South Park

You think after all that time it's still in canon/the writer's remember it?

Well, it could work as a metaphor for the creators.

There's the #Cancel South Park campaign, launched by the creators themselves. There is also the topic of this season, which seems to be going in the direction of taking on the NRA and gun rights, perhaps the most contentious and dangerous topic in America South Park could be taking on.

I think Matt and Trey are getting sick of South Park. Apparently they can't just stop themselves, so they could be considering pulling a suicidal move by stirring up so much controversy that they HAVE to be pulled off air.

Of course, that will be quite a challenge for a show that THRIVES on controversy, and has broken ALL the rules so far, bar one.

What's the one, dare I ask?

The one about showing Mohammed's face. They eventually backed off when the network got cold feet, and some dinky New York wannabe terrorist group threatened to kill them all.

That wasn't them backing off. "200" and "201" was a complete episode they wanted to air and the network decided at the last minute to censor their depiction of Mohammed and the entire end monologue. They were very verbal in their disappointment, with both episodes scrubbed from their catalog. The audio of the monologue had surfaced, but that's it.

It's hard to decipher exactly what they are going for, but I doubt they are legitimately trying to get the show canceled. They have full creative control and own South Park directly, the show is both a Comedy Central institution and so cheap to produce that it will only end when they decide they are done.

The last time everyone thought they were done was "You're Getting Old" and Matt and Trey took great joy and disproving that in the following episode.

Edited by Beatman1 on Sep 29th 2018 at 6:57:50 AM

I don't know, they seem to happily confirm it on their Twitter feed. It could be a ploy to renew interest in the show, I suppose.

I do remember reading last year that they felt the cultural and political climate in America was changing, and maybe there would no longer be a place for them. But you never know with these guys.

Remember when Mr Garrison used a nuke on Canada. I am seriously expecting World War 3 to break out, the world to come to an end like in Bigger, Longer and Uncut and the South Park boys are going to scramble for the Reset Button, time travel or something to undo this madness.

Hell, that may even be the series finale where the sheer lunacy of the world of South Park becomes so much it's finally collapsing on itself and its up to the main characters to undo it in a way that resets the world, making it...well, normal, at least relatively speaking

Nuking Canada makes Trump, Bush, Harding, Buchanan and Andrew Johnson combined look good. There not being consequences in-universe would break even South Park's suspension of disbelief

Edited by RJ-19-CLOVIS-93 on Oct 2nd 2018 at 11:25:22 PM

Oh yeah, he did. I wonder what they'll do with that.

Come to think of it, that kinda feels like a metaphor for what the creators are worried about: that their show's satire will have some serious real life consequences someday. And with someone like Trump as president, anything seems possible.

Edited by Redmess on Oct 2nd 2018 at 10:41:50 AM

> that their show's satire will have some serious real life consequences someday.

Are they fucking slow?

For years they pushed the both sides are the same crap,YEARS

I find it hard to disagree. Wasn't the whole moral of Douche and Turd something along the lines of, "Both sides are terrible so voting is pointless"?

Pretty much

Yeah, South Park has a pretty bad case of "both-siderism" after that Douche and Turd episode declared that both sides were awful. This show has gotten more and more cynical over the years, and I feel they don't really see a positive out anymore these days.

It's kind of a hell of their own making, too. Spend enough time bashing everyone and everything, exaggerating how awful it all is, and after a while you start believing your own hyperbole.

So this weeks episode had approximately nothing to do with last weeks, with the only tie being Stan having his arm in a cast.

This weeks subject being pedophile priest jokes

I think a big thing this season is them making a point of south park citizens being desensitized to awful things now. like hey its a school shooting it happens every day, or hey a priest is fucking a kid better make jokes. and south park is part of the reason why people are so desensitized to things like that in todays world. its not the only one, but it is part of it, and I think that's the point of the season.

I really want the season to end with the kids giving a gay little speech though

Yes, that's a big irony about this show: we are so used to South Park, Family Guy and the like that nothing really shocks us anymore.

A Boy And A Priest

Is it me, or are these titles a little more on the nose this season?

So Stan was shot off-screen last episode, and we don't even get to see the aftermath of it. We just skip to Stan with his arm in a cast. Okay. We're not doing anything with that, then.

