Grid Effect

Now that was vintage South Park: Topical, satirical, undermining; all the ingredients that generally culminate into a great episode. We were beginning to think Terrence and Philip were done for this world, and we would have little complaints should that have been the case, but they were resurrected brilliantly last night. When they first appeared on screen we were almost hoping that the four boys had grown tired of the cartoon, but alas, that wasn’t the case. It was a nice callback to the “Cartoon Wars” saga.

But if you wanted to know where Parker and Stone stood on the writer’s strike, well, there it is. When the president of the “WGA” had this exchange with other national leaders:

CPM: We want more money.
Random diplomat: We don’t understand. Money frommmmmm where?
CPM: (paraphrasing) I don’t care you greedy fat cat just give us more money!

I though that summed up their stance quite nicely. Truth be told, however, animation writer’s aren’t covered by the WGA, so to the best of my knowledge they weren’t effected by the strike (at least not professionally, though undoubtedly they lost sleep at night). In other words, it’s easy and convenient for them to take this stance. We still believe that regardless of internet revenue and whether or not any actually exists, writer’s are still underpaid for their contribution in entertainment. Never the less, it gave us the hilariously technical morality lecture from Kyle on the issue. It’s a shame Canada had to be the surrogate for a South Park whipping boy. Again.

We’ll gladly admit that we are rarely fond of the Canadian themed episodes. Not that it’s offensive or anything, we’re not really certain of their beef with the North American country. Whatever it is, the material is always heavy-handed and bewildering more so than it is funny. But last night, tied in with the youtube subplot and the fruitless and non-threatening national threat for more money made this episode redeemable.

We thought the mocking of Canada’s financial situation was somewhat ill-timed, because at the very least Canada’s dollar is virtually equal to ours. Given, we are not up too speed on global economics like we should be (imagine that!). I mean, our understanding is a little more refined than the antagonist’s was in this episode, but it seems like a pot-kettle situation for anyone to disparage another countries economy. Vilifying the Canada’s fake president was apropos, given how reluctant most national leaders are to cope to a mistake, we particularly loved the pleading with the UN (was that supposed to be the UN?) and their apathy towards his plight, and Kyle’s intervening.

I guess we’re part of the problem now.

The scene with all the “infamous” youtube characters was probably the highlight. We tend to think most of those people are accidentally famous and didn’t really set out to be the laughing stock of American culture, but the subsequent quest for theoretical money is something we find believable, especially with the “leave Britney alone!” guy. The notion of him scavenging for any type of income from his hysterical ramblings doesn’t seem likely, but rather probable. I can’t imagine anyone engaging in such a practice if he isn’t about his bottom line. One thing I like about South Park is how unaffiliated and indifferent they are with everything. Two weeks ago they mock the paparazzi and the American public for hounding Britney Spears, two weeks later they mock her most ardent defender.

Oddly enough, and probably not a coincidence, the Root of All Evil episode that followed pitted porn against youtube. And several of the entities mentioned in the South Park episode were also referenced on Lewis Black’s new variety show. I guess comedy central is trying to defend the decision to keep all of their copyrighted property off the viral video site. If that’s the case, that the network influenced one or both of these series’ to lecture us on the perils of youtube, they have something to learn about subtlety.

Not their best episode ever, but the best this season by a mile. We’re still holding out for a parody of the democratic primary, but they might stay away from electoral politics until the general.

Survivor recap later.