In the past few seasons, South Park has had quite a bit of fun mocking the smartphone age. Last year’s hilarious “Put It Down” skewered both President Trump’s Twitter use, as well as the most egregious examples of texting and driving, while just a few episodes ago, “The Scoots” gave us a world where Halloween night is taken over by scooters than can only be accessed from smartphones. With “Buddha Box,” however, Trey and Matt go in harder than ever before on how people’s behavior is negatively effected by the excessive time they spend on their phones. As usual, they get in some good jokes, and have a worthwhile point, but this time around, they were a bit too heavy handed for their own good.
The plot begins with Cartman complaining to his psychiatrist that he’s tired of how “everyone sucks so much these days,” which more or less amounts to them bugging him with real-world concerns while he’s on his phone. The doctor diagnoses him with anxiety, which he defines as “an excuse to be lazy and lame to everyone around you.” Whoo boy, I’m guessing some people will be pissed about this one. To be honest, as someone who does face very intense anxiety at times, I wasn’t particularly bothered, partly because, well, it is South Park. Expecting them to be sensitive about things like this has long been a losing man’s game. More importantly, though, I would argue that the show is about half-right. When Kyle snaps at Cartman for using anxiety as an excuse one too many times, he points out that everyone has anxiety, and working through it is just a part of normal life, which is a perfectly fair point. That being said, “Buddha Box” might have worked better if it had dug just a bit deeper.
Let’s consider one of my favorite Cartman episodes, season 11's “Le Petit Tourette.” Cartman realizes that faking Tourette’s Syndrome is a “golden ticket” because everyone just has to go along with it. In that episode, we see Cartman contrasted with people who actually have Tourette’s, but here, we just see the entire town gradually use anxiety as an excuse along with him, putting the “Buddha Box” (a literal brown box that projects your phone’s screen onto your brain) on to avoid contact with the outside world. Cartman isn’t any better or worse than anyone else, he just thinks of the idea first. Even if the show has a point about how anxiety can be used an excuse for bad behavior, it would have been more interesting if they had put Cartman’s selfishness up against a true case of severe anxiety. They wouldn’t have had to look hard, because Tweek is right there. Anxiety is his primary personality trait! It’s right in his name! Tweek calling Cartman out for faking would have felt natural, and set up a great conflict. Instead, he has to suffer quietly when Cartman introduces Craig to the Buddha Box. If there’s one person in town who has a credible claim to anxiety, it’s Tweek. Here’s to hoping the final two episodes feature him taking Cartman and the rest of the town to task for their collective laziness and dishonesty.
While the main plot had mixed results, the return of the PC Principal/Strong Woman plot was quite encouraging, and featured some of the show’s funniest moments. First off, the “PC Babies” song was quite enjoyable, nearly as much as the “Colorado Farm” song from “Tegridy Farms.” More importantly, though, it was nice to see the show return to this thread, and finally move it in an intriguing direction. When PC and Strong (gotta love typing their names like that) are fighting/distracted by their Buddha Boxes, the babies break out, and go on a string of increasingly absurd adventures. They shame a guy in a bar for saying he ordered a “pussy” drink, then get a construction site shut down (the school being built wasn’t planning to focus on racial issues enough). Finally, they record a smash hit about the scourge of white people having dreadlocks. No one quite explains how they get around from one place to another, or how a record company exec decides it would be a good idea for them to record a song, but it doesn’t really need to make sense, because the absurdity is just so much fun.
The babies are united with their parents, who realize that their Buddha Boxes were the reason why they nearly lost their children. They plead with the town to use them as little as possible, but of course, everyone is too distracted to notice. A little on the nose, but it sets up a nice ending where the pair and their children are actually comfortable going out in public, with no one wanting to look away from their phone long enough to ask any questions. After all they’d been through, it was nice to see them get a break.
“Buddha Box” was an enjoyable enough episode that laid its message on a little too thick. Once the box is introduced, it’s not hard to figure out where things are going, and when PC Principal speaks to an audience full of people wearing them, it’s too predictable to be climactic. Smartphones are bad, we get it. That being said, the wackiness of the PC Babies subplot, as well as the general absurdity of Cartman wearing the box in such settings as a waterpark and a soccer game (why even bother showing up?) were enough to push this one into the positive column for me. With two episodes left to go, ManBearPig is gone, and smartphone addiction has replaced him as the town’s number one threat. There’s potential for a great climax, as long as Trey and Matt are thoughtful enough to properly use the tools at their disposal. (Seriously guys, do something bigger with Tweek here!)
