South Park 'The Pandemic Special'

[evilcommiedictator]

The Elite Hollywood Cabal of pedoes?

[Noodle Lizard]

They've really developed a knack for being relentlessly topical whilst not actually saying anything at all.

[brat-sampson]

I mean during the nutso conspiracy shit they could have had a flashing text line underneath saying 'This is what Qanon followers actually believe' as a callback to their scientology episode, and also because it actually is. It's the same crew that trashed a pizza place because they genuinely thought coded messages had told them there was a Clinton-linked child sex dungeon underneath.

There wasn't.

[ajsmith2]

I mean during the nutso conspiracy shit they could have had a flashing text line underneath saying 'This is what Qanon followers actually believe' as a callback to their scientology episode, and also because it actually is. It's the same crew that trashed a pizza place because they genuinely thought coded messages had told them there was a Clinton-linked child sex dungeon underneath.

There wasn't.

Not seen the episode, but depressingly Qanon is mainstream enough (and even more depressingly a sizeable enough slice of their viewership is likely on board with it) that they probably thought such an annotation redundant.

[Sonny_Jim]

The whole episode had callbacks to older stuff, so i was also surprised they didn't put the text up.  They've done it twice before with Scientology and the Mormon episode, so to me it made sense and I was waiting for it to pop up.  Maybe they just didn't think it was funny.

[Retinend]

With Scientology, the "THIS IS WHAT SCIENTOLOGISTS ACTUALLY BELIEVE" joke was that it was hilarious merely to illustrate all the scientologist doctrines with no additional commentary necessary. They do the exact same thing in this episode and don't include the same text? Come on.

But still, that missed opportunity aside, it was one of my favourite moments in a very strong two-parter.












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[JaDanketies]

These long-form hour-long once-a-year ones do feel very strong. I guess Matt and Trey have time to think about things a little bit more. I don't know if humour about the pandemic will have much longevity but if it does, these episodes could be as good as the classics.

[up_the_hampipe]

They've really developed a knack for being relentlessly topical whilst not actually saying anything at all.

It seemed pretty clear they were ripping on QAnon freaks.

They're really good at finding a new way to hit jokes everyone's made already, which is no easy feat these days with social media running everything into the ground. I've seen a million tweets about how old people are going to live it up when they get the vaccine, but this episode still managed to get a funny running joke out of the same concept.

[Noodle Lizard]

It seemed pretty clear they were ripping on QAnon freaks.

Obviously, but in no more depth than you're likely to find in a meme. It didn't have much to say about them other than "look at these guys they're mental". We've been "looking at these guys" for more than a year, so I feel as though it needed a little more to it than that. They've tackled conspiracy theorists in much more insightful (and funnier) ways in the past.

The meta-joke was at least somewhat promising, but it went nowhere of course. The club line joke was fine, but it became less funny each time we saw it. The Kenny/divorce bit was funny as a self-contained bit (and felt the most personal, given Trey's recent divorce) but, again, didn't go any further than that.

I know I expect too much of them these days, but there's been something missing from these last few seasons. Even watching back some of the less good seasons between 10-20 makes that very clear to me.

[Captain Z]

Was "just give me one shot" a reference to something specific, or just talent show contestants in general? I laughed, but wondered if it was something more topical in the US.

[jimboslice]

Was "just give me one shot" a reference to something specific, or just talent show contestants in general? I laughed, but wondered if it was something more topical in the US.

It was definitely a Hamilton reference.

[Egyptian Feast]

This was better than the previous special, but still not great. The QAnon stuff was the clear highlight.

They missed another obvious callback when the kids stole the vaccines: "They took our jabs!"

[paddy72]

I'm sure this has been discussed on here before, but what is generally considered the 'golden period' of South Park?

I've been dipping back into it quite a bit during lockdown, but the quality of later seasons does seem to drop off a little.

[rue the polywhirl]

I'm sure this has been discussed on here before, but what is generally considered the 'golden period' of South Park?

I've been dipping back into it quite a bit during lockdown, but the quality of later seasons does seem to drop off a little.

Seasons 5-8. So about 20 years ago. I dip in every now and then and the quality always seems quite a bit off.

[up_the_hampipe]

Seasons 5-8.

I'd stretch it to 11, or 10 at least.

[astrozombie]

Watched these both back to back the other night.

The Pandemic Special I thought was alright, some funny bits but I'm not huge on the Tegrity Farms stuff with Randy and Towelie. Thought the Vaccination Special was the best thing South Park has done in ages

Spoiler alert

and loved the elaborate reset button ending with Garrison.

[close]

I'd stretch it to 11, or 10 at least.

I used to only really like/revisit Seasons 1-12 but over the last year with them all on Amazon Prime, I have watched almost every episode and I have found some absolute gems in Seasons 13-18 and enjoy most episodes in them, Season 19 is an incredible run, Season 20 I'm not alone in saying there are problems with that one and Seasons 21-23 they are a bit more mixed bag.

[Egyptian Feast]

I used to only really like/revisit Seasons 1-12 but over the last year with them all on Amazon Prime, I have watched almost every episode and I have found some absolute gems in Seasons 13-18 and enjoy most episodes in them, Season 19 is an incredible run, Season 20 I'm not alone in saying there are problems with that one and Seasons 21-23 they are a bit more mixed bag.

I'd agree with that. It's gone properly downhill since they called the 2016 election wrong. I still keep up with it and still enjoy the odd episode, but I'm no longer so concerned about watching it as soon after broadcast as possible. It took me a while to get around to catching both of these.

The last game, which appears to have come out a year after season 20, was excellent and much funnier than the show itself has been for the past five years.

[astrozombie]

The last game, which appears to have come out a year after season 20, was excellent and much funnier than the show itself has been for the past five years.

Yeah that is true. I saw The Book of Mormon a few years back and that was incredible also. I know that Trey Parker always says in interviews that he works best when under pressure and with a tight time limit... but they dont half produce some quality work when they take their time.

I said earlier Season 19 is an incredible series (and it is) but that nose dive into current events and changing Garrison into Trump really did come back to bite them on the arse.

My biggest hope with the ending of the Vaccination special

Spoiler alert

is that we can get back to normal and just have more character driven, singular episodes after that giant fourth wall break.

[close]

[The Giggling Bean]

I gave up on South Park somewhere around S22...and I'd been really losing interest in it about 5 series prior. I watched it in the hope they'd make a back to basics gem. Unfortunately they decided they'd rather go topical than funny. Like The Simpsons, gone were the days I'd belly laugh multiple times through an ep. At best I'd cough up a "ha" but decided to stop watching completely when they shifted focus to Tegridy Farm.

I caught the Pandemic special which provided a few chuckles but not enough to make me want to check out the vaccination special. Also I'm terrified of needles and haven't had my jab yet...I don't need South Park adding to my anxiety.

I genuinely wish they'd go back to the early days with the kids being kids and off the wall pythonesque humour. It was a million times more entertaining than them trying to be topical.

[JaDanketies]

Some of the classics were actually topical. Like Kenny Dies (season 5) aired just a couple of days after Terry Shiavo died. But the issues they dealt with were perhaps more timeless and there weren't contemporary references shoehorned in quite as much.

The most recent Christmas special - Christmas Snow - felt very much like a classic, even though it was centred on Tegridy Farms. I can understand why they're more interested in Randy these days. Show's been going for over 20 years and the world has moved on a lot since the 90s - and at least they're actively avoiding Simpsons pitfalls.