South Park

Tegridy Farms

What an odd name. I'm gonna guess it's supposed to sound like "The greedy farms"? Or gritty farms, maybe.

Another school shooting. This will be the backdrop to the season, I guess. I hope it at least goes somewhere, unlike the likes of the Member Berries (member them?).

Hey, we have a story about Shelley Marsh for once. That doesn't happen a lot.

There is a vaping epidemic in the school, and Randy actually cares about this. I say actually because this season is so big on the parents being apathetic to everything these days. You can't really have it both ways, but oh well.

"Somehow, I'm not laughing anymore." You didn't laugh when your son got shot, Randy. Or anything, really. You didn't really care one way or another. This seems like a punchline without a setup.

So Randy wants to become a farmer, and the Marshes move out of South Park. Haven't we been here before?

"There's just no trust, no 'tegridy." Integrity. That's the title then. Integrity farms.

Randy's farm is every farm you've ever seen in media. Little ranch house? Check. Red barn? Check. Windmill? Check.

And they're growing cannabis. Because of course they are.

I hope the change stays this time, would be an interesting new dynamic.

Meanwhile, the boys discover that Ike has been vaping. And Ike talks in full sentences now, apparently. All the kindergardeners are hooked on vaping. And they're sold by Butters. Who walks around in a trech coat loaded with vape sticks, like he's a louche street vendor.

And then Cartman punches Butters out for Kyle. For some reason. I'm confused why Cartman is standing up for Kyle now. Are these two friends now?

And guess who is the inspector who comes to inspect Randy's weed farm. If you guessed Towelie, you're right! And he's not even high. Oh wait, he is testing the product himself.

Butters and Cartman are in cahoots selling vapes, so that's why Cartman punched him. And Kyle is standing right there where Cartman is arguing with Butters over his business.

Someone from a vaping company comes over to make a deal with Rnady for his weed, but Randy won't have it because he has integrity. Or something. I don't really know what vaping has to do with weed, though.

"You're such penises." What, is dick censored now, or something? What a weird thing to suddenly tone down on.

Cartman stops Kyle from complaining to the principal, and instead convinces Kyle to help him sell vapes to work off his debt. Why Kyle agrees to this obvious trap, I don't know.

Meanwhile, Randy's chummy neighbour, Joe, has sold the farm to the vaping company, and Randy criticizes him for selling out.

Cartman tries to market vaping in the cafetaria, and then the Kool Aid Man... I'm sorry, the Vaping Man bursts through the wall to bring them some. Is this still a thing in America? Do they still run Kool Aid Man commercials? I have no idea.

Randy is happy on his farm, finally "talking" to his son... who tells him he hates him and wants to go home. Randy is off in his own bubble again. Randy gives Stan a hemp hat that plays a song every time it touches Stan's head. Random, but funny.

Kyle tries to pay off Cartman's supplier, but Cartman drags a dead hooker on screen and blames her death on Kyle. So... is that an actual dead body? Did Cartman murder someone? Again?

Cartman kicks the supplier and tells Kyle to grab the vapes and cash and run, threatening him with... Rowan Farrow? No idea what this is referring to.

Stan is found with a vaping pen, and Randy blows his lid. I'm not really sure what this plot is on about. Is vaping such a big threat to weed smokers? I'm not really familiar enough with either culture to know what's going on here.

"We've worked this farm and this land for over four days. I'm not about to let some vape queens take it all away from us." It hasn't even been a week yet? But then, why was he seeding AND harvesting at the same time earlier?

Kyle goes to Mackey, but of course Cartman and Butters are one step ahead of him. Cartman wants Kyle to come rob the vape shop now because... kindergardeners. Little buggers are dangerous, clearly.

Randy goes to the Big Vape company and proceeds to beat up everyone inside.

Kyle and the others are caught red handed stealing vape fluid, but Marsh interrupts the manager. Kyle confesses to Randy, and the manager takes the opportunity to beat up Randy. Randy throws Towelie at him, though, and beats the everliving shit out of the guy. And then he blows up the factory in a very colorful explosion.