Stray Observations
- I’m guessing Cartman-as-Buddha will be back for the last two episodes. I won’t lie; I did chuckle at the idea that “namaste” means “fuck you, I have anxiety.”
- Pi Pi’s Waterpark makes a return. If nothing else, maybe it’s a good thing that Cartman is too busy with his phone to complain about all the minorities?
- How long did the soccer game go on before the rest of the team noticed that Cartman was playing goalie with a box over his head?
191 Comments
That being said, the wackiness of the PC Babies subplot, as well as the general absurdity of Cartman wearing the box in such settings as a waterpark and a soccer game (why even bother showing up?) were enough to push this one into the positive column for me. Can’t wait to hear people complain about the disparity between this sentence and the tone of the review and the grade.
Can’t you
You “can’t wait” ? Wow that sounds like a fulfilling life.
While, Kyle’s point wasn’t too bad, as everyone does have anxiety, and feeling anxious doesn’t make you special. It would have been nice to see Tweak used to juxtapose Cartman’s ‘anxiety’ will a real anxiety disorder.
Tweek doesn’t have an anxiety disorder. He just drinks too much coffee.
With meth possibly in it.
As well as odd parents. Not as bad as Kyle’s dad or Butter’s parents, but odd.
Bingo! Hence the name ‘Tweek’, as in, to consciously do something to alter your state. Subtlety or thinking beyond basic is beyond the writer of this article, as well as many others on this thread.
Yeah, South Park has always been iffy on mental illness, often erring in the side of overdiagnosis or excuses for being shitty. And though those do happen a lot that rhetoric also causes a chilling effect on people truly getting help when they need it
It makes them cold?
First off, the “PC Babies” song was quite enjoyable, nearly as much as the “Colorado Farm” song from “Tegridy Farms.”
Pretty sure it was a direct parody of Muppet Babies right down to the PC Babies being dressed like Gonzo, Kermit, Miss Piggy and (I think) either Scooter or Skeeter.
You are correct. When they recreated the title sequence of the newest Muppet Babies show, I chuckled.
This guy misses the point of literally every fucking part of this show.
God forbid someone didn’t grow up watching the Muppets
Maybe if PC Principal or Strong Woman were wearing green and white stockings he might have got it..
God forbid that someone who is paid to write about pop culture in media actually bothers to KNOW something about pop culture in media…
Muppet Babies.
Like most people who do recaps here.
As usual, they get in some good jokes, and have a worthwhile point, but this time around, they were a bit too heavy handed for their own good.I’d disagree. I think it’s just about right. I’m glad you agree on the anxiety stuff. As someone with anxiety (you, not me), you probably get annoyed at everyone claiming to have it so they can bring their dog on a plane, or people confusing “I don’t know how to answer this question” with “I have anxiety.” It’s way over-diagnosed and misdiagnosed – not much different than when every parent shuttled their kid in to get some Adderall because they had a short attention span (no shit, it’s a kid)… and doctors had no problem fulfilling that request. Anyway…Smartphones are bad, we get it.I think they’re partially saying this, but I don’t think they’re blaming the smartphones. I think they’re saying human reliance on smartphones is bad. We can use them… but perhaps we don’t need to literally have them in our hands at all times. We’re not that important. Maybe put the phone away while you’re doing things with your family… that’s it. More an indictment on us than the technology itself.My two pennies.
Ya, the phones/boxes were just a metaphor for people’s inability/unwillingness to just deal with each other these days instead of retreating into distractions/excuses.
a budget echo-chamber, if you will…
I Know this may not add to the conversation, but “Hell is Other People” springs to mind…yes, in South Park it’s easy to combat anxiety with a hearty “F-you”, and voila, problem solved, but IRL, it can be “freeing” to shut the world out. Also springing to mind – “Freemium isn’t Free”, only it’s not an app that’s “addictive” but the actual device. Which is really the same thing.
Hey Pennies: Do you have a PhD in Psychology? If so, thanks for the info on mis and over diagnosing anxiety. If not, you and the non-doctors on the South Park writing staff can STFU.
Sounds like somebody with a BS Xanax prescription got hit a little too close to home. Do what the rest of us do, shut the fuck up and get over it.
It drives me crazy that people with chemical imbalances in their heads keep refusing to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and cure themselves!
Haven’t depressed people tried to be like, you know, happy? It’s not hard, right? It’s not as if stigmatizing mental illness and playing down its effect on a person leads people to not search out treatment for depression or anxiety or other issues and leaves them in a hopeless downward spiral.
