The toughest half about maintaining with tv is that there is merely an excessive amount of to observe, and never practically sufficient time to observe all of them. As somebody who typically has to play that recreation of choose and select, “South Park” unexpectedly grew to become the form of water cooler occasion tv I could not miss out on. Recent off their $1.5 billion cope with Paramount, collection creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker aren’t any much less devoted to throwing extra fuel on the fires regarding their father or mother firm and the abject cruelty of the Trump administration. The earlier two episodes of the collection’ twenty seventh season garnered headlines from the White Home and present Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem for his or her unflattering depictions, and I do not see that stopping anytime quickly.
Whereas final night time’s episode (“Sickofancy”) would not attain the highs of the final two, it nonetheless hits lots of nice notes regarding simply how damaged the world actually is. The Tegridy Farms saga that originated within the twenty second season of “South Park” seemingly got here to an finish, with a shock ICE raid placing the Marsh household in an actual bind. Randy (Trey Parker) is predictably extra upset about shedding his Mexican workforce than about these folks being kidnapped by masked brokers of the U.S. authorities. He would not need to lose the farm and, as final week established, the parents of “South Park” nonetheless must make their nut, m’kay?
The central focus of Stone and Parker’s ire this week is the rampant utilization of ChatGPT in the whole lot from romantic relationships to therapeutic catharsis, and even enterprise plans. A lot to Sharon’s annoyance, Randy makes use of the chatbot (and a entire lot of ketamine) to type “Techridy” or, as his advert places it, an AI-powered marijuana platform for international options. It is a fantastic jab on the Silicon Valley tech-bros forming dead-end AI startups with their ludicrous ambitions in a single hand and a microdose of ketamine within the different. In an effort to get Trump (Matt Stone) to reclassify weed as a authorized drug nationwide, the Marsh patriarch decides to ship Towelie (Vernon Chatman) to current a mysterious providing, pulling a “Return of the Jedi” within the course of.
Randy Marsh pulls a Return of the Jedi with Towelie – However Forgets the Rescue Half
Akin to “Obtained a Nut,” President Donald J. Trump is not a lot the main focus of this episode, however moderately, his impact on the world at giant. Towelie marvels on the military-occupied Washington D.C. and all of its Trump-defiled statues with the wide-eyed awe of a typical vacationer. He is solely one in every of a number of folks ready in line to pay fealty, I imply, bribe, wait, I truly imply, reward the President with trinkets to get what they need out of him. Everybody must preface their presents with a declaration of Trump not having a teeny tiny penis, with Fb co-founder Mark Zuckerberg providing a jewel-encrusted Meta Quest VR headset, and Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner giving him the same pure gold paperweight he bestowed upon the President in actual life (through The Huffington Put up). However Towelie arrives with one thing totally different, and what’s inside channels a memorable second from “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”
In ‘Return of the Jedi,” C-3PO (Anthony Daniels) and R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) arrive on the palace of Tatooine’s slitheriest crime lord, Jabba the Hutt (Larry Ward), with a holographic message from Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). He imparts his droid counterparts as choices in trade for a peaceable negotiation for the carbonite-frozen Han Solo (Harrison Ford), a lot to their shock. In “Sickofancy,” Towelie presents the same message from Randy. Stone’s Trump even does the signature Jabba snicker whereas slinking again in his chair. It performs out just about the identical, albeit as a plea for leniency on marijuana legal guidelines moderately than mercy for one more human being. Towelie, sadly, is presented to the President as an act of fealty.
For as a lot pressured labor as C-3PO and R2-D2 find yourself performing for Jabba, Luke does finally come again to rescue them. The identical cannot be stated for poor Towelie. Randy closes the multi-season-long chapter of Tegridy Farms after being shaken out of his ChatGPT stranglehold, however has no thought he gave his right-hand towel to Trump in a ketamine-infused haze. The episode’s last scene exhibits what’s change into of Towelie throughout the White Home, and, um, it is not the form of destiny you would need upon anyone. Let’s simply say it rhymes with “hum gag.” You’ll be able to see this joke coming (hehe) from a mile away, nevertheless it makes it no much less disheartening to see this innocent-looking character defiled like this.
Sickofancy mirrors the collective exhaustion of residing via this administration
Everyone beneath the solar, particularly “South Park,” has parodied “Star Wars” to loss of life, however this episode hilariously lampooned the “what if” situation of Luke by no means coming again for his droid friends. All that scene was lacking was the lil chubby-cheeked JD Vance hanging round Trump like Salacious Crumb. I’ve a sneaking suspicion Towelie will not be saved by the Marshes (or anybody else for that matter) anytime quickly.
Parker and Stone really feel like a few of the solely business artists proper now prepared to shine a light-weight on Trump in such humiliating manners. It isn’t even that outlandish by “South Park” requirements, however they clearly realize it bugs him, and that is what makes it all of the funnier. I merely should see how they’ll poke the bear subsequent. The ending of “Sickofancy,” with poor Towelie on that loo rack, skewers the hopelessness of feeling trapped beneath the crushing weight of the Trump administration. Not even Devil (Trey Parker), the Lord of Darkness, can appear to flee from his abusive White Home jail. When Parker and Stone launched “Sermon on the ‘Mount” final month, it was a reasonably transgressive half hour of tv that ruthlessly mocked the President in a time when few had been, and now it nearly feels just like the pair can hardly sustain along with his accelerated eradication of normalcy. How do you retain up in a world the place the President posts about how a lot it upsets him that the Smithsonian teaches that slavery was morally unhealthy (through Politico)? I don’t know, nevertheless it’s clear that he invokes Parker and Stone’s ire, and that can present greater than sufficient gasoline to maintain egging him on. See y’all once more subsequent week.
Each episode of “South Park” is at present streaming on Paramount+.
