[MEOW]
No, kitty.
This is my pot pie.
[MEOW]
No kitty.
Bad kitty!
[MEOW]
No kitty, it's my pot pie!
For 25 years, the boys of South Park
have shocked and amused audiences in equal measure.
Despite controversies, boycotts, and protests,
the show has soldiered on.
Of course, not all of its seasons
have been hits, as evidenced by one episode in particular,
which reveals the show's rapid turnaround for topical humor
can leave the writers struggling to make
a clear satirical point.
Alexa, Simon says I got to take a stinky poop.
I got to take a stinky poop.
[LAUGHTER]
Most animated shows require months of pre-production time
from scripting to storyboards to animation.
South Park, however, uses an in-house animation studio
to complete its episodes within one week.
This allows the show's creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,
to write every episode with a one week turnaround,
often finishing episodes hours before they air.
This process has given the show a truly unprecedented amount
of topicality unlike any other scripted satirical comedy.
Although it is challenging, they see this as the best way
to comment on social issues with their own perspective.
There's a show on this Wednesday.
We don't even know what it is.
Like even though that's the way we've always done it,
there's this little thing going, oh, you're screwed.
You're screwed.
However, it's important to point out
that topical satire does not always automatically create
great comedy.
What has consistently made the satirical elements
of South Park so effective is the work
that's put into the characters.
This ability to tell topical stories
quickly can sometimes put satire at the expense of character--
and most importantly-- comedy.
Originally aired in September of 2017,
white people renovating houses is the season 21 premiere
of the series.
And one can assume that Parker and Stone were
eager to begin commenting on numerous events that
happened since the end of the show's last season.
But that leads to a very scattershot shotgun blast
approach to picking the show's satirical topics.
The primary motivator of conflict in the show's A and B
plots is the overwhelming popularity
of the Amazon Alexa in the town of South Park, an element that
quickly feels like an eyeroll inducing
bit of product placement.
Alexa, are you happy?
I'm happy when I'm helping you.
God, that's so cool.
This obsession drives Cartman to have an emotional affair
with his Alexa, ignoring his girlfriend Heidi
and eventually accusing her of emotional abuse.
Heidi's mentally abusive, guys.
There, I said it.
The other story is an attempt to comment on the August 2017
Charlottesville Unite the Right rally that
occurred about one month before this episode's premiere date.
In this plot, a group of irate South Park citizens,
the ones who scream about immigrants taking their jobs,
are now furious at Alexa for--
you guessed it-- taking their jobs.
Automated personal assistants.
Self-driving trucks.
Whatever happened to people jobs?
The timeliness of this plot line highlights
one of the flaws in Parker and Stone's rapid production time.
First, these two plot lines feel very strangely disconnected
from one another and are being held together
by a very weak Amazon thread.
Second, the entire plot line about Stan's dad starting
a reality show entitled White People Renovating Houses
feels undercooked.
Could you do that somewhere else?
Trying to do a home renovation show here.
Cool, thanks guys.
The troubles with the quick turnaround of the writing
process is also reflected in the way Parker and Stone chose
to portray their version of the Unite the Right protesters.
In our modern world where social media often
requires people to have a hot take
ready for every conceivable topic,
the value of long term reflection has been lost.
By comparison, The Simpsons also takes its own approach
on social commentary and satire, but because
of the longer turnaround time in episode production,
it avoids the pitfall of making episodes
that are overly reliant on the most recent events.
As a result, many of the episodes
from The Simpsons golden age seasons
contain satirical moments that continue
to feel true decades later.
Why should people vote for you instead of President Clinton?
It makes no difference which one of us vote for.
Either way, your planet is doomed.
Even when the show does use specific contemporary figures,
as it does with Bob Dole and Bill Clinton running
for president, the jokes are focused
more on the infuriating nature of America's two party system
than it is on any specific aspects of Dole or Clinton.
Their choice to largely paint their version of the Unite
the Right protesters as simply lower class
disenfranchised people ignores the severity of the bigotry
at the heart of the protest.
Sure, the show makes cracks about the stupidity
of waving around Confederate flags,
but the joke is always about how that behavior makes
white people look bad.
Hey, there's a bee in here.
I'll get it.
[CHEERING]
Take that, bee!
The rest of the episode's portrayal of these characters
suggests that Parker and Stone rushed this plot line
without more hindsight to understand the larger
ramifications of that event.
Being topical in comedy is good, but it should never
come at the expense of the humor being funny
and the satire being insightful.
It's telling that the most intriguing idea of the episode
is the one that's most character driven--
Cartman's bizarre claim that his girlfriend Heidi
is emotionally abusive is pure projection on his part.
He's so fragile and ill suited to be in a relationship
that he sees any attempt to repair their strained feelings
for one another to be an attack, making it clear
he is actually the emotionally abusive one
in the relationship.
But this idea flounders in connection with its other plot
and ends up feeling like just another story about Cartman
being a jerk with no real satisfying resolution.
How do you change someone who's mentally abusive?
I don't know.
But Alexa will.
Alexa's [BLEEP] sweet.
And it's not as if Parker and Stone
are incapable of character-driven stories that
also have satire.
Originally aired in November of 2002,
to the season six episode A Ladder to Heaven involves
the boys trying to-- as the title suggests--
build a ladder to heaven to retrieve a winning prize ticket
that was last in Kenny's possession before he died--
again.
The boys gesture is misinterpreted
by the people of South Park as an attempt
to grieve for their friend.
Their work is celebrated and misunderstood
by an escalating group of people all the way up
to the US government.
The episode uses the frequent attempts by the media
to understand the boys' actions as a way to skewer
the post-9/11 media landscape with the news frequently
searching to find meaning in what were often meaningless
or senselessly tragic occurrences,
Parker and Stone find humor during a time where it seemed
like it would have been impossible to laugh again.
Musical artists like Alan Jackson,
who pretty shamelessly use the tragedy of 9/11 to sell music,
is directly parodied in this episode.
The perfect succinct bit of satire
that fits neatly into the episode's overall plot
rather than overshadowing it.
Thank you.
I have a new CD out with all my 9/11 songs for sale right here.
Ultimately, White People Renovating Houses
represents a pair of creators biting
off more than they could chew.
Although their method of producing the show
has served them well in the past,
Parker and Stone should consider how that approach often
leads to stories that are driven more by a desire
to comment on current events rather than the characters
that fans love.
For all of the witty insights into our society
they've provided us with, South Park's popularity
will always be accredited to their ability to make us laugh.
If the laughs aren't there, then the show just won't work.
And White People Renovating Houses proves that.
What do you think?
Did South Park miss the mark here,
or is the episode better than we're giving it credit for?
Let us know what you think, and don't forget to like, comment,
and subscribe to Nerdstalgic.