How many people have actual mental illness and how many people cannot deal with normal emotional ups and downs? I mean back in 1988 when I took college psychology, I remember the statement that only about a quarter of people were healthy, about 50% needed some mental therapy and 25% needed urgent care. Maybe that’s true, but most people in the first two categories learn to cope with their issues without daily meds. I don’t believe it’s a leap to say that anti-anxiety meds are over-prescribed. The way the current managed health care system works in the US, it’s psychiatrists are incentivized to drug someone rather than spend time in some form of human-to-human therapy.
I try not to think about it too much…the world is demonstrably insane & feels no compunction about it since the very concept of sanity is literally meaningless to any & all non-human components of reality as far as I can make out…so arguably to attempt to parse an insane world exclusively within the boundaries of a sane mental framework is in itself an insane pursuit…see, I thought about it for all of two seconds & now I’m neck-deep in the swamplands of catch-22…now, where were those bootstraps…
I know a few people with xanax prescriptions and I’m sure they didn’t have any tests to diagnose chemical imbalance. They just said “I get anxious.” And did some talking with a psychiatrist. It’s grossly over diagnosed. Nobody was saying that it’s not a real medical issue for some. Relax dude. Take a Xanax.
At least you admitted you don’t know anything about anxiety issues.Great work.
Since we’re talking like South Park characters now, how about go fuck yourself, you fucking loser? Who the fuck in 2018 idolizes South Park anyway, you custom-South Park-avatar having piece of shit? “Oh, buh buh buh, the rich moron libertarians say anxiety is overdiagnosed, so I’m gonna go ahead and parrot that opinion with no nuance! South Park said it, so it’s OK! The human brain doesn’t sometimes have physical chemical imbalances that cause mental illness, you’re making it up! The rich libertarians told me that, so I’m going to assume it’s right with no further context or nuance!”
Pop another Prozac.
So you’ve seen inside my medicine cabinet?Nope. Metformin for Diabetes II. No Xanax. But I’m open to the possibility. Because I don’t assume I know better.
Typical South Park fan, the solution to every problem is “shut the fuck up and get over it”. That is, except anything YOU take issue with, like political correctness. Can’t shut up and get over that, they TUK MUH FREEZ PEECH!!!Cool strawman argument though, bro.You anti-PC, bro?
It’s interesting to me how you can watch the progression through the show from when Matt & Trey were just starting out as these funny, humble dudes who lucked into an animated show on basic cable into the egomaniacal know-it-all dicks of today. Maybe the Libertarian social Darwinist tendencies were always there in the background but now you can’t avoid seeing it. Which isn’t to say they aren’t still funny! But there’s such a fucking weird “bootstraps” bullshit mentality to them now.ETA: If it wasn’t clear (I may have lost my own thread), I think success and being surrounded by yes-men has negatively impacted the guys, which I think is demonstrated in the show itself.
Right it was just luck. They didn’t do any hard work at all, everything was just handed to them. I guess “they didn’t build that.”
LOL, you’re still butthurt over that comment? Buck up, snowflake!
Their initial exposure WAS luck. Someone important (Spielberg, I think?) stumbled across the Santa vs Jesus Christmas card. They weren’t looking to make that little gag video into anything bigger.That’s not taking away any of their effort or talent. EVERY artist has a lucky break.And are you even going to attempt to refute that they’ve become immune to criticism? At this point they’re as Teflon as The Simpsons, with the exception of that Apu snafu. And like Groening et al. Trey & Matt are deaf to the idea that they might be *GASP* in the wrong.
I think success and being surrounded by yes-men has negatively impacted
the guys, which I think is demonstrated in the show itself.
Do you have inside information? Please do share. We are humbled by the presence of someone who knows Matt and Trey personally.
“I think”. I said that twice. I also said I drew that conclusion from the show itself. So…. Good effort?
Yeah, I’d only disagree in that they’re still funny. The show became a parody of itself by 2009. The last good episode was when Kenny got high on cat piss.
This is a very stupid argument you’re trying to make. You’re basically equating making fun of something, with being offended by something. Those are two completely separate reactions my dude!
Are you seriously trying to suggest that conservatives are not offended by political correctness?P.S. you should change your burner name to Boner of a Lonely Hearts Club Band.
He has a BS from Hard Knocks University!
Dial back the weird hostility a little bit, Necbeard! You don’t need a PhD to post in the comment section of a friggin’ South Park review.
