By |

I’ve been a lifelong fan of South Park since the beginning, and basically can’t remember a time throughout my life when I wasn’t watching it. Without further ado, let’s get into whatever season this is now. I’m sure if you pluck two random digits, that’s probably the season we’re on. 16? I want to say the middle of 16. Jesus that’s a lot of seasons; it’s getting to Simpsons territory. Anyways, I won’t recap the story, because I hate when reviewers give a summary of the episode; either you saw it or you didn’t. So don’t expect me to rehash what you already saw. Also note, this review WILL get vulgar, so stop fucking reading if you don’t like this kind of humor, or this show.

One of my favorite episodes of all time is “The Losing Edge”, which involved Randy Marsh in his best appearance ever, brawling drunken fans in the crowd as the boy’s competed in a baseball tournament. He trained, he fought, he fell, he got arrested, got inspired by a montage, and dared to ask if this was indeed America. It was a tour-de-force episode for Randy, and it’s no surprise that one day Matt and Trey would go back to the Randy well to grab another sports related storyline. This was that day, and thankfully “Sarcastaball” was a good fall premiere, and an overall funny episode. There was a depiction of how fake sports can become, how stupidly ridiculous post game interviews and ESPN ratings journalism can be (it’s turned into masturbation, essentially), and how sarcasm in everyday life can be sometimes overused. Especially by teenagers. God I hate them so much.

The timing of the NFL referee holdout, and the Monday Night Football debacle, was a perfect recipe for satire. It was either now or never, and thankfully Matt and Trey decided to give us frustrated football fans some light, comedic catharsis from the current football nightmare of replacement refs and bounty scandals and whatnot. Right off the bat though, we get some of the best lines of the episode, naturally delivered by Cartman, of course. At first I was afraid the show shot its wad prematurely (yes, I am going to make as many puns relating to ejaculations as I can, it seems fitting), but the episode had enough wit to make it engaging throughout. Even though Cartman’s ‘Thai massage parlor’ quip was used twice, it was funny enough the first time to warrant a second use. His acknowledgment of how great Craig’s hugs are was subtle, yet hilarious.

There were a lot of other good references that worked well, including a great line about Cee Lo Green’s one good hit, a nasty jab at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Bill Belichick (again), and a lot of Jim Rome abuse, with him using that patented Jim Rome subtle sarcasm of his. It’s always nice to see that the writers know a lot about what/who they are satirizing, and everything from the NFL teams to the players to the look of the crowds, it was all authentic and helped to add some relevance to the jokes. The one thing I look for a lot in recent years of South Park is when there is clearly a message to be driven home, and they overemphasize it. While there was some overuse of the sarcasm at times, there was always a random guy in the background who made it fresh again, so it didn’t feel tired. I was also afraid of the semen gag getting stale, and initially it seemed to be another cliché joke of “being filled with a creamy filling” that’s been done to death. But there was a clear progression of how disgusting it got, and by the end, Tom Brady chugging a whole bottle of it and a Gatorade dump made for some outrageous and memorable moments. Cum jokes are always welcome on South Park, since they’re pretty much always done right.

The ending showed the A plot and the B plot could merge well together, and it left room for some salty surprises. The car death was brutal, and I didn’t see it ‘coming’ (I swear I’ll stop with the puns), and the clever twist with the ending speech by Randy was a very smart play. Although, how would Randy know what cum tastes like? Anyways, I was left with a big smile on my face after seeing Butters get punished for simply being Butters, and any episode where that happens I usually love it. That might be the one running gag on the show that will never get tired, since Butters is arguably the best character the show has ever produced, in my humble opinion. He’s so innocent, asking what sarcasm and cum were, it just makes for comedic gold every time. So far, we’re off to a good start, let’s hope it stays consistent. I always have a fear of the show dipping in quality so much it gets cancelled, but I don’t think I have to worry about that ‘coming’ any time soon with episodes like “Sarcastaball”.

…Seriously, I’ll stop now.

-Jared