So weed farms win, and that's the end of the episode. No going home for the Marshes yet, it appears.

Well, that was a fun episode. The first really good episode of the season. Glad to see Matt and Trey can still do some classic funny South Park, too.

I don't see a #Cancel South Park, either. Maybe the #Cancel The Simpsons gag was the punch line to that campaign?

I think vaping started out as a weed thing, then cigarette companies jumped on it and started marketing it a "healthy"^note (it's just unhealthy in different ways) alternative to regular cigarettes.

Not to my knowledge. That whole joke felt really dated.

He was blaming the dead hooker on the supplier, actually. Trying to get the guy arrested so they could steal his vapes, erasing the debt and earning more money in the process. And yeah, Cartman probably killed the woman or something.

Ronan Farrow. He's the guy who blew the lid on Harvey Weinstein. The joke is a continuation of the last episode's plot - Cartman first mentions Farrow while alluding to "what [Kyle] did last week." The implication I guess is that the media is actively searching for reasons to ruin Kyle's reputation after he defended Mr. Hankey.

I don't either, but I'm pretty sure it's not so much that vaping is a threat to weed smokers as it is that vaping is the "new cool thing" and people who've been smoking for a long time are being hipsters about it.

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Oct 18th 2018 at 2:18:07 AM

Also Randy's issue with it seems to be that he thinks it's wussy compared to actually smoking.

Edited by Envyus on Oct 18th 2018 at 5:27:46 AM

In other news, Colorado has put the slavery ban on the ballot this year, making me wonder if the real world has switched places with South Park...

Where's Chef when you need him?

South Park has reached such a point of dark absurdity that Randy is getting sick of it.

No new episode this week, as the show is apparently on hiatus.

Slavery and indentured servitude are still very much a thing in the American prison system, and are tied up with a lot of nasty political and economic skulduggery with the same, and that's what the ban in Colorado is targeted towards.

How is slavery a thing in the prison system?

Prisoners can be forced to work, both in prisons and for private companies, for no compensation, and have almost no rights normal workers have. It is out and out Chattel Slavery, with the only difference being they can't be bought and sold.

Edited by DingoWalley1 on Oct 25th 2018 at 1:30:20 PM

The Simpsons is going to remove Apu from the show. There will apparently be no proper sendoff of the character.

Coincidence?

That is from a second-hand source, specifically from the guy who actually produced the Apu documentary. That Fix Fic episode idea he proposes also sounds just as problematic. It's like the main issue all along is that Apu is middle-class and doesn't have a massive supporting cast of his own even though it's never been his show.

If true, though, it just falls into the same problem I've noticed whenever people drum up controversy over a "racially insensitive" but otherwise beloved character, the solution for the creative team is usually the one of least resistance. In this case, dropping the character (and it's noted that Apu has had little impact on the show in the last 3 seasons) is easier than trying to "do the character right." It's the same justification for casting Benedict Cumberbatch as Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness, they were worried about the implications of casting a hispanic actor as a villain and so they didn't.

It would be a shame if they did, really. It's not like The Simpsons is overflowing with black characters as it is. Just avoiding the problem by removing that character can't be the solution. If that happens too much, we will effectively end up whitewashing our entertainment, because every minority character can be seen as "problematic" by someone.

Next episode sounds fun, a Halloween episode, so light on politics, I assume.

that was a good episode. and it was a kenny and mr. mackey episode.

The Scoots

We open with narration, and I have no idea who the voice over is. I assume it will be one of the kids.

Mackey trips over a scooter while taking out the trash, and it turns out to be a public use one, called an eScooter. The town is suddenly littered with them. I have no idea what this is referring to, yet.

The boys decide to use these eScooters for trick or treating. Except for Kenny, who is too poor to pay one.

Also, Stan is walking around without a coat, for... reasons.

Mackey is freaking out over scooters appearing out of nowhere, and they seem to flock together behind his back. Is this going to be like Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds?