"Church is about community, coming together. A lot of things." "All I know is that after church I just feel better." "Yeah, me too." And the topic for today is...

Hey look, it is Father Maxi. Remember him?

"He did so because we could not control our temptations." "Kind of like a priest in a room full of naked boys." I'm pretty sure this is the kind of jab that gets you banned from church.

So the topic of today is Catholics molesting children. We've been here before, way back in 2002's "Red Hot Catholic Love". And that episode had priests casually walking around with naked boys on leashes. How do you even top that? Portray actual sex?

...

They're gonna show actual sex, aren't they?

This episode is on a roll with Catholic priest jokes. You have to wonder why these people even still go to church.

"I really don't understand the point of all that." Yeah, what he said!

Butters coems back to church and has a heart to heart talk with Father Maxi about being bullied.

"I thought I'd be a punching bag my whole life, but now, I'm one of the popular kids." You are? Since when? When did Butters become one of the popular kids?

Apparently it is just so that Butters can invite Maxi to a board game with the other boys, so hilarity can ensue.

"Did you know Father is a really good singer?" Wait. Are you telling me that that is his first name? That's... weird. Okay.

Of course Randy spots Maxi and wants to make a picture. I think this scene went by rather quickly, they could have gotten a bit more humor out of it.

"Why did you invite Butters to game night." "I didn't invite him." Oh, so Butters has deluded himself and invited himself over. That makes more sense.

So people just go to church now to rip on the church. That's just South Park, though. In real life, people just stop going altogether.

The church is closed, and Butters tells the people to go find something better to do.

Butters and Maxi hang out, and it doesn't take long for it to get weird and uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, the town calls the diocese about their priest gone missing. I'm not sure what this is commenting on. Priests generally don't actually kidnap children. They abuse them in the church when no one's around. They generally don't go "missing".

"There's no need to involve the authorities, just sit tight... Send in the cleanup crew, NOW." The cleanup crew? So the church is like the FBI now? Are they sending in the Church SWAT?

"By the time we're done with that town, there won't be a lick of cum anywhere." Oh, it's just a normal clean up crew, with the joke being that they clean up cum? Bit of a shame. I was hoping for a Catholic death squad or something.

A Roller Rink? In 2018? Do these things really still exist? According to Wikipedia, these places are having a bit of a resurgence this century, so apparently, yes, it does.

Maxi's constant preaching is getting a bit obnoxious, by the way. It is like he is in permanent preaching mode.

Wait, they're skating on those 2 by 2 things? Those were already lame when I was a kid, and that was 20 years ago.

Randy is moping about the meaning of life since the church has been closed, apparently. It feels kind of weird that all these characters are SUDDENLY so very religious that they can't even bear missing one Sunday church.

"The church is back open! Oh boy!" Yeah, not even REAL Christians are THIS zealous.

The cleanup crew is basically an excuse to make a lot of references to sex, cum, and blood. Uh... funny? Ha ha? I mean, a bunch of priests trying to scrub away imaginary sex crime evidence is not all that funny. ... Okay, maybe it is if you put it THAT way, but still.

"Your local priest was never here, actually." "Yeah, he was, I played with him." "Oh, he did? Better get the combi." It's this weird leaf blower with a plumeau on the end, or something. And they clean Stan's face with it.

Kyle tells Butters no one wants Maxi around, and Butters angrily leaves. Of course, Maxi overhears, and leaves too.

The priest van with the "saving Christ" music playing made me laugh.

Oh, look, they DO remember "Red Hot Catholic Love". Interesting twist.

That just draws more attention to the fact that we've been here before, though. Which is perhaps the point of this episode. This all happened before. We already HAD an episode like this. An episode that was a lot more daring than this one so far, I might add.

I mean, that episode had naked kids on leashes, and Cartman shitting out of his mouth after putting food in his butt. And then Randy tries it. And then all the adults try it. It was hilarious. It had the line "Having sex with boys is the Catholic priest's way of life."

It had Cartman bathing himself in the twenty dollars he won from Kyle. Very suggestively bathe in it, in fact.

It had someone shoving an entire turkey up their ass. With the eventual message being that atheists crap out of their mouths.

