what do you want to do huh what do you
want to do randy don't you better shut
up
standing right here how do you want to
handle it i told you to shut up this is
randy marsh voiced by south park's
creator trey parker and there isn't a
character in the south park universe who
has grown quite as much as he has
sharon
what is it randy do you have any oh
randy will you look at that is that the
biggest crap you've ever seen or what
for the longest time randy marsh was
often presented as an extremely normal
parental figure and say for a few
episodes here and there was almost never
presented as a major contributor to the
overarching narrative this all changed
in season 9 when the writers of south
park struck comedy gold by putting randy
at the forefront of an episode that
transformed this otherwise bland
character into one of the most hilarious
and loved characters on the entire show
before we get started don't forget to
like and subscribe to nostalgic if you
haven't done so already south park is an
animated comedy series that has been in
production for almost a quarter of a
century what started out as a crudely
animated vhs tape has grown into one of
the most intelligent and accurate pieces
of satire available for our viewing
pleasure from 1997 until now south park
has anchored itself into nearly every
facet of the cultural zeitgeist with
pitch perfect parodies and intelligent
commentary on how we view the world
around us part of what makes south park
so special is the fact that most fans of
the show were likely introduced to it at
a very young age in 1997 there weren't
very many adult cartoons available and
teenagers at the time were tuning into
the show religiously to see the
adventures of stan kyle kenny and
cartman as they dealt with aliens
monsters and other strange happenings in
the podunk town of south park the first
seasons of the show are fun light and
weren't nearly touching as deeply on
social commentary as the show matured so
did the audience and slowly but surely
we started to identify with not only the
quartet of fourth graders but also with
the other citizens of south park none of
which have come to be as impactful on
the series as randy marsh randy marsh
made his first appearance in the second
episode of season one titled volcano as
the town's resident geologist whose
ineptitude results in the complete
destruction of downtown denver he's not
really a standout addition to the
ensemble and he just sort of functions
as a facilitator to an impending
disaster shortly after that in the
episode titled an elephant makes love to
a pig it is established that randy is
stan's father when he arrives home to
discipline stan for the behavior of his
clone from that point on randy marsh
slowly but surely develops into a larger
character in season two he ends up
temporarily divorcing sharon and in
season three he stops the town citizens
from lighting themselves on fire with
their own farts and later has some
really awkward moments with kyle's dad
in a hot tub maybe i'll drink a few more
beers and see where the party takes me
yeah
was that your leg huh oh you mean this
yeah yeah that was me in these earlier
seasons randy marsh feels more like the
straight man serving as an anchor point
for the more ridiculous behaviors of the
townsfolk around him he delves into some
awkwardness here and there oh hey stan
could you grab me a beer
but he's never really at the forefront
of narrative we start to see a little
more of randy emerge throughout the next
few seasons but he doesn't quite break
through as a standout character where
most of the townspeople of south park
have gimmicks large personalities and
distinct voices randy marsh is often
seen as just a normal everyday father
more often than not he kind of just
shows up to tell stan not to do
something or remind us that stan has a
family and his decisions have an impact
on someone other than himself this all
changes in season 9 in the episode
titled the losing edge while randy's
transformation was definitely gradual
the losing edge is without a doubt the
turning point for randy marsha's
character the writers don't waste any
time getting to it either within the
first two minutes it's established that
the boys are all in a little league
tournament that they don't want to play
in childhood sports is a topic that
almost anyone can relate to on an
extremely broad scale it's a well-known
fact that in attendance to almost every
conceivable children's sporting events
there will be a parent or two who take
the game way too seriously competition
has a tendency to do weird things to men
sometimes and sports can really bring
the worst out in them this is where
south park capitalizes on an opportunity
to do something enormous with randy we
first see randy challenging another
parent to a fight in the stands in a
pretty ridiculous way we've seen randy
in humorous situations before but up
until this point he has never been seen
as an absurdly aggressive drunken
while he's getting arrested trey parker
really turns up the gas on the absurdity
with some really hilarious performance
choices and this sets the stage for what
is to come later in the episode
arresting me for what i'm not allowed to
stand up for myself i thought this was
america huh isn't this america i'm sorry
