day, clearly no one besides the SWAT gave a fuck. Which one is it, episode? Do the staff acknowledge the shootings or not? Do they bother to alert the students or not? And why the other students, but not the people he was just in the room with?

So ONLY Sharon is concerned, and none of the other parents are. This is going to be a lame ass period joke, isn't it? Bleurgh...

I mean, what is even the commentary here? Liberals who are upset about school shootings are just hysterical moms on their periods? What the hell is this even? This is hardly a "liberals are getting upset over nothing" issue.

Eric is after Token because racist racist we've been here before many times you know the drill. Moving on.

Randy is whining about his wife being on her period. Uh... comedy gold? Am I supposed to laugh?

And then what'shisface mentions menopause. How dudebro can you get, episode?

And the episode just keeps going with the menopause thing. They really ARE going to imply that that's what's happening, are they?

Yep, the other parents are holding an intervention for Sharon. And it's really, really weird too.

Meanwhile, Cartman is blackmailing Token about having seen Black Panther now because it is PG-13.

Cartman and Token argue and nearly miss class, and there's another shooting. But aren't the parents here, too? I'm a bit confused about what's going on.

Also, this is the third shooting and we haven't even seen who it is. Lame.

So the shooting is happening all around the parents and they don't even react to it. They just have this brain dead stare.

What is REALLY weird, though, is that Sheila is not reacting to it, either. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have HER react to the shootings instead of Sharon?

Stan, Kyle and Kenny are not even IN this episode, by the way, not really. I think Stan had, like, three lines.

And who are all those victims being carted away, anyway? We never see anyone getting shot. Which is a damn miracle for this show, by the way. Never expected South Park of all shows to go the Gory Discretion Shot route.

Sharon plays Only Sane Man and tries to get everyone to feel something about the shootings, but of course it doesn't work. And she only started her period today. Yay?

And then Sharon admits she does overreact sometimes. You heard that right. This episode ends with the assertion that people are actually overreacting to school shootings. What the hell, episode? What is wrong with you?

And yep, women be hormonal. Ha. Fucking. Ha.

"There's been another school shooting. Stan's been shot." "Should we go down there?" "<sigh> It's not the end of the world" What. What kind of fucked up ending is that? What is this episode even trying to say? It's just a school shooting, just relax already? Don't overreact if your kid gets shot up? I don't get this episode. At all.

Gotta be honest, this episdoe sucks. The B-plot is assinine and not going anywhere, and the main plot is trivializing school shootings and telling liberals (which I assume are the target here) to calm down and get off their period, basically. This season is off to a really sucky start, alright.

Pretty much my view as well. I think they were trying to make a point as to how blasé people have been about school shootings lately by exaggerating it to the point of absurdity, but the period joke really messed it up.

Got a laugh out of Butters with the rifle, though.

It's typical South Park where Randy makes something about himself and everyone but his wife indulges him.

In this case his wife being legitimately scared being about his ego and not "appreciating" him cause she's on her period.

The fact its taken to the absurdity is part of he joke considering the second school shooting not a single bullet hits Randy or anyone else as he sings to Sharon.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Sep 27th 2018 at 1:20:34 AM

3rd, when Randy was singing it was the 3rd school shooting at South Park Elementary.

Actually several of the adults were hit by bullets. You actually see them in the aftermath with wounds.

@Redmass Also you are seriously misunderstanding the message, and intentions if you think this episode was complaining about Liberals being upset about school shootings. The Period thing is showing just how desensitized the other adults are, because they think the only reason this is big deal to Sharon is because of her period.

You completely misunderstood the target and intentions of the episode.

Edited by Envyus on Sep 27th 2018 at 3:40:14 AM

Well, perhaps that is because the episode itself is not very clear about who, exactly, the targets are here.

Idiots who are treating School Shootings as blase, duh.

Who, outside of some people on the internet, treat school shooting as "blasé"?

That, and, well lets think - who the heck still watches South Park? Demographically I mean. And assuming that what you say is the message is how we are supposed to read it, is the demographic actually going to walk away with that message?

