South Park: Season 1, Episode 1: "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe"

South Park:
Season 1, Episode 1
Grade: 6.3

It’s so weird how primitive the animation looks at the earliest point of the series. Its pretty close to the way things look now but not quite. The animation almost looks 30 years old in a way that makes the early animation a lot cooler than the way it looks now which is great but not as cool as this early animation. This first episode is really focused on creating the world and the pace and dynamic of the show for us. The type of humor the show wants to convey is put on priority here as its just trying to give us a sense of what the tone of the overall show is. It’s weird how different this first episode is from the others I’ve seen and I wonder how long this feel that the show has is conveyed. The voices are a bit different as well. Kyle’s voice is higher and Cartman’s voice is much harsher. I do enjoy that there is a portion of the shows episodes that seem to concentrate in humor derived purely from the characters and the world of South Park. This episode features aliens at South Park and Cartman getting an anal probe as the episode title says. He continually denies it because of the embarrassment it brings. Favorite moments include Ike because he is so cute, the music that pays when Chef drive up to the kids, Mr. Hat telling Kyle to go to hell, the cows wanting to board the train. Anything involving Wendy Testaburger in the early seasons when Mary Kay Bergman did the voices of the girls and women on the show before tragically killed herself. Stan’s smile when he sees Wendy, the milk is yummy poster, “I love to singa about the…”, Kenny’s death and subsequent decomposition by rats, “Yeah, I want cheesy poofs!”, Cartman and the kitty, the bird landing in Stan’s puke, “Don’t be difficult Eric!”, the cows in general, “Hey look a French fry!”. Overall this was quite a good episode but it’s almost more fascinating as the first episode of South Park than it is just as an episode on its own.

South Park: Season 13, Episode 7: "Fatbeard"

South Park:
Season 13, Episode 7: “Fatbeard”
Grade: 7.7
This was a solid send off for the first half of the thirteenth season of South Park. I hoped more would have been done with the way the show addressed the issue in this episode and I found Cartman’s constant “Da fuck?” lines to be irritating after a while whereas it had been funny in the beginning of the episode. The episodes definitely had a slow slump as well but its’ funny parts were extremely amusing. My favorite moments were those showcasing Ike which had me in near tears from laughter. Anything involving Butters of course is great. Then we have when the ginger kid gets kicked out of the pirate group. The shooting at the end of the episode and the lightsaber. There were a lot of moments to admire and some parts that slagged. All in all not an amazing episode but definitely a good one.

South Park: Season 12, Episode 13: "Elementary School Musical"

“South Park” Season 12, Episode 12” Elementary School Musical

Grade: A-

Another hilarious episode containing some of the funniest bits I’ve seen in a while. All of the kids become obsessed with high school musical except for the main characters and they vow to never sing and dance because the school has taken to randomly breaking out into song and dance. The funny thing about this episode is that the songs in it are very spot on as to what High School Musical songs sound like, the choreography is spot on as are the lyrics. These songs were created in a fraction of the time that the actual HSM songs were done and it is hilarious that they can basically pull off what the HSM songs do in s self deprecating way in a fraction of the time. Obviously a lot of work goes into those movies but it was funny to see it being done in such a short amount of time.

Another amusing aspect was the switch around of the father who does not want his son to become a basketball player and wants him to sing as opposed to the father who wants his son to play a sport as opposed to dancing.

I thought there was a bit too much with Mr. Queermo slapping people but since it was funny and a couple of times hilarious it was not a big deal.

But my favorite parts were when they are all watching High School Musical to see what the hype is about and Cartman says:

"Well, I'm out guys. If this is what's cool now, I think I'm done. I no longer have any connection to this world. I'm gonna go home and kill myself. Goodbye, friends."

(the next morning)

Cartman: (walks into class and sighs)

Kyle: What happened? I thought you were gonna kill yourself?

Cartman: I tried - went to sleep in my mom's car in the garage with the engine turned on.

Stan: But you didn't die?

Cartman: Freakin' hybrids, man. They just don't do the job anymore.

Another part that made me laugh out loud for a considerable length of time was what Cartman would do every time Scott Malkinson would talk. He would say something to the effect of “I’m Scott Malkinson. I have a lisp and diabetes. I’m Scott Malkinson. Omg freaking hilarious.
Overall this was an episode that I was completely entertained with from start to finish once again showing us a perception of things in a way that makes us see things more clearly even if we are doing so through a cartoon show. Very impressive and hilarious.

Here’s a link to when they watch the movie: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/210218/
And here’s a Scott Malkinson clip: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/210225/

"South Park": Season 12, Episode 14: "The Ungroundable"

South Park: Season 12, Episode 14: "The Ungroundable"
Grade: B

I don’t watch a lot of South Park. I really enjoy it when I see an episode and I’ve seen the movie but I have never taken the time to regularly watch the show. Matt and I watched this episode about a group of kids who pretend they are vampires and the Goths being upset because of others inability to distinguish the them from the vampire kids. Everything was spot on. The initiation of the vampire kids taking place in “Hot Topic” was hilarious. I also loved that in an effort be different again, the Goth kids dress in Gap clothes but instead of having a specific clique to be referred to, they are called by their physical traits. It’s a hilarious moment, my favorite of the episode and their reaction to it is to immediately go back to their Goth clothes so they can be referred to as the “Goth kids” as opposed to being referred to by their physical imperfections. I very much like Butters as well. The faux Goth music was especially entertaining. And the speech at the end that the Goth kids make about distinguishing them from the vampire kids was really funny. I don’t know how to judge a South Park episode. I just know that I was entertained and impressed by its keen perception of things.