South Park

This is not forever, but temporarily I want to see where things go.

One of the interesting things the episode notices is that Jesus is still is in the school, and P.C. Principle is still Power Christian Principle. The absolute worst part about living during all this is there IS no break from it. South Park deciding to make this hell "The New Normal" says (correctly) there is no escaping this, this toxicity is everywhere. And when it comes to Clyde and Mr. Mackey, it's in places you don't expect.

The Kristi Noem thing is a very good slam. Not the Botox stuff. That's tired. But the fact that Kristi Noem shot a puppy in the head, and is the public face of ICE anyways is beyond fucked up. It is very true that a whole bunch of people in power have done equally fucked up things and gotten away with them all. But having her repeatedly shoot puppies in the episode is legit upsetting. And the fact that she did it SHOULD upset people. And for some reason, it doesn't. Society just decided it doesn't matter for some reason. And this episode shows how insane and evil some of the things we have forced ourselves to normalize actually are. The episode's brilliance is forcing us to understand the ugly reality of that and why it's unforgivable.

You know, the Botox jokes DID land with a thud, and gave Noem herself some soundbites to play the victim over, but the truth is the horrific scenes of her killing puppies is the truly pointed slam at her. It's one she can't argue against either which is another reason it's effective.

ICE raiding Heaven is like Trey and Matt going all in on joining forces with the liberal douches while Trump is where he is. The fact that they take such a negative view of these kinds of toxic dudebro podcasters and Charlie Kirk says this show's fans might actually be forced to second guess the shit that has been spewed everywhere else.

I think the rule is, when America tried to be nice in general, South Park roasted it with meanness. Now that America is SO fucking cruel, they are roasting it with kindness.

Unless this level of hatred lasts forever, I don't expect the show's Wokeness to. But I'm here for it while it is. It's kind of shocking to see this specific messaging come from South Park. They are probably confusing the hell out of a shit-ton of their fans. I'm here for that too. 4 1/2 stars.

Poor Towelie. That was a horrifying ending. I feel bad for Satan too.

The show is not letting up on Trump. This is sort of new for them and politics.

I liked Sharon's solution of how to get Randy back. I also liked how she tested her bad idea on the Chatbot just to understand it was full of crap.

This is gonna piss some people off. 4 stars.

I have been away for 20 years. I may be wrong. The show has always been dark. It has always been cynical. But the level of despair I feel from it currently is not anything I remembered from back in the day. South Park was very famous for never giving a shit. Suddenly, they give several shits. And it fills me with sadness and dread.

That thing with Satan. Holy God. What a shitshow.

And the media and Fox News, it's just all too much.

And the Labubus thing started out as a great shot about how stupid tariffs are and quickly pivoted into the true moral about how Trump inserts himself into and ruins everything.

Jesus' role feels very apt and Trey and Matt understanding the messaging. Jesus is given a position of authority in South Park because of the new climate. And because of the climate, nobody actually gives a shit about what Jesus has to say. They treat his messages with disdain bordering on contempt. It's not just a canny allegory of how thankless a role of school counselor is. It is also an astute observation that people can talk up Jesus all they want. When it comes down to it, they treat him and his messages like utter shit. Maybe this isn't actually new, but Jesus is getting an up-close and personal look at this hurts.

I'll tell you though, I didn't need to see the City Wok guy again.

Something about South Park seems clearly broken. And despite Jesus having hope at the end, I don't. It's an effective episode but I can't rightly say I enjoyed it. 3 1/2 stars.

I loved it. For real. I don't recall South Park ever being this good. Brendon Carr flying around the room spewing shit like Roger Rabbit notwithstanding, that was a seriously fine piece of television.

Both Kyle and the episode take the firm stance that nothing about the situation in Gaza is funny. And the show somehow makes it funny! It was beyond genius to make Sheila against the genocide in Gaza. Goddam it's about fucking time that woman was portrayed with both intelligence and nuance. It was an amazing thing for me.

Vance, oh, my God. I recall when they first did Vance, real-life Vance chuckled and quipped he finally made it. But this is not Dana Carvey good-natured ribbing. This is seriously disturbing shit.

Trump trying to induce an abortion in Satan via cartoonish means raises two questions for me:

1. How many abortions has Donald Trump personally paid for?

2. Where are the Epstein files?

The second question is just always there on general principle.

I am shocked at how good the show currently is. It's certainly NEVER been that before. The two and three week lag time between new episodes is really paying off in the quality. 5 stars.

I am not down with that ending. I get the point, I just don’t like it. There should be no Universe where PC Principle and Peter Fucking Thiel win Jesus over to their side.

The tweezers and the reasons Satan has previously been unable to bear children are something I very much hope Donald Trump sees.

Hey, real-world J.D. Vance, this is you “finally making it”. How does it feel? This is JUST like Dana Carvery and George HW Bush, Am I Right? You are SO in on the joke and NOT actually a total fucking stooge.

There is so much despair and hopelessness running throughout this show now. As far as satire goes, it hits its marks and doesn’t pull its punches. When it comes to making me laugh, I see Towelie covered in spooj and I just want to cry instead. 2 1/2 stars.

I understand some people think South Park sucks now but I don’t see it that way. The end of the kids saying things are bad now but they’ll eventually back to normal feels both hopeful and false. I would very much like to go back to South Park pissing me off and me ignoring it. That’s normalcy. I don’t feel right being on the same side as the show and I look forward to it being my political nemesis again someday. It just feels like that might take forever.

How was the episode itself? Aside of the funny bit of Pam Bondi always having shit on her nose it wasn’t bad or good. It was sort of there. I don’t mind the political stuff but the episode isn’t really saying anything new there either.

I do want to offer this opinion for people who hated the episode. Trey Park and Matt Stone have reluctantly insisted on a two week break between episodes because this season is so hard and takes so much effort. Let me ask you this: Did it feel like THIS specific episode was the writers trying and working hard to make the best show possible? That’s a no, Matt. And even if I didn’t hate the episode (and I didn’t) that’s the real problem. 2 1/2 stars.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

It's the despair that's killing me. Not just on this show. In real life.

That was nasty. And I hated every minute of it. But I am still going to pay the show a compliment. Take note this specific compliment is not something I have EVER handed another political cartoon. EVER. The episode may suck ass but this show does the impossible.

The biggest problem with political cartoons in the Trump era is that pretty much the only effective way to do them is to simply relay reality verbatim. And that's not actually funny, so political cartoons aren't funny anymore. And even worse , if you DO attempt a fictional allegory using Trump, whatever outlandish scenario you cook for "exaggerated" cartoon Trump to react to in the cartoon, the reality is real-life Trump will always behave a hundred times worse than your worst case scenario. Worse than you can possibly fathom or imagine.

Hand it to this show. They actually created a fictional version of Donald Trump worse than the real article. Not infinitely worse or anything (I'm not crazy enough to give them THAT) but the Trump on this show is more evil and grosser than the Trump in real-life. A political satire first. I would not have believed it possible before tonight.

Of course, that shit essentially makes the episode fucking unwatchable and shitty on every level. And I'm thinking that's probably a big reason nobody else ever tried to do that before. Gilda And Meek's Trump stand-in Vic Puff is a similar narrative failing on my part because despite the fact that I made the character a child molester, a rapist, a terrorist, and a serial killer, when you put him next to Trump, it's noticeable how much worse Trump behaves. And I guess the reality is I don't take it further than I do because that would turn my work into actual depravity, which is not what I want to bring into the world. I will own my allegory failing there. But the reason I never bother to put in the effort to fix it is because it would make my comic suck and unreadable.

Much like this absolutely shitty and appalling episode. 0.