I rewatched that episode, and I noticed those scenes with boys on leashes have been edited out now. Apparently that was too far. But I know what I saw back then, and the internet remembers.

"I thought there was a cancer in the Church that we could get rid of, but the Church IS the cancer." That was NOT the message of that episode. The message of that episode was that the Church should not get caught up in rules and traditions, but get with the times already. It also had the message that people losing their religion causes them to spew a lot of areligious crap. It was empathically a message DEFENDING the Catholic church, DESPITE the sexual abuse scandals.

"It's not about a few bad apples, there's only a few good apples, and I'm clearly not one of them." But you WERE one of the good apples back then. That was the whole point of that episode. Maxi was the one good priest going up against the corrupt Church. Where does this all come from? It sounds a bit revisionist to me.

And then the cleanup crew shows up and does the stereotypical child abductor routine. And then they put Stan, Butters and Clyde in the woods on a camping trip to lure the priest out. In their underpants. And tied up. Though the rope is just wound around their bodies with their arms and legs free, so I don't see how this counts as "tying them up".

And they have a Zamboni to clean everything up. Called a cumboni. Now I get that stupid name.

"I know where to go. And when we get there, I need to go in alone." Why?

So the priests' solution is... to give Maxi a transfer to the Maldives. Really? Is that all? A bit of a let down.

"I can just go? I can start over in the Maldives?" Why are you even tempted by this? You're innocent, Maxi. This doesn't make sense.

And then Maxi takes the cumboni and murders the cleanup crew. Wow. That is... dark all of a sudden.

Okay, so Maxi finds new purpose in life, but... how does this solve his problem of the town making fun of him?

Maxi has a sermon about penance, but for what? What is he penitent for?

And now he just doesn't acknowledge the comments from the congregation. He's basically given up... while finding new purpose in his sermons? This is a weird ending.

We've been here before, and the message was a lot clearer and a lot less cynical back then. Which seems to be the trend this season: more cynicism with a less clear message.

Okay, just to address this bit: Maxi was one of the bad apples back then as well. Yes, he went up against the Catholic Church and tried to change things, but he failed to actually do so and still kept silent. All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing, and Maxi did nothing. That's what he's feeling guilty about this episode.

Yes, that became clearer to me afterwards.

Maxi doesn't consider himself a good apple and what he thinks he needs penance for is for keeping quite about the spider queen stuff. He thought he could change the church but it hasn't changed so him keeping quite was pointless. And then the church just decides to move him when he is accused of molesting kids like the church in real life does

I still don't get why the Stan and friends bother staying with Eric Cartman when they know he cannibalized a guy's parents and made him eat them. Or commanding Cthulhu to commit genocide. He should've been institutionalized in any sane world, and everyone who saw this happen avoid him forever even in this insane world

Because then we wouldn't have a show. That's the Doylist explanation. Cartman is just too good a character to let go.

From a Watsonian perspective, the world of South Park is so dysfunctional, Cartman getting away with murder is not very surprising. The adults are morons, and the kids are either too apathic or too scared to care.

Also, Cartman does not strike me as the sort of person who would LET you leave.

South Park isnt a sane world. Its a world where the Outer Gods exist and Spider Queens run the Church from the shadows.

Edited by OmegaRadiance on Oct 5th 2018 at 4:58:09 AM

Hey, you forgot about GALGAMEK! Everyone always forgets about GALGAMEK!

The problem with a poo

Is this a reference to the Simpsons documentary "The problem with Apu?" That's... kinda racist. Stop making unneccesary racist puns, South Park!

Oh look, another school shooting. So this IS a running theme, after all. With the difference that people are actually screaming now.

There's a town hall meeting to cut the budget for the Christmas pageant, which is the topic for this episode, I guess.

And the director of the holiday show is... Mr Hankey. Of course he is. Sigh.

I've never been much of of a fan of Mr Hankey. I think he's a piece of shit.

He also doesn't leave poop tracks anymore, apparently. If you're going to do THIS character, at least do it right.

So Hankey is a bit of an asshole now, telling the kids off for being his fallback after the budget cut.

The sub-plot revolves around PC Principal and Strong Woman not-having-a-relationship, because, well, they're pretty much in their own way at this point, getting stuck on self-imposed workplace etiquette to avoid workplace dating. Which happens all the time and is perfectly normal, in case you were in doubt. At least, I sure hope it still is.

