“South Park” is out of the doghouse. My doghouse, that is. Never fear, it’s a nice doghouse; it has a wide opening and curtains and a big food dish. I’m not evil; most of the world’s “maligned-due-to-unforced-errors” deserve a chance at redemption.
But South Park did screw up royally. Once a force for political comedy as sharp as any around, South Park has wavered into unflinching nihilism. This strategy worked when the sides were balanced. But in the last decade, evil has found a voice it never had before and South Park hasn’t adjusted. You can’t two-sides a pandemic. You either believe in science or believe in nothing. Hence, South Park: Post COVID proved embarrassing, and the boys’ resistance to call Trump out as the greatest villain of the COVID era is criminal by omission.
However, today, the South Park gang went after the US Health Care system, and anybody willing to call out the stupidity of current American health care practice deserves a voice. In this episode, South Park’s li’l Nazi Eric Cartman dreams about becoming thin. Is this fantasy fabricated to live healthier and make his life better? Of course not. He dreams of becoming thin so that his racist, sexist, and bigoted accusations find no comeback. Ah, the MAGA dream: to step up hatred and bigotry without consequence. Yeah, this set-up has real potential.
Misinterpreting Cartman’s sorrow for something remotely positive, Cartman’s “friends” Kyle and Butters decide to help Cartman lose weight by going through channels. The endless American insurance runaround is portrayed in song form. “Navigate the American Health Care System” is, perhaps, not a classic but only a slightly exaggerated look at how frustrating we Americans have it. Truth is, even if you have health care in the United States, you have a health care nightmare story. That is true of almost every.single.American adult. And it would be true of the kids, too, if they cared. Luckily, most don’t.
Meanwhile, Randy is out to shame his daughter for dressing trashy at school by picking her up while wearing a croptop. Doing this, he is immediately mistaken for a member of a group of local Ozempic-snorting mothers who want to show off their midriffs even when inconvenient or impractical.
(I know nothing about Ozempic, but it’s fun to consider a real-life “makes you thin” drug. All my life, that has been
a snake oil sale, and I’m quite sure it was true 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 1,000 years ago … “Hey Zogg, chew this plant. You get thin. … now pay me rock.”)
Of course, South Park wouldn’t be South Park without pushing pushing pushing. Take their treatment of Lizzo in this film: it starts mildly amusing with a doctor prescribing Lizzo as a body positivity placebo for patients that cannot afford Ozempic. The gag gets funnier when medical commercials promoting Lizzo emerge … and then the joke just gets cruel. Ah, South Park, you never know when to quit … and I’m sure that is exactly why your base loves you.
I didn’t love South Park: The End of Obesity, but I found enough here to no longer be sickened by or fear South Park products … well, at least until Trump makes it back to the White House :shudder: You can’t “two sides” democracy, boys. There isn’t an endgame where fascism is equally critiquable.
There once was a kid named Cartman
Who dreamed to slander as much as one can
But whenever he’d harass
He’d get called, “Fat Ass”
With Ozempic comes a bigoted plan
Rated TV-MA, 50 Minutes
Director: Trey Parker
Writer: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Brian Graden
Genre: Why do Americans oppose universal health care again?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Lizzo haters
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Fans of insurance
