Grid Effect

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday, we had some personal affairs to attend too. And while for us that is usually a euphemism for “urgently had to go to the clinic”, I can assure you that yesterday was no such instance. But we’ll have two posts today between this and our weekly Survivor recap, so we’ll still get paid roughly the same wages. Or rather, to make it up to the loyal reader.

First Heavy Metal, then Stand and Deliver and now Close Encounters of The Third Kind. Between the movie references and speaking to our countries over-dependence on internet access, I think Trey Parker and Matt Stone now officially represent all of generation X. But that was undoubtedly another great episode, as we tend to believe all Randy-centered episodes are. From the pornography, to the impersonal relationships, to the helplessness and news dependency, the downside of the internet was collectively detailed in an oddly depressing episode.

We’re certain this sing-a-long was a reference to something we’ve seen as well, and if you have any idea, don’t hesitate to enlighten us.

Obviously it was satire, but if there were some kind of internet collapse it would be like a nationwide natural disaster. Banks, businesses would fold, money would disappear, the cost of goods would skyrocket and we’d be left in a more vulnerable state than we already are. So while things like long distance middle school relationships and addictions to pornography are trivial concerns, they are definitely only a tip of the iceberg, and definitely make for much better comedic material than something like a(nother) major US bank folding, which is an almost horrifying prospect at this point.

Highlights from the episode were too vast to count. But all of the melodramatic exchanges (”How will I contact you? You won’t have internet.” and “There is no internet to tell us the internet why there is no internet”), the newscasters leaping up and down over an incoming fax, Kyle’s solution to unplug and plug-in the giant wifi router (and pausing for those obligatory couple extra seconds for no good reason though he’s deemed it otherwise), Randy’s post self-coitus state and the internet porn simulator all made for a great episode.

This is a very different season in that it seems to be even more preachy than usual, but if they close out their twelfth season with the same strength they’ve aired the last three weeks, then we’re confident this show is no longer bottom feeding. We’ve pretty much already come to the conclusion that for as long as South Park is airing new episodes, they won’t ever officially “jump the shark”, but rather fluctuate in quality. So while we’ll have to endure an occasional (or frequent) “Major Boobage“, we’ll be compensated with the just as frequent “Canada on Strike”.

Survivor recap later.