South Park Episode 1502 – “Funnybot”

Last week when I read the news that Bin Laden had been killed certain immediate thoughts came to mind. First; someone out there will be pissed off at us for daring to kill somebody regardless of whether they deserved it, and Two; I know what’s going to be on next week's South Park episode.

I have watched every single South Park episode ever released, and thus are able to observe when patterns emerge. Over the years Matt and Trey have developed a somewhat more subtle sense of humor. Sometimes this works beautifully; such as “Fishsticks” and “Fatbeard”. Most episodes of South Park have some underlying current with anywhere from 1 to 3 layers of messages flowing. Not every episode is this deep, nor is every episode particularly funny, but you have to understand that after 15 years any show has pretty much run its course.

In case you were not aware; Matt and Trey keep up to the minute on the news, and are often able to integrate world events into an episode as little as three days before it airs. Whenever something big happens, such as the capture or killing of a world-famous terrorist, and a South Park episode is forthcoming within the next week or two, you can be pretty assured that it will be part of the plot. Anyone remember “Christmas in Canada”? Saddam Hussein was captured by US forces on 13 December 2003. A mere four days later on the 17th his character as depicted in South Park appeared in the episode in question, and was smoothly integrated into the plot in such a convincing way that it is difficult to imagine that it wasn't already written that way.

I will not reveal too much about the plot of this particular episode, only that the killing of bin Laden does not in fact feature itself into the episode, but it is clear by the end that the event did have an influence on the overall plot, and while it is not even close to the epic win of "Ding-dong the Americans caught Saddam", it’s still clever.

It has been stated in interviews for at least the last five or six seasons that Matt and Trey wanted out of their contract. Each time that the show is close to being canceled they sign up for another two or three seasons. There have been some incredibly good episodes recently, such as the two part “200” episode, the whole Mysterion arc, and “Crème Fraiche”. There have also been some incredibly bad episodes, such as “It's a Jersey Thing”, and “Insheeption”, which only serves to put to stark contrast how well done certain episodes are in their multilayered commentary.

Matt and Trey are clearly bored at this point, and although this episode was not a bad episode, and once again attempts to create a multilayered story, it just feels like they're taking any two or three random things and throwing them together without some of the incredible cohesiveness we've seen from previous episodes.

It’s anyone's guess when South Park will end. It is my hope that after 15 years, enduring what is potentially the most uneven show in the history of television, whose highs are incredibly high, and whose lows are equally low, we will be rewarded with one of the most epic conclusions to a television series ever. The 200th episode proved that this is not only possible, but likely. Until then South Park is as South Park does, and that's about as much as I can say about it anymore.