Grid Effect

Unfortunately I never found the time to post at work and was forced to wait until now, at my house, during my free time, to summarize South Park. Its so much better to get these write ups out of the way on the companies dime, but I’m a whore for the man much like everyone else. But now that I’m done lamenting, what an odd turn for the Comedy Central series last night. While the last two episodes were vulgar and topically controversial, this one was just… bizarre; but immensely clever. I knew it was funny and was a great parody of doomsday films, but it was so offbeat I had a difficult time just trying to figure out when to laugh.

For those who did not watch last night, there was an outbreak of lice in the 4th grade classroom, much of the episode revolved around determining who was the culprate. But the other half of the episode took place inside of Tommy’s hair where a colony of lice questioned the meaning and future of their existence. They survived several hardships throughout the episode, such as an acidic flood (anti-lice shampoo), a hurricane (Tommy subsequently blow-drying his hair) and famine (the after effects of both natural disasters).

The attempt to humanize a village of lice and the satirically force uys to care about there outcome is funny in and of itself, but the lice clinging to strands of a nine year olds hair for dear life while he gingerly blow drys his hair sent me over the edge, it was the one true laugh out loud moment of the episode. As far as the rest was concerned, its almost as if they became too concerned with satire and forgot to add a punchline.

The story with the kids was more on track with what I like to see out of this series: a group of elementary school kids persecuting and villainizing each other for the means of self-preservation. Whenever they exhibit the narcissism of kids this age, I enjoy it, mostly because no one else seems to even acknowledge it. So Parker and Stone could make 100 episodes with the same thematic principals and it would still seem fresh and still be entertaining.

While I think this series is still currently off from its hay day (fifth and sixth seasons), I think this is a step in the right direction. And like I have said repeatedly I am always going to be entertained by this series, mainly because its some of the least formulaic comedy writing on television, and topical or no their material is always original. I just don’t think Parker and Stone need to push the envelope this far.