Dial back the weird bro-defensiveness, Lame Dick Joke Screen Name. Pennies does need a PhD to diagnose anxiety, which is what he’s doing. With a repeated example of comfort animals on planes, which makes me think he may have had a bad flight experience with one. (But unlike him and South Park, I won’t claim to KNOW this, just suspect it.)CLEARLY you don’t need a PhD to post here. CLEARLY. You may not even need a brain stem.
WHOOSH. XD
He’s a troll who always seems to get the most upvotes on South Park reviews. Weird that coincidence.
yeah, because my post looks so trolly.Only person trolling here is you. Thanks for continuing to follow me around, though.
don’t need one to know that not everyone getting on a plane with their accessory dog suffers from anxiety
Actually yes, you do. Knowing is not the same as suspecting. Don’t speak from authority if you aren’t an authority. You and the show seem to have the same bad habit of acting like you know more than you do.
lol. You’re a buffoon.Okay. I actually know people who travel with their pets but don’t suffer from anxiety… but their friendly family doc did em a favor.So yeah, I know. Anything else doc?
That still doesn’t prove *anything* about mis or over diagnosis. But please do continue to use anecdotal evidence to make broad social claims.Wocka wocka wocka! (Gotta keep up that buffoonery)
No doubt some take advantage, and many who are actually undiagnosed casually claim to have a disorder which they do not.
That doesn’t mean that anxiety disorders aren’t real (Karl Hungus can fuck right off) or that they’re necessarily “overdiagnosed.”
“Okay. I actually know people who travel with their pets but don’t suffer from anxiety… but their friendly family doc did em a favor.”
That’s an ethics violation, not “overdiagnosis”. Report them to your state’s medical board. Here you go:
https://www.fsmb.org/contact-a-state-medical-board
Because who needs evidence, right? You feel like not everyone with a therapy pet is legitimate, you don’t need proof. Classic South Park Libertarian attitude. Sorry, but facts don’t care about your feelings.
Anxiety is an emotion, not a condition. GAD and all kind of other shit are conditions, but anxiety is an emotion.
I don’t have a PhD, but I do have an MA in clinical psychology, and I’d like both of you to shut up.
Okay.Any thoughts on this episode’s treatment of anxiety? Or the fanbois parroting its message?
I wasn’t too happy about it. I might have found it poignant, and possibly funny, if like others said here there was some contrast like in “La Petite Tourrette,” or something that made it clear Cartman was the asshole. Yes, there are people who use “anxiety” as an excuse to bring a dog on a plane when it doesn’t belong or just be unpleasant, but there are a lot of people who are suffering from anxiety so bad as to be to the point where it’s pathological, and just “shutting the fuck up and getting over it” isn’t something they can do. Those people who can barely get out of bed or are afraid to deal with people, not because people suck, but because they are genuinely terrified of a myriad different things that could happen need help. The idea that anxiety is a normal part of life is an oversimplification that doesn’t take into account that many people (some who don’t get help, and therefore I would say that anxiety disorders and problems are underdiagnosed), have such a problem with it that it’s completely abnormal. It’s not normal to have panic attacks. Ever. That’s not their fault because they’re lazy or lame or something. Sometimes it just happens. Other times it’s a traumatic thing. And yeah, like someone in here mentioned, this seems to go hand in hand with a change in brain chemistry, but I’m not in psychiatry, so I can’t speak to that with any expertise.
I also might have liked to see something in the episode about being on your phone all the time might be the cause of increased anxiety, which if they did, I missed, because their messaging was a bit muddled at times. I actually met a patient who said that his phone seemed to be giving him panic attacks. At first it was the stuff he would see on twitter or facebook, then it started to happen whenever he got messages. Then whenever it rang. Eventually he had to get rid of his cellphone completely. He doesn’t even own a flip phone. Or at least he didn’t back then. I hope his therapist got him some help.Nuance tends to not be funny. I didn’t find this episode funny, but their opinion of anxiety, which is something I deal with professionally almost daily wasn’t the only reason. They had some stuff they wanted to say, right or wrong, and they threw some stuff in between, and I don’t think it worked. Anyway, we got like four or five great episodes in a row. They can’t all be winners.
Isn’t the point that people with anxiety don’t really want to be cut off from society though. That putting on a box to shutout the world is the exact opposite of what they want?I think there are little counter points throughout the episode to highlight that Cartman and, by the end of the episode, most of the town aren’t doing it because of anxiety, they just want to be bothered.
