South Park: “About Last Night”
This is the episode the South Park universe has been waiting to see, and given the hype surrounding it, it didn’t disappoint. Given the tone and tenor of the two campaigns and the people supporting the two candidates, it was a pleasant change of pace to get something a little more lighthearted that was non-partisan and mocked both sides.
The Ocean’s 11 parody paid off well even if it was one of the more random pop culture inclusions they’ve ever had on this show. And somehow they managed to squeeze in potshots on both candidates and make it clear their opinion of Obama, McCain and their hysterical supporters. One of our fascinations with politics (for us at least) is how overly-devoted the masses can be for one candidate or the other when it seems like more often the not, neither candidate really gives a shit about his/her supporters. So it was nice to see, in South Park land at least, that both McCain and Obama were manipulating everyone to steal a necklace in the Smithsonian.
Our favorite bit from last night was the over-zealous Obama supporters, basically rioting in the streets. Namely, Randy. And even more specifically, Randy cursing out his boss. He’s always represented your bafoonish middle American (A joe six-pack, if you will), and having him let loose on his boss while he’s drunk and lost in the moment was pitch perfect, especially since it carried on for about a minute. When people discuss politics when they’re drunk it tends to turn personal, but neither party really says anything of substance and it just grows redundant. Randy managed to do all of this without being provoked and just lashing out at an employer he clearly hates. Every aspect of the character last night, the screaming, dancing, drinking, singing had us in stitches. Randy is the only person who could run around ranting about change, only to be in the same drunken stupor after the election that he tends to fall into during his son’s baseball games.
It needs no explanation.
Other notable moments were everything about Sarah Palin, because their isn’t anything about that woman we do not find comedy in; Randy screaming at the TV and stroking Obama’s image, Cartman looting and selling Randy’s television, the bunker and the Secret Service guy being ecstatic over being tipped to leave Obama by his lonesome. The entire episode was a home run in the way of their 2000 and 2004 election spoofs.
We were a little concerned that throwing in Ike Ike getting hurt and everyone incapable of dealing with it because they were so wrapped up in the election, would lead to some words of wisdom from either Stan or Kyle. But they spared us, hopefully because the “message” was already clear. But if people were hoping for Parker and Stone to use one of the characters for talking points, then they haven’t really been watching South Park for the past eight years. I think it is safe to say that if you were going to guess what their political affiliations were based on the content of the series, you could probably assume they are moderate republicans.
But they will never give you the benefit of knowing that, as they’ve bashed everyone from George Bush to Trent Lott on this show. Just look at how ridiculous and reactionary they made McCain supporters look. This is why in the pop-culture lexicon, we tend to believe that South Park is still the best political satire available. It beats the ever living shit out of SNL, to be perfectly frank.
Probably their best episode of this bunch (even with as much as we liked the premiere and the first half of “Pandemic“). We have no idea if we’re getting another new episode this before they go back on hiatus, but this episode was so fucking satisfying going out like this would be both a blessing and a curse.
November 13th, 2008 at 9:58 am
[...] not sure that was the case here. But the difference between this episode and, say, “About Last Night“, was that I felt anyone could watch “About Last Night” and find something [...]