South Park

So as a follow up on that book this episode shows, I asked around, and it appears to be a depiction of hell's gate on the left, and a monk or saint performing an exorcism on the right. The text appears to be Eastern European, perhaps Polish.

It is most likely a devotional book, like a prayer manuscript, since real magicians would not depict the supernatural world as undesirable (see the exorcism), be it divine or demonic magic. In other words, a real spell book would depict supernatural creatures (both good and evil) aiding mankind in some way.

"Nobody Got Cereal?"

We continue with part 2 of the Man Bear Pig saga.

Man Bear Pig is still slaughtering people, and everyone's still obsessed with Red Dead Redemption 2, now even show8ing some footage in the episode.

The boys are planning to escape, while the adults are holding a conference about climate change Man Bear Pig, and debating when exactly they have enough proof to start worrying.

"Foolish mortals! Your time is nigh! Face your end!" "Um, it looks like Satan is here, should I start to worry?" Wow, the detachment runs deep.

"I can't believe you would get high and play video games while your son is in jail!" Looks like a major confrontation is coming for the Marshes.

Stan prays to God, and Al Gore appears in a heavenly light to answer him. Now they're getting a little heavy handed with the apology.

Stan goes to convince his grandpa and the other old folk over making a deal with MBP. It is basically a straight metaphor for blaming the older generations for climate change.

The boys and Satan are summoned by Al Gore's 'ghost', and meanwhile, the police chief has another hilarious fight with his wife over her "cheating" on him with Red Dead Redemption 2.

Al Gore holds a boring speech on the power of believing, but never offers a plan or solution. Clearly, he has none.

Satan declares no mortal can stop MBP now, and Cartman asks him why Satan can't stop MBP himself, arguing that Satan owes humanity for doing his bidding all this time. It's... weird.

Meanwhile, Stan is berating his grandpa over the deal old people made with MBP without any thought for the future generations, and gets regaled with the story of how Randy was conceived. Graphically.

This is going to make it onto the Wiki, isn't it?

Satan and MBP fight, and the latter rips off one of Satan's horns. And then stabs him with his own horn, and beats the shit out of him.

And then Satan dies, and gives a heartfelt speech to the boys about believing in themselves to stop MBP. And then Satan... rises up to heaven, gets wings and an aereola, and... well, that's it. Yeah, this episode is REALLY weird.

"Dude, this is pretty fucked up right here." You said it, Kyle.

Well, Satan IS an angel, at least, if a fallen one.

And suddenly I start to wonder where Jesus is in all of this. Come to think of it, we haven't seen Jesus in a long time, haven't we? He used to be a regular character, even.

Stan finds the boys at the school, where they are soon surrounded by police, but the Chief shows up and apparently has decided to get cereal and help the boys.

And the final confrontation is... a lawsuit. MBP will only leave if humanity gives up soy sauce and Red Dead Redemption 2. ... Fair enough. Hey, if it only takes ONE good game to make climate change go away... and who cares about soy sauce?

So... they sign a complex deal with MBP, including signing away the lives of all third world children, and he will be back in five years, but a thousand times worse. We'll have to see if this show still exists by then.

And... that was it. A bit underwhelming, really. A bit cynical too, implying that this generation will not solve climate change either and just make the same mistake of ignoring it until it is much worse. What else is there to say?

Edited by Redmess on Nov 16th 2018 at 10:16:46 AM

Satan is Red. He's Dead. And he's reveived Redemption.

Red Dead Redemption.

...

...

Wait. Did... Did Satan just die for our sins? Does that mean Satan is on the same footing as Jesus now?

Holy crap. What have you done, South Park.

I never thought I'd get emotional watching Satan die, but that's South Park for you.

Maybe he'll team-up with Trent Boyett.

I was totally right about the town coming around to believe in ManBearPig after an extended Red Dead metaphor.

With President Garrison, the school shooting and ManBearPig, I am seriously expecting an apocalypse in this universe. There's only so blatant cynicism this world can take before it starts to collapse. Perhaps the ultimate twist to end the series is the utter bedlam when reality, after over twenty years, finally ensues

President Garrison has been very much absent so far, though.

It's South Park, they've already had several apocalyptic events.

Rather brilliant episode, builds perfectly on the previous episode and the satire is spot on. Satan vs. Manbearpig was a clever spoof on the Hulk vs. Abomination is The Incredible Hulk, and also encapsulates the main point. You can't defeat nature by fighting it head on, all you can really do is negotiate with it.

