South Park Season 23 starts Sept 25th

[NoSleep]

He knows how to do Garrison. That's Garrison channeling Trump you heard there.

[madhair60]

Shades of Glinner in the new one. Did make me think, mind. 'Course, while Glinner's "concern" is entirely falsified and stems from a grudge based on criticism of his dogshit IT Crowd sitcom, is there validity to the "trans women in women's sports" issue?

[madhair60]

Please don't cancel me.

[up_the_hampipe]

I'm so glad we're out of Tegridy Farms. The PC Babies half of the season should be enjoyable. Macho Man Heather Swanson was hilarious.

[selectivememory]

Oof, that was awful.

I really enjoyed the Tegridy Farms focus in the first half of the season, but I can see why they might want to move it on now. But that was the worst episode they've done in a long time.

[JesusAndYourBush]

I'm so glad we're out of Tegridy Farms.

Thank goodness for that.

The PC Babies half of the season should be enjoyable.

Oh for fucks sake!

[Man With No Sheds]

Aw shucks, I'm gonna miss Towlie and Tegridy Farms! Some of us loved it. Nice to see the PC Babies back again and tackling such a controversial issue. I winced when the episode went in the direction it did because of how people might react. I haven't checked on Twitter but I can imagine it has not gone unnoticed.

[The Giggling Bean]

Oh for fucks sake!

My thoughts exactly.

[JesusAndYourBush]

My thoughts exactly.

And now I've actually seen the episode... oh boy it was worse that I'd expected.

And is it just me but does anyone else think PC Principal looks like James Hetfield?

[chveik]

nah not just you, it's the first thing I thought when he was introduced

[spaghetamine]

I would be lying if I said that south park hasn't bought me many chuckles over the years but the air of wealthy libertarian smugness that permeates the whole thing makes it a difficult watch for me these days. A lot of the time the politics of it seems to boil down to "anyone who cares about anything is virtue signalling/stupid". Maybe in less troubled times it didn't bother me as much but it just seems a bit bleak now.

[Goldentony]

I haven't checked on Twitter but I can imagine it has not gone unnoticed.

it's 2019 and South Park so unfortunately for Ron & Paul, it has

[backdrifter]

A lot of the time the politics of it seems to boil down to "anyone who cares about anything is virtue signalling/stupid". Maybe in less troubled times it didn't bother me as much but it just seems a bit bleak now.

Did you feel that was the case for the latest ep?

I felt it was less "you are stupid for caring about trans people" and more "you are right to care about trans people but some (relatively minor) aspects of life require more nuance than 'trans women are women'".

[steveh]

After 300 episodes I've realised that I now find Trey Parker's voice really annoying. Think perhaps there's also less care and subtlety to how he voices characters these days.

[NoSleep]

Looks like PC Babies was a one off as this week's in "One for the Ladies". It also manages to conflate Dune and poop.

[Moribunderast]

I haven't enjoyed much of this season (liked the two Mexican Joker episodes and that's about it) but I loved this one. Just a classic dumb, puerile South Park premise with the kids being more involved. "The Spice..." joke got a little repetitive by the end but the introduction to it had me absolutely howling, as did the completely unnecessary final line.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I felt it was less "you are stupid for caring about trans people" and more "you are right to care about trans people but some (relatively minor) aspects of life require more nuance than 'trans women are women'".

Having finally seen it yesterday, I thought the episode was less hideous than I was expecting, mostly because the Randy Savage character was too over the top not to laugh at. That said, it seemed very have-their-cake-and-eat-it for them to talk about nuance after such a ridiculous and one-sided strawman argument.

They also did that episode where Garrison having a sex change was equated with Kyle's dad trying to be a dolphin.

[Jim Bob]

They also did that episode where Garrison having a sex change was equated with Kyle's dad trying to be a dolphin.