The boys tell Kenny he can't come trick or treating because he doesn't have a phone and will just slow the group down without a scooter. Meanwhile, Mackey has to dodge more scooters in traffic, and decides to steal all the scooters overnight and dump them off a cliff. Of course, the next morning, they're all back... and one is standing next to his bed.

Meanwhile, at a town hall meeting, the adults discuss the upcoming "crisis" of kids trick or treating on scooters, and needing to stock thousands of dollars in candy. The adults suggest getting rid of the scooters, but Mackey reveals that they can't. So... everyone starts hoarding candy, instead. It's hilarious.

The next day, the kids in school all glare at each other over all having the same idea for trick or treating, except for Kenny, who tells Mackey the scooters need a phone. They come up with a plan to disconnect all the scooters on Halloween. At least, I think. It's hard to tell what Kenny is saying, as usual, and boy does he have a lot of dialogue this episode.

The Stotches go to Randy's farm to hide, or else get candy, but are turned away. Meanwhile, school is out, and the kids all rush out to get the first scooters, by any means neccesary.

And yes, it basically turns into The Birds, with flocks of children harrassing adults, who hand out candy as fast as they can.

Mackey and Kenny drive to the cell tower to shut it down... and then Jason Voorhees shows up. Or it's just an old dude in a costume.

Meanwhile, the situation is getting worse, with New York destroyed by the scooter enhanced trick or treat blight.

Mackey pulls over the cell phone tower... with Kenny still on it, of course, so he dies. I think. It's not really clear in the shot, but he should have.

The scooters stop working, and Mackey gives counseling to all the adults about the aftermath of the crisis.

And Kenny and the boys go trick or treating the old fashioned way. So... did Kenny die, or not? Who knows.

And of course one scooter drives off on its own, but I'm sure that won't go anywhere.

Great Halloween epiosde. Again, South Park is at it's best when it doesn't really has anything to say about the world and just has fun instead.

Kennys at his most understandable this episode. I could tell what hes saying when normally I never could.

escooters are an actual thing and yes people drive them in the road and just leave them whereever

That was a fun episode, felt like classic South Park. And I always like seeing Kenny get some focus.

well this episode was a lot of callbacks.

I know right? Especially in regards to the main plot involving Man Bear Pig. I guess this episode was meant to serve as some kind of apology to Al Gore in regards to mocking his statement regarding climate change a decade ago.

Also like all of the Red Dead jokes and how much people are sucked into that game. Pretty relatable to any gamer who spents a fuckton of hours in open world RP Gs (Skyrim, New Vegas, Breath of the Wild, GTA, Terraria, Hydlide . . . yes I’m one of those few players who actually spent hours in that game, DON’T JUDGE ME).

Still at the end of the episode I wonder what deal have Stan grandpa made that would incur Man Bear Pig’s wrath?

All in all it was good funny episode.

I feel like a lot of people are missing the climate change subtext. ManBearPig and the episode that it debuted in were making fun of Al Gore for warning people about climate change, treating it like him being hysterical over something that's either made-up or not a real issue. Now climate change is an undeniable fact that could potentially pose a threat to humanity in the long run, and they're realizing that maybe they shouldn't have been such pricks about it all those years ago.

Yeah this whole episode was Matt and Trey saying “sorry, it’s real, dealing with it is gonna suck HARD, but we all have a huge, bitter chalky pill to swallow and tons of people to convince.”

If this turns into a two-parter I can totally see the boys using an extended Red Dead Redemption metaphor to convince everyone.

"It's... it's like you're in a gang in the old west. Your whole life you've been doing whatever you want without a care in the world, thinking that nothing can stop you. But... then one of your friends dies, or... or you get tuberculosis, or... maybe you just start to see things differently. And you realize - that bounty on your head is never going away. The law's never going to stop chasing you. Your friends might try to tell you it'll all blow over and you can ride this out, but you know they're wrong. And now you have a choice - you can keep going like you are, not caring about what's coming, and die with everyone else... or you can try to change, and save the people you care about. And even if you fail, then at least you'll die knowing you tried to be better."

Edited by Dirtyblue929 on Nov 8th 2018 at 4:38:53 AM

That not only applies to Climate Change/Manbearpig, but also the school shootings and the corruption of the church.