Satan got his Red Dead Redemption

It hasn't been so blatant and visceral as before, though.

Satan and Saddam Hussein were about to conquer Earth in the movie. How much more apocalyptic do you want it?

And that isn't even the ONLY apocalyptic battle on the show.

And did you forget Canada getting nuked?

Its funny how Cthulhu descending didn't start an apocalypse.

Unlike those ones, it doesn't seem like this is going to be an easy fix or return to the status quo. And the way things are going, we may want it to stay apocalypsed

Edited by RJ-19-CLOVIS-93 on Nov 20th 2018 at 1:46:57 AM

South Park has had no functioning change to the status quo beyond adding or removing characters ie removing Chef or adding PC Principal. The show has always been structured in a manner that anything can happen, and even something like the Marsh's move to Tegridy Farms hasn't had a real discernible impact on any given story. Mr. Garrison becoming the In-Universe president is probably the only change that has actually stuck and impacted the characters beyond a Running Gag, and even that seemed to be a fluke.

Garrison staying as president was absolutely a fluke. The intention was clearly to have him dethroned as candidate, and carted back to the school. But then Trump won, and the writers had basically turned Garrison into Trump at that point, so they were stuck with it. This is continuity by way of Reality Writes The Plot.

And anything can happen, including a return to the status quo. There are no rules set in stone for South Park, basically.

Al Gore reacts to a question about Man Bear Pig. He gave kudos for South Park's apology.

This reminds me... Oh my God, ManBearPig killed Satan! You bastard!

Buddha Box

Well, here it is, the episode connecting all the previous main plotlines: school shootings, wifi scooters, Man Bear Pig... and Black Panther, apparently, which Cartman is still obsessing over.

And Cartman has a smartphone addiction. His psychiatrist diagnoses him with anxiety disorder, saying that it is really an excuse to be lazy and lame to people around you. Cartman, of course, thinks this is the perfect disorder for him to abuse.

Meanwhile, PC Principal is still hiding his PC Crybabies in the vice principal's office.

"The babies have to stay hidden because if people know the truth, then you're not PC and I'm not strong." Yep, that's basically the subplot for these two characters. They both are so self absorbed and selfimportant that they will put the wellfare of their children over their own egos. Needless to say, that is neither PC nor "strong".

Cartman, under the guise of "anxiety disorder", now completely lets loose with his antisocial behaviour. And of course, he demands that everyone leave him alone, while at the same time demanding they be as accomodating as possible.

So this is where the Buddha box comes in: a cardboard box with smartphone projector and noise cancelling earphones that allow the wearer to be alone with their phone while completely isolated from the outside world.

Cartman wears the box everywhere, including class, and gets sent to the principal's office for calling the teacher a dumb bitch, where PC actually berates him for misbehaving for once (no doubt for all the wrong reasons).

PC also gets a box, and of course Strong (his wife? I'm not sure) is not happy. Of course, she uses the box anyway... and the PC Crybabies immediately go silent and take off.

The Babies go off and cry at people at a bar making "offensive" remarks, while Cartman continues to be oblivious to all around him.

People start showing up at therapy (guess who the therapist is), and someone gets the bright idea to text the person in the box on their phone.

"I got news for you, Cartman. Everyone has anxiety. Everyone gets nervous. Everyone is afraid of being around people. Everyone has feelings they'd rather stay home alone. And you know what they do? They get over it! And they stop being a piece of shit!" "Everyone has anxiety?" "Yes!" "Oh my god. I know what I have to do, you're right, Kyle. You're right." "What? No. No, what did I just do?"

For some reason, the PC Crybabies get a record deal, crying and playing awfully, of course. This... is a bit of an odd narrative jump. Anyway, this is how their parents find them.

Cartman has gone full Buddha (of course, mixing random bits of Hindu and Indian culture), including shaved head. He tries to raise money with the major to help everyone in South Park with their anxiety.

PC and Strong find their babies, and have a revelation about missing out on their babies' lives because they are constantly on their phone (which presumably is the main message of the episode). In response, PC bans all phones and Buddha Boxes from school... to an audience of parents using both. And so is everyone else in South Park, allowing them to go out with their children in public, in full privacy, as everyone else has disconnected from the outside world.