Oh, and Strong Woman is pregnant. Presumably from PC, but we don't know yet, I guess.

Hankey tweets something offensive about the students, and Kyle goes to confront him about it. So... is this referring to someone in particular? I still have high hopes for Elon Musk, since he seems to fit so far.

Strong Woman claims that the pregnancy is in vitro fertilization, but I don't buy that for a minute from this show. That would be way too convenient.

And then she goes into labor on stage and has her water break. More gross out humor, I guess.

Hankey tweets something offensive again, and he is fired from the council. Yep, still sounds like Musk to me.

I'm confused about the timeline, here. In four scenes, we go from Hankey tweeting about the kids, to Strong going into labor, to Hankey tweeting again, apparently months later, to Strong still being in labor.

And of course, she is driving herself to the hospital. I don't know if this is South Park making fun of strong women wanting to do everything themselves, or what, but that's what it looks like.

Yeah, it totally IS PC's child.

So the running gag is that Hankey takes ambien and then tweets offensive shit. Apparently this is a critique of the company, Ambien.

No lawyer wants to take Hankey on, so he asks Kyle instead.

Strong Woman has quintuplets. That's... impressive. And they all wear sunglasses, just like PC.

But of course, PC isn't acknowledged as the father, since they BOTH insisted that the relationship never was supposed to happen, and that there is no way he is the father. Apparently. We never see them DISCUSS this with each other, so we just have to infer a bit.

Kyle tries to recruit the boys as character witnesses in a hearing for Hankey. That sounds more like Kavanaugh, if only because that's been in the news recently.

PC and Strong have an argument over the babies, and man, is this not remotely funny. Or all that interesting, honestly.

Yes, this is totally the Kavanaugh hearings. And it's, again, not all THAT funny. It's pretty much a riff on the hearings, and that's about it.

Strong is shopping with the babies, and this is at least getting funnier.

Meanwhile, Hankey is holding a Christmas special. In october. Man, that shit sure is off his rocker.

Of course, the PC babies are there and crying at everything that is even remotely offensive. Like, really remotely.

"Sometimes PC babies don't even know what they're crying about."

And then Kyle and Hankey have a fight. And Hankey has a chance, for some reason. It looks silly.

So now Kyle is ostracised by the whole town. I guess he is a standin for... republicans?

Strong and PC lock the babies in the office so no one will notice their resemblence to PC, and they still stubbornly refuse to get over themselves and deal with this shit already.

"Today South Park says goodbye to Mr Hankey. The long-time union of this town and the holiday figure is over for good. We should all feel pretty great about ourselves, give ourselves a nice little pat on the back, as we as a society continue to try and sweep away all the poop." Is... is this about South Park? Are the creators saying they feel pressured to change the show by today's society? Is this the whole #Cancel South Park thing again?

I would say South Park should get over itself and start making fun episodes again, instead of boring crap like this. The show has gotten so stuck in social commentary the past few years, it sometimes forgets to just be plain fun and silly.

I mean, if I want social commentary on American politics, I'll watch Steven Colbert and Trevor Noah. These guys have better jokes about those subjects, too. I watch South Park for fun, not for their ceaseless author tracts.

Am I supposed to feel sorry for Hankey? This episode has done it's best to turn him into an asshole for the express purpose of giving the town an excuse to kick him out, and now it expects us to feel sad? This ending is emotionally confused.

"Where will he go?" "He'll have to find a place that accepts racist, awful beings like him. There are still places out there who don't care about bigotry and hate." Annnd it's Springfield. As in, the Simpsons' Springfield. This whole episode has been set up as a take that against The Simpsons. Um... yay? Good for you, Matt and Trey? Was THIS really the best you could come up with?

This, from the show who brutally killed of it's longtime only black character, Chef, when his voice actor quit? And then introduced a new black character and called him Token, because he was the Token Black Character? The show that had an incredibly racist Chinese restaurant owner?

Get your head out of your own ass, South Park. You're not better than these other shows.

1. cancelthesimpsons. What a crappy gag.

Well, this episode wasn't very fun OR insightful. It was just a rather tortured setup for a Take That! against another show. Let's hope next episode will be more fun.