Like the police manage to be even more callous to the pooint they don't view shootings as a real crime anymore.

Time to get cereal

Well, that title can only mean one thing: Manbearpig returns!

We open on Jimbo and Ned hunting birds. Just, birds. Those two will hunt anything, after all. They find some mysterious giant bear tracks, and it turns out they are hunting on Randy's farm.

And of course, it's Manbearpig. Did he always look this ugly? I don't remember. Manbearpig goes after Ned and mauls him, then takes him with him, still alive.

The police is playing Red Dead Redemption 2. That just cracks me up.

Annnd there's another school shooting. Or is it? The victim is not exactly shot, but rather mauled.

And there's the winner for most gruesome image for THIS season of this show. I highly doubt they are going to top "child gored by bear" anytime soon.

Of course the police chief immediately starts suspecting the other kids, despite this murder being a lot more... Lecter-esque than the routine school shooting.

Nice job of the teachers gathering the students in full sight of the corpse. No wonder all these kids are so messed up.

Stan is traumatized by the sight of Manbearpig, and suspects the mauling also involved the creature. I'm not sure why he didn't recognize Manbearpig, though. Haven't the boys seen it before?

Looks like we have another Halloween worthy episode.

Kenny and Cartman are called to the office, and the police chief is there.

"I asked the kids in the school, who are the biggest loners? Who's most likely to rage and be the next school shooter? You know what they said? The fat ugly mean kid and the detached loner poor kid." Well, can't argue with Cartman snapping and shooting up the school. Also, nice profiling there.

Another Red Dead Redemption 2 reference. I have the feeling that this particular game is very popular at a certain studio.

Meanwhile, Stan and Kyle are looking up conspiracies about the "creature of South Park".

Ah, so they do remember being warned about him. I still thought they'd seen him once before, though. Or was that just Al Gore dressed up as one?

"In the woods? There's a school shooting out in the woods? Outside of school is the one place kids are supposed to be safe." A little on the nose, there.

The boys go look for Al Gore, who everyone seems to have forgotten about. Funny, though I DID see him on some late night show not too long ago. I'm sure it was on climate change, as always.

Al Gore is hiding under the alias Jim Turner for... reasons. He looks like a grizzled hobo. Who bowls. The bowling alley is not named Columbine, though, which would probably be a bit too much. Especially since this is an apology episode.

So apparently South Park were climate sceptics in the past, and are now apologizing to Al Gore about being wrong through Stan. Because, well, of course global warming is real, and it is quickly getting out of hand. I wonder if they will bring up the Paris climate accord, and the US pulling out of it.

"Oh, sucks for you." Harsh, but deserved.

Gore admonishes the boys for not doing anything when there still was time.

"Say you're sorry for making fun of me." South Park isn't pulling any punches on itself for this one, it seems. Cartman apologizes, and it sure sounds sincere enough, but Gore isn't having it.

Meanwhile, some climate sceptic douche is lecturing his family about how climate change is all just a huge conspiracy, while Manbearpig breaks into the restaurant and mauls everyone behind him while he rambles on obliviously.

Manbearpig rips someone's skull and spine from their body, Predator style. Okay... THIS is the most gruesome image of the season, now. That didn't take long at all.

And when Sceptic Douche finally does see it, he goes straight into defeatist mode. I remember reading about that process, there was an article in The Guardian about the five stages of climate denial: deny the problem exists, deny we're the cause, deny it's a problem, deny we can solve it, and it's too late. This guy goes straight from stage 1 to stage 5.

This scene might also be a reference to this article, which describes how the Trump administration has entered stage 5 of climate denial now.

Meanwhile, the boys are throwing Al Gore a special party at Olive Garden as an apology. At Al Gore's suggestion, apparently.

They also give Al Gore a signed picture saying he was right. The only thing that could make this better is if South Park actually sent Al Gore an apology picture.

Al Gore even shows a movie with clips of his greatest moments (mostly from when he was running for president). And then Al tells the boys he won't help them, he just wanted an apology, and he has moved on since. The boys bribe him, though... with Red Dead Redemption 2 hints.

