Banana Scoop

They are truly one of the few programs on air that can get away with blatant racism...I love it.

South Park season 16 is about 4 episodes in.  A while back in the midseason finale for their 15th season, creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker hinted through Randy and Sharon’s marriage failure when it came to their ability to shake things up instead of hitting the refresh button was getting more and more problematic when it came to their marriage.  This was probably over analyzed as people saw it as a foreshadowing of how the South Park series was turning out, and people came to a panic that the beloved social satire program would come to an end.  And with Stone and Parker’s new broadway hit, The Book of Mormon firing on all cylinders, it seemed almost plausible.  But of course they said they’re still planning on continuing for at least 2 more seasons.  And that being said, season 16 premiered 4 weeks ago as I just said.  And it’s been an excellent premiere that’s got both my head tilting in thought and side splitting in laughter.

The first three episodes targeted the following subjects in today’s culture: the TSA [Transportation Security Administration], the Cash4Gold craze, and internet memes/republican debates.  One of the best things South Park has refined over the years is their ability to take controversial subjects and bring them to absurd and ridiculous versions.  In the TSA episode, they used an alternate name: Toilet Security Administration that came about because of men’s inability to properly put the toilet seat down, resulting in the death of a woman who’s insides were vacuumed out due to the suction when she fell in [classic south park].  This Toilet Security Administration has now been enacted to both inspect anyone using a toilet as well as place cameras in each toilet, making fun of the Transportation Security Administration’s laws that are so absurd in how personal they are in the name of illusioned ‘safety’ due to one mere incidence.

A haunting splooshing noise is all I can remember

The following episode after that decided to go to a more local level that more of us can identity with, especially those who haven’t been personally been harassed by the TSA.  Everyone has seen the Cash4Gold men standing out on the roads, flipping their signs in skilled ways.  This episode goes into how the gold market self perpetuates itself that reaches all corners of the earth.  Stan embarks on a journey to stop paid programming from making his grandpa buying stupid overpriced gold.  And while Cartman tries to get into this game to make money himself, they are both taken to the depths of what seems to be India where children are depicted into making sh!tty gold trinkets to sell to the Americans.  It’s hard to judge how absurd they’re taking this because 1) I know nothing about the gold industry and 2) it kinda makes sense how this absurd cycle works.  If my description doesn’t make sense, watch this catchy video:

best quality i could find, sorry.

The third episode of the season is probably my favorite so far, because it directly involves me and what I consider my generation’s culture.  I’m a part of the 18-24 demographic [20 feels so old…], and I’ve been raised around the spread and viral nature of memes.  This episode seemed to have targeted more things than I think I could’ve caught.  The passing nature of internet memes, the useless drabble of the Republican debate that is similar to a cat drabbling, the absurd obsession of memes with today’s culture, and the strange addiction of cats and the internet.  That’s why this episode was just too good.  The borderline too absurd ‘Taylor Swifting’ [the act of pulling your pants down and dragging your ass in public] purely defines how absurd some of these memes go.  And the obsession that we as a society need to share it constantly puts the icing on the cake.  Of course in true South Park fashion, this escalates into relating cats evolving to become a threatening entity to the human race.  How Parker and Stone built the episode to this point is priceless and endlessly clever.

Waaaay more exciting than the actual debates.

I haven’t gotten a chance to to see the fourth episode, but based off the name, ‘Jewpacabra’, we can only speculate what could possibly happen.  Overall, I think season 16 is as fresh as ever.  Parker and Stone don’t have to come up with come up with material on their own as long as culture today is still doing stupid stuff.  No matter how absurd their satire gets, the base truth always hold true.  Was the TSA as absurd as having people invading home privacy, not quite, but it was getting annoying.  Are the Republican debates as meaningless as a cat saying Ooo Long Johnson?  Maybe not so, but it’s easy to relate where the source material comes from.  And after 16 years, Stone and Parker have truly hit their strive and may they continue broadcasting the absurd adventures of Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Cartman.  I look forward what the rest of season 16 has to offer, and if you’re not tuning in, may a train run over you as you post stupid pictures of you ‘Tebowing’.

You deserve every ounce of this.