i thought this was america being an
aggressive drunken loud is portrayed as
a source of pride for randy as he is
congratulated by his peers while
celebrating his victory in hand-to-hand
combat rather than the victory of his
children's baseball team southpark
utilizes the concept of mapping here to
its benefit in developing randy marsh's
characters we've talked about south
park's utilization of the mapping
concept before we'll place a link to
that episode in the description below if
you'd like to learn a little bit more
about it but the concept can be broken
down as basically the exploration of one
specific idea through an entirely
different scenario's language and
concepts in the case of the losing edge
they are filtering the idea of fathers
getting drunk and fighting at little
league games through the common trope of
a somewhat classic underdog story like
rocky or the karate kid it's a simple
yet effective way to not only drive the
comedy of the situation at hand in a way
that is very easy for us to follow but
in this case drive the character in that
same manner a short montage is a really
perfect way to raise the stakes for
everyone and focus on getting to the
final moments of the story very quickly
it's only halfway through the episode at
this point and we're already at the
little league state championship south
park does a great job in this episode in
treating the absurd as if it is
completely normal jeez i really wish
this guy would shut up and the
completely normal as if it is absurd and
they do it in a very over dramatized way
randy marsh having his little moment of
pride before entering the state
championships is melodramatic to the
point of being completely ridiculous i
don't like to really trash talk but i
don't think denver has a chance but this
is an important moment to any underdog
character in a story of this type this
is the midpoint to the narrative the
calm before the storm it reminds us that
this episode isn't even about baseball
it's all about randy in the next scene
we get the introduction of randy's
ultimate rival when bat dad enters the
fray oh yeah
south park is going down feel it come in
you ain't got a chat south park here we
go denver he is larger louder and
drunker than randy could ever dream of
being this is the moment where the bad
guys are closing in which frightens
randy and sends him into a deep
soul-searching moment that feels so
familiar we can't help ourselves from
connecting to the trope and laughing at
the parody of it all matt stone and trey
parker never ever play to the comedy of
this scenario instead they play to the
seriousness of it again this falls under
the realm of treating the absurd as if
it is incredibly normal and this
juxtaposition is an absolute delight to
observe in the final moments of the
episode randy returns to the baseball
game by this time we have a concrete
understanding of what is about to happen
and we are 100 on board with it this
entire episode has brought us
surprisingly new behaviors from a
character we've been familiar with for
years and because they've mapped them
over this underdog tale of a drunken
brawl we know exactly where the story is
going and are along for the ride the
final fight ensues and weaves itself in
as a loophole that will provide the
south park baseball team with the loss
necessary to not have to play baseball
anymore this sequence has become
pneumatic as of late with the i didn't
hear no bell making its way into mean
culture but it's for a good reason this
is a pitch perfect parody to the point
of directly referencing rocky and the
karate kid by the end of the episode we
all share stan marsh's exact feelings
towards his father dad
you're the greatest after the losing
edge randy marsh has gone on to create
some of the most hilarious moments in
the show's history he became the world's
greatest home chef survived a guinea pig
apocalypse saved the world of warcraft
and started his own marijuana farm but
none of these amazing concepts would
have been made possible without the
discoveries that were made in the
exploration of his character in the
losing edge this episode took a
character who was normally serving the
show as a grounding tool for the
inherent craziness that southpark
consistently creates in their narratives
and threw him right next to homer
simpson and peter griffin in the
conversation of who the greatest cartoon
dad of all time might actually be it
took almost a decade of storytelling to
find randy marsh's voice on the show but
once it was found it opened up a world
of possibilities not just for randy but
the entire marsh family normally in a
cartoon the family dynamics are well
established within the first two or
three episodes but in the case of randy
marsh matt stone and trey parker took
their time in lining his character up
before taking the shot that they did the
randy marsh we currently get to enjoy
was developed through a measured
approach to character development that
you just don't see that often in the
cartoon world and it doesn't seem like
they plan on stopping his development
anytime soon
i'm so
startled
[Music]
that's it for today's episode be sure to
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stick around and thanks for watching
nerd staljig
you