I don't know how those other topics mentioned at the start are going to tie into this. It's yet another layer on this season, and I have to wonder how they are going to tie it all up in the end. Only two episodes left, so either they will be very busy, or some of these threads will be dropped, I guess.

This was pretty fun. Alas, only two more episodes to go.

Unfulfilled

Stephen Stotch has a new, poverty wage job... at Amazon. The sequence of him working at Amazon is set to Tennessee Ernie Ford's "16 tons", which is a song about the hardships of coal mining. That should tell you enough of what South Park thinks of Amazon. "I owe my soul to the company store", indeed. They play the whole song, too.

Meanwhile, Butters is preparing for a bike race. One of his rivals rides a trike decked out like only an 8 year old could love.

The Tweeks now also work at Amazon, since Amazon drove their coffee shop out of business. Haven't we been here before, though? I recall an episode about a Wall-Mart and something something evil mystical corporation.

Of course, there is a workplace accident right away, where a worker is mangled and consumed by the automated transport and packaging system.

Hey look, it's the ruins of Sodo Sopa. Guess that never got cleaned up. The boys confront Kenny over wanting to join, but then Cartman decides they should enter together so they can win together, like in the old days.

On a side note, is anyone else finding the sound quality to be a bit low? The background music seems a little too loud, and I have trouble understanding what characters are saying at times.

Back to the workers at the (Amazon) bar, and another quip about the backbreaking work for starvation wages at Amazon. The accident from earlier is brushed off by Amazon as a "worker accident", putting the blame on the workers, who are naturally pissed about this. The workers go on strike, much to Stotch's horror.

The worker from the accident shows up in an interview, compressed into an Amazon box, and has some pseudo-marxist dialogue about the working class and the means of production. He also will die if someone opens the box, which seems only a matter of time.

Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos visits the major and OH GOD what is that? His head is huge and veiny and it looks really creepy.

And he's a telepath. Figures with that head. He threatens to revoke the major's Amazon Prime account if she doesn't do something about the strike.

Another song, that makes three so far.

The boys can't get their stuff from Amazon, and wonder where they got their stuff from before Amazon. Which is... the mall. They go there, and the South Park Mall is in ruins. Music's still playing, though.

Interestingly, today is just a few days after the five year aniversary of when we last saw the mall in "Titties and Dragons", according to the South Park Wiki.

Oh, and there are still employees working there, who seem to have turned into ghouls, or something.

Meanwhile, everyone in the strike has been dropped one level from Amazon Prime as punishment. Of course, this is all a strike breaking tactic by Jeff Bezos.

Meanwhile, the Mall Ghouls have trouble providing stuff for the boys because they lack the huge inventory online sellers can provide (hence why they went out of business).

Stotch goes back to work for Amazon... running it all by himself, somehow. At this point, I have to wonder why they don't just automate the entire factory, since it seems to be highly automated already, anyway.

Bezos gets an offer from the boys to have the Mall Ghouls work for Amazon, and hears about the bike parade, which seems to be very important to him.

"The history of this world is the history of class struggle. Alienated from the products of their labour, from their fellow labourers, and from their very essence, the oppressed worker will eventually strike back at those capitalists who control the means of production. We have nothing to lose but our chains. We will unite in revolution." Another paraphrase from Marx... and that's it. It's a cliff hanger for the season finale.

Not sure where this is going, or how all the other themes are connected to it. The scooters, I can see, but school shootings, Black Panther, and Buddha Boxes? I have no idea.

Have Matt and Trey been this openly Marxist before? This episode was VERY anti-capitalist.

Well, this is uncanny... At least Amazon reacted reasonably in this case.

One of the Mr. Hankey episodes had the boys in the sewer. Cartman claims they are like the Goonies and Kyle typically claims that Cartman would be the fat Goonie.

As I recall, the fat kid in The Goonies (I think his name is Chunk) seemed like he was the "Butt Monkey" of the gang. It seemed he was mostly there so the audience could laugh at stuff that happened to him. The South Park kid who best resembles Chunk would probably be whoever is the current "Butt Monkey": Kenny in the classic South Park era, Butters in the early 2000's and Kyle in recent years.

Corey Feldman's Goonies character uses his knowledge of Spanish to troll a family's new maid. That definitely resembles something Cartman would do.

Points for being resonant.

I think that was the best finale of everything they have done since they started continuity heavy seasons. it managed to tie just about everything in the season together