Edited by Eldritcho on Sep 27th 2018 at 7:22:08 AM

You would be surprised about how few people even react to it now. As well as the fact that many School Shootings don't get in the news anymore, unless their is a decent body count.

The news media, for one. There are significantly more school shootings happening in the US than they make it seem like; they generally only wind up on the news if the body count is higher than half a dozen. Part of the episode's point is that this shit happens frequently enough that, yeah, you could argue that it is a normal part of life now.

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Sep 27th 2018 at 8:59:26 AM

Yes, that is basically the point they are making. I think they could have addressed that more directly, though. I also don't see how Black Panther has anything to do with all this. I sure hope they'll drop that plot after this week.

I wonder if SP has the guts to go after the NRA and the conspiracy nuts who think all those school shootings are faked by liberals to take away their precious, precious guns...

> SP has the guts to go after the NRA and the conspiracy nuts who think all those school shootings are faked by liberals to take away their precious, precious guns..

That they haven't done so already is surprising

I assume they are writing the episodes as if they are viewed one after another, with the school shooting plot as a red thread, which explains why the first episode feels so unsatisfying so far. I hope they will go after the NRA soon, though I understand that the creators themselves are republicans and firm believers in the second amendment.

They are libertarian republicans technically speaking

Taking on the NRA and the second amendment would probably be their toughest nut to crack since Muhammad-gate.

Edited by Redmess on Sep 28th 2018 at 2:24:36 PM

I think mass shootings are happening often enough (in America) that our society at large is just getting numb to them - which was the point of the episode.

Sharon wasn't the target of ridicule here. She was the Only Sane Woman in a world that's just decided to accept mass shootings as, for lack of a better word, routine. Her saying, "It's not the end of the world" after hearing that Stan was shot wasn't meant to be heartwarming; it was meant to be horrifying. She finally gave in to the madness.

I'm a little annoyed that they didn't show Stan get shot. That would have been a great cliffhanger for the audience, at least. Let's hope they show some more next week.

After watching this episode I feel that if they were trying to lampoon the disinterest people have in school shootings and how they are being normalized, it would have been better if they had dropped the Randy part of that plot. Just have Sharon get increasingly shocked at how normal everyone is treating this and then at the end have all four of the boys and butter be killed in a school shooting and just have both her, Randy and all the other boys parents just treat it non-chantly. Would work for the plot of the episode and if they were going to include serialization this season well there is your running plot thread, the boys are in hell and are now trying to find a way out.

The idea of people acting casually while everything goes to hell reminds me of a foreign animated short about two construction workers talking about life while totally ignoring the angry mob that's dragging the background into hell (it's called Deconstruction Workers or Bygningsarbeidere). It's also pretty horrifying that it was only Sharon who's panicking about the shootings. And does anyone else notice we don't even see the shooter(s)?

Speaking of shooting, holy shit, Stan got shot off-screen? Jesus Christ, he's one of the main characters, they'd have to be nuts to threaten the lives of one of the 4 Boys (aside from Kenny, but they eased on even that for a while now). And hey, the last season left on one hell of a cliffhanger. Are we going to get back on that this season?

And did anyone notice the #cancelsouthpark in the credits? It's starting to get spooky...

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Sep 28th 2018 at 6:04:42 AM

You do remember that Kenny was dead for an entire season or so, right? And they had no intentions of brining him back at first. These guys, they feel like offing a main character, they'll do it. They'll do it with glee.

And yes, I noted that we never see who the shooters are, too.

You have to wonder: is the reason the people of South Park have become increasingly desensitized and idiotic because they were broken by the inherent madness of their world?

More like their own madness drove the world mad.

It had to start somewhere, and whatever started it is the Greater-Scope Villain of South Park itself

Shub-Niggursth lives under South Park.

The town was always mad and it won't stop till every Only Sane Man is mad too.

It's obviously the Aliens again; the Earth is getting too ridiculous, which is hurting the network ratings, so they're going to cancel Earth again, which would in turn Cancel South Park.

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Sep 28th 2018 at 8:24:29 AM