By MARK O’CALLAGHAN
Co-Arts Editor
A show like “South Park” has a special power of being utterly fearless when tackling a subject. Just last season, Trey Parker and Matt Stone focused on the Charlottesville attacks, opioids and many other topics. With so much going on in the world, they decided to tackle the issue of mass shootings, especially the many that happened at schools.
The episode begins with the kids in class talking about their math test. While this is going on, a shooting is taking place but no one seems to care. Everyone is focused on why they failed the test and how fractions are horrible.
If you’re not familiar with “South Park” then it has a lot of dark and morbid humor behind it. There are constant amounts as they’re highlighting how desensitized we are to these shootings. It’s darkly humorous seeing how over the top everyone is with how they’re dealing with it. SWAT officers are in the classroom and everyone is trying to talk over what’s happening. Also, there’s a good throwaway joke with Butters the hall monitor carrying a machine gun.
The main story deals with Stan’s mom Sharon, being the only one who is scared and concerned about the increasing shootings that are going on. She’s scared that her kids will be scared but everyone thinks she’s on her period. The story here is hilarious as Stan’s dad Randy steals the show. Everything he did manage to get a laugh out of me.
The episode does end on an interesting note with the final shot saying #CancelSouthPark. This hashtag has been in the promotions for this season as the creators declared that “South Park” has gone too far. Whether this is a just a gag or it leads to a bigger story going on this season is unknown. Hopefully it leads to more
The subplot involving Cartman and Token was definitely lacking compared to the main one. Cartman is mad that Token changed his answers during the test making him cheating useless. Cartman thinks it’s because he didn’t like “Black Panther” and that’s why the answers were changed.
It’s not that the subplot is bad but it’s too basic for “South Park.” We’ve seen Cartman schnik and while it occasionally gets a laugh, it brings down the episode. It takes away from the main story instead of standing on its own. Maybe if they beefed up the conflict and added more jokes than Token didn’t see “Black Panther” then it would have been better. Instead, was just Cartman investigating Token
Even with a basic subplot, the season premiere of “South Park” is a strong start. It does highlight the potential of being absolutely desensitized to these mass shootings while still delivering funny material. So far, season 22 of “South Park” is off to a good start.
“South Park” airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Comedy Central.
