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South Park Season 18 Scoreboard

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I’ve been getting into South Park recently & finding it as fantastic as people make it out to be. & with the show’s 18th season finishing last week, I decided to do a scoreboard on my thoughts.


    For the starter, there’s Go Fund Yourself. The boys quit school & start their own business, coincidently calling it the Washington Redskins. Of course, this causes trouble with the real Redskins &… that’s it. There’s some confusing stuff with Kickstarter, the logos the boys make go a lot overboard & the ending’s symbolism goes pretty brutal.

    The next is Gluten Free Ebola. & this is one of the few problems with this season; the continuity. Now, how they use the continuity is good, but it seems more like the creators saying “HEY, remember this from the last episode? You do? OK! Just wanted to let you know!” which is pretty annoying. However, it’s done well here. The boys go back to school & everyone ridicules them (for good reason). They decide to throw a party to get theirselves liked again, but news about the dangers of gluten causes an epidemic among the adults. The boys finding the right heart for this gluten is sweet & the “gluten can make your dick blow off” is SO South Park. But sadly, after this one, it goes downhill with…

    The Cissy. & here’s where another problem with the season comes in: there’s too much Randy. Now I don’t hate Randy, he’s probably the best father character on the show, but he’s had parts of the plots of these episodes practically EVERY episode! & I get that even though the boys are all equally the main characters, Stan’s the main main character. But Randy’s been overused here. Why? One word: Lorde. Now, in the last episode, having Randy dress as Lorde was funny to show his cheapness (claiming he knows Lorde’s father in the office). But, no! It’s REAL! There’s NEVER been a real-life Lorde; it’s all been a middle-aged man crossdressing living a double life! See the problem? Yeah, it’s FLAT-OUT ripping off one of Disney Channel’s worst shows, Hannah Montana! & by God, WHY is everyone SO stupid with not getting that it’s a guy in drag?! I mean, there’s Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie convincing drag & then there’s Adam Sandler’s Jack & Jill. This is the later. Why does nobody notice THE MUSTACHE?! & why does Randy create this alternate identify? He wanted to use the women’s bathroom. STUPID!
    Cartman’s plot is interesting & funny, but… it goes mean spirited so quickly. He goes “transgender” so he can use the girls’ bathroom. The girls get fed up & the principal actually installs a transgender bathroom in the school, only for Cartman to use. Cartman’s bastardly strategies for this scheme is good, & it’s even BETTER when Wendy switches genders to give Cartman a taste of his own medicine. But here’s where it goes mean-spirited. He screams at Stan calling him a cissy (the term for non-gays) & he starts getting ridiculed for this. Randy hammering in his Lorde life to Stan also pressurizes Stan, making him a mess. Even at the end, he STILL gets sent to the cissy bathroom!

    Handicar became the first episode of the season where I liked EVERYTHING. Timmy starts his own taxi cab-like business called Handicar. Why? To raise money for the special needs kids’ summer camp this year. Not to be greedy like Scrooge McDuck, he’s using it for the best cause he can! How can you not gush in “awe” at this? However, 2 disabled kids are trying to stop Timmy’s business, just so ‘cause they don’t wanna go to camp. They go so far as accompanying rival car companies compete with Timmy, having an homage to Wacky Races. Both Timmy’s big heart & how well the references to Wacky Races is are the best part & that alone are what makes this episode work. But… why do people consider this the worst? It’s better than you think! Only bad thing is the show reminding us that Randy is Lorde (AGAIN!) but at least it’s short.

    But then with the Magic Bush, it goes back to weak territory. Cartman & Butters take Butters’ dad’s drone & take it for an illegal spin, even filming footage of Craig’s mom & her bush. It gets complex & mean-spirited afterwards. The saving grace is the drones; both the way they’re animated & the many different versions they showcase. But what’s bad? Craig’s mom is just so taunted with her bush in this! We feel sorry for her & everyone else making wisecracks & claiming “Oh, no, I never watched the video.” What assholes! & what’s more is we’re supposed to believe that Butters, SWEET ADORABLE BUTTERS, is the bad guy! I mean, Butters did nothing at all! He just stated his dad has a drone & Cartman steals it, calling Butters out that HE’S the one who started it all & we have to hate him! Sure, & Token’s the bad guy in World War Zimmerman! It ends up as a double torture porn.