Yeah, that was an horrendous episode.  I know that no man is infallible and South Park tends to be edgy but still, yikes!  When your point and joke is literally what Ricky Gervais does under the name of "comedy", then perhaps it's time to have a rethink and a rewrite.  Hateful and ignorant shite, that.

[The Giggling Bean]

I genuinely think I'm done with South Park now. It's been a chore to get through the Tegridy Farm stuff. I haven't even watched the last episode with the inclusion of the PC babies...I seriously can't bring myself to put it on. I'm not sure I can be bothered wasting any more time hoping for it to improve. It seems like the singular episodes about random silliness are a thing of the past now. I've not particularly enjoyed the past 3 seasons (okay the Gerald is a troll series was okay) but I stuck with it for the odd nugget of gold. That's getting harder and harder to find now so I think I'm done.

I've got series 1 to 16 on DVD so I can always rewatch those from now on.

[sutin]

I would be lying if I said that south park hasn't bought me many chuckles over the years but the air of wealthy libertarian smugness that permeates the whole thing makes it a difficult watch for me these days. A lot of the time the politics of it seems to boil down to "anyone who cares about anything is virtue signalling/stupid". Maybe in less troubled times it didn't bother me as much but it just seems a bit bleak now.

Your last sentence there sums it up perfectly for me. A decade ago I would have laughed my ass off at a uber-masculine musclebound guy identifying as female in South Park, but in 2019 I am just not comfortable with these kind of jokes being made. The world is currently a long way off from being able to make light of that sort of thing.

[Man With No Sheds]

Loved the latest episode - scatological and obviously riffing from a movie I have never heard of.

I did wonder at the beginning whether the episode was a follow on from the PC Babies one that made some people uncomfortable, and take it further, but no.

They still make me laugh, or at least grin, no matter how wealthy they are. When were they ever not? That first series was merchandised to an extreme that would have made The Simpsons wince.

[backdrifter]

That said, it seemed very have-their-cake-and-eat-it for them to talk about nuance after such a ridiculous and one-sided strawman argument.

I don't really get this. A ridiculous over the top example showing the need for a nuanced conversation (rather than being part of the nuanced conversion) seems completely normal for South Park and satire in general.

And separately, how is it a strawman? Promise I'm not being goady - I genuinely want to learn about this stuff.




And for those who prefer classic, silly, gross South Park - the latest ep is gold.

[weaseldust]

Loved the latest episode - scatological and obviously riffing from a movie I have never heard of.

dune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlV7Gh1sbVs

[Noodle Lizard]

What do we think about the "One For The Ladies" conceit there? After the first scene (Sheila puking and shitting everywhere whilst making a speech) I thought it was going to be a riff on equal treatment, but it lost that thread and they'd already done that with the queefing episode ages ago anyway. But then the final line seems to imply that the title does have some kind of relevance. Who knows.

[NoSleep]

dune

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlV7Gh1sbVs

Book (another attempt at an adaptation coming soon).

[weaseldust]

yeah i'm aware of the books but the episode was clearly based on the movie

[NoSleep]

Clearly? How? It would seem a tad late for that whereas the book is a bestselling classic. What was specifically from the film? You know that spice is (necessarily) heavily featured in the books (and gets even more mentions than in the film, probably vying with "blue on blue eyes").

[Jim Bob]

Clearly? How? It would seem a tad late for that whereas the book is a bestselling classic. What was specifically from the film? You know that spice is (necessarily) heavily featured in the books (and gets even more mentions than in the film, probably vying with "blue on blue eyes").

I've not watched the episode in question but I will say that Stone and Parker strike me as the types to make reference to the Lynch film, far sooner than they would to the book from which it was adapted.

[NoSleep]

It was the "clearly" that I was querying. There's nothing in the episode that particularly references the film over the book. The Lynch film is like a two hour "previously on Dune" intro to a TV episode (a failed attempt at keeping all the book heads happy).

[weaseldust]

just the way they whisper spice is exactly like the movie