Man, the crime scene of that ice cream parlour looks horrific. Now all the boys are suspects, though, and labeled a gang.

Al Gore takes the boys to his garage. Nice Stick of Destiny reference.

Al Gore claims he invented the internet to track Manbearpig. So how come people lean back like that so often on South Park while on a computer? It looks really awkward to work like that.

Al Gore reveals Manbearpig is not a mutation, but a demon. He plans to hold a ritual to deal with the demon (and Satan, presumably), and tells the boys to go to the supermarket, because things are about to get cereal.

The chief and his wife have a dramatic fight over their life... in Red Dead Redemption. Treating it as Serious Business, of course.

That night, the boys and Al Gore hold a ritual involving a pentagram, candles, a goat, and Al Gore dancing around holding a dead chicken. Not sure the demons will be impressed by that sloppy pentagram, but oh well.

Al Gore makes the boys recite an apology to him for a spell, and the boys are about to call him out, when of course, the pentagram bursts into flames and the goat explodes. Wow.

This is clearly what happens to Matt and Trey when they are denied their gore for too long. They go all out all at once.

So, to recap, apologizing to Al Gore opens a gateway to hell.

... are we SURE South Park is apologizing to Al Gore, here?

Meanwhile, the Chief gripes about having to start his game all over, which I can sort of empathize with, really. Games like Red Dead Redemption, and recently Assassin's Creed Odyssey, have gotten pretty out of hand with just how big they've gotten, map-wise, content-wise, and time-wise. I can imagine how frustrating it would be to start over in such a situation, when your free time is so rare and precious.

Meanwhile, Al Gore summons Satan (and yes, he DOES look like he did way back in his last appearance), and it's great. Al Gore asks Satan about the nature of Manbearpig, and why he was sent to Earth, and Satan refers them to... the local library. I think this counts as a dig against the anti-intellectual, anti-experts crowd. The show is basically saying, you don't need conspiracies and arcane dark magic rituals to gain knowledge, just read a damn book and listen to the experts already.

I mean, the show isn't outright saying so, but I think, what with the digs against climate denialism and anti-intellectualism, the show is going after the current breed of Republicans.

"Ah, you are correct. Your local library is an excellent resource for whatever you wish to learn." See what I mean?

Satan goes with them to the library to search the shelves, and it's great absurdist comedy. Although you have to wonder why Satan doesn't know about his own demons already. Or why a local, probably underfunded public library has a book about them. This is university library stuff, at the least.

Yeah, that's clearly a medieval book, what with the medieval illustrations and illuminations. Such an illuminated manuscript would be WAY out of reach of a local library. And it certainly wouldn't be sitting out there on a random shelf.

Also, that is an Old English text on dragons, I think.

So, Manbearpig is a "sifter(?) of fate", which "thrives on tempting mankind. It will always offer a deal in exchange for mercy, but the carnage will be a thousand times worse when the debt comes due." So, basically, like what Satan does, only worse. And since we are near the end of the episode, I assume a future episode will deal with what that original deal was.

And of course Satan is playing Red Dead Redemption 2, too. The show really wants to advertise it, it seems.

The police arrives to take out the "school shooters", and Al Gore tells the boys that he can't help anymore, and that it is up to them, the new, young generation, to spread the truth, no matter how ridiculous people will think it sounds.

This is still about climate change, right? I think South Park is getting a little lost in it's metaphor, here.

Al Gore mocks the boys for having an impossible task ahead of them, and they quietly go face the music.

Stan makes his impassioned speech to set their differences aside for once to fight Manbearpig (read: climate change), but of course the police doesn't listen and locks them up.

"Billy... What have I done?" It's Stan's grandpa! He made the deal with Manbearpig? Interesting twist.

And that's the episode, with a great cliff hanger.

This was a fun and interesting episode. South Park is getting back on top of its game, here. I'm not sure how flattered the real Al Gore will be with this apology, but what with this being South Park, this is about as sincere an apology as you could wish for from this show.