    Then we get our Canadian episode with
Freemium Isn’t Free. There’s a new Terrence & Phillip mobile game that’s generic & stupid… but is addictive to Stan. It turns out every “Canadough” you spend gets turned to thousands or millions of dollars that goes to Canada for rebuilding. It’s a great get rich quick scheme by the Prince of Canada & it’s a good relatable addiction story that kids can relate to. There’s Satan, Stan’s grandfather, Canadian stereotyping that SP does so great, it’s a lot of fun.

    Now we come to the best of the season: Grounded Vindaloop. Cartman scams Butters to going into a “virtual reality”. In the middle of it, there’s lots of complexity but that’s what so great. It keeps you going “are they really gonna… ?” & they do it! But it’s in a good way! Who else jawdropped at seeing Cartman in a coma with the VR headset on? Who else went “wait, what” with intrigue with each “it’s a virtual reality within a virtual reality”? Who else found Steve’s advice at customer service such a joy to be no help at all? Who else SCREAMED with enjoyment at seeing Butters’ dad FINALLY GET WHAT’S BEEN COMING TO HIM?! The ending? Man oh man is it ever clever! The live kids they got looked SPOT ON! This episode is filled with twists that M. Night Shyamalan WISHES he could do! Overall, fantastic plot (& plot twists), great use of virtual reality, characters are hysterical, a must-watch!

    Unfortunately, the rest of the season doesn’t hold up as high as the last one, as so proven in the next episode,
Cock Magic. The boys hear of this interesting new take with cock fighting, but instead of fighting each other, the roosters play Magic: The Gathering against each other. The boys buy their own rooster & join the ranks, also while Randy does his own cock magic. This is the only part of SP this season that I liked about Randy. His idea of cock magic is just hysterical; a WAY better side hobby than being Lorde. & the transition moves to well; from home hobby to kids’ parties to Vegas style! The boys competing in the card games is also just as fun.

    Finally we get the 2-parter finale: #REHASH & #HAPPYHOLOGRAMS. Both try to be big and epic but… it just doesn’t work. There’s more Randy as Lorde (people STILL DON’T SEE?!) humiliating “herself” at this big concert. He does the whole “I can’t live this double life” cliché, but IT’S NEVER RESOLVED! Even him revealing it to Shelly is so shallow! All the continuity from the past 8 episodes are jackhammered into these 2. There’s this stupid thing about living holograms making their own holiday special that’s supposed to brainwash people? They even bring Michael Jackson back and they DON’T have him go after Ike?! They set it up like that yet… it goes nowhere! Cartman starts his own blog thing, just being a dick giving commentary on EVERYTHING. It starts out funny (especially his video corner appearing in real time), but it soon got irritating. Speaking of social network, all the out of nowhere hashtags that keep popping up? What the hell? And the biggest annoyance is it also jackhammers Christmas. Only Kyle’s thing is the saving grace, trying to get Ike to stop watching Let’s Plays of video games & just do the real thing (& how living rooms are dying because of this). Ike & his preschool friends even call Kyle & Stan grandpas because of it. But even then, they wreck it! It’s revealed “Lorde”’s music consultant is the evil mastermind behind it all! & right when it seems almost sympathetic , Stan & Kyle call HIM a grandpa… FOR TRYING TO DO THE SAME THING THAT THEY WERE DOING!!! Backhand writing at its best, folks! But at least Pewdiepie’s cameo was also fun, since they DID get the real guy.


That’s all I gotta say about this South Park’s 18th. What did YOU think? Was it the same as mine or different? Say in the comments.

South Park © Trey parker & Matt Stone

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ndunsmo's avatar
I agree with you on the Lorde subplot in The Cissy.  The episode on the whole was fine, but did they really need to turn what should have been a joke into a major plot point?  That just seemed pointless to me.