Well, you’re half right (maybe a 1/3). The episode very clearly portrayed anxiety as nothing more than an excuse people are using to close themselves off from others because they’re “lazy” and just don’t want to deal with things. Without any contrast from characters suffering from real anxiety that’s all we saw. This message is solidified by Kyle’s speech, which is very obviously how Matt and Trey feel.
If that’s not what you got from it, then congratulations. You’re less cynical than the creators of the show and more idealistic than most of the people who watched the episode.
I just assumed everyone was using the word ‘anxiety’ as a cover, not because they really think the minor irritations of everyday life are the same thing. Even if they’re lying to themselves their misrepresentation doesn’t change the actual meaning. Maybe I’m one of the few you mentioned, although I think I’m quite cynical, but I didn’t need an example of actual anxiety for contrast. That no character with an anxiety disorder was using it as an excuse for laziness made the point well enough for me. On the other hand many fans of this show seem to be incapable of more than surface level analysis so I can understand your concerns.
I’m diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and I can’t think of a worse hell than being stuck in a box with my own head. I’m fine when I’m distracted, or when I’m with other people. It’s late at night or when I’m driving or when I’m in the shower, alone with my thoughts, that my anxiety kicks into overdrive and I end up frozen or (at worst) overtaken by a panic attack. I’ve legit had nights where I’m awake at 3am hyperventilating because my brain went into a bad place and set off a panic attack. THAT SAID, I have known plenty of drama queens in my day who have “anxiety” or “bipolar” and use it to get attention. I hate people like that, and I took a long, LONG time to seek out help because I didn’t want people to think I was doing it for attention (yes, I was frozen with anxiety about getting help for my anxiety).
Anxiety is a fucking shit show.
I didnt mean to reply to you
Wow you seem reasonable and enjoyable to be around.
Wwwaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhh
Yep. Exactly the kind of nuanced, intelligent response this show seems to engender in its fandom nowadays.
LOL I was wondering when the PCbaby would show up. Everybody shut up now 😀
Hey Pennies: Do you have a PhD in Psychology? If so, thanks for the info on mis and over diagnosing anxiety. If not, you and the non-doctors on the South Park writing staff can STFU.
One of the points of the episode is that the diagnosis was being misused as a means to an end by those with disingenuous motives. As a way of controlling the conversation to their own benefit. The writing staff aren’t pretending to be psychologists in their commentary.
I ask people things i dont know and it makes them really upset becuase “Just google it”. I say i dont want to google it, and everyone is very confused.
Smart phones are never as much of a problem as stupid people. Stupid people with smart phones are future contenders for Darwin Awards, using them to text while driving.
My two pennies.Totally read this wrong.
I have anxiety issues, panic attacks, but I still think people need to toughen the fuck up, including myself.
That ending with PC, Strong and the babies taking advantage of the Buddha Box epidemic to act like a normal family hit just the right balance of sad and sweet. Even the use of that melancholy country song took me back to the amazing “Landslide” montage at the end of “You’re Getting Old,” albeit much less gut-punching. Even if they’re fighting a losing battle, I hope it works out for them in the long run.Also, I’m such a damn sucker for this show’s fake commercials. So simple, yet so hilarious.“I want to be enlightened like the Buddha, but I’ve got these fucking kids.”
Get a fucking life, you pathetic faggot
Who the fuck still watches this show other than 12 year old boys, shut-ins and meth heads?
Who takes the time to comment on a recap of a show they claim not to watch?
It’s true, that 5 seconds it took to write that comment while taking a shit really belies my point.
the strangely fitting context in which you squeezed out the thought doesn’t entirely help your case, so I have to wonder why you bother to mention it…we already knew you hadn’t troubled yourself to really think any of this through or achieve anything approaching focus on the subject…& that’s way too low a bar to think it merits credit for multi-tasking…
You do know you have your panties in a bunch over a cartoon, right kiddo?
thanks for your concern…but my underwear remains as unruffled as I…best of luck with your own un-bunching…
Who takes the time to respond to an obvious troll? The only person that wins is the troll.
It’s like shooting retarded fish in a see-through barrel.
It’s like shooting retarded fish in a see-through barrel
Using the word “retarded” to descibe people who aren’t on your side.
Sounds exactly like what a “12 year old boy”, “shut-in” or “meth head” would do. Do you hate yourself?
Keep trying buddy. Your constant attempts at offending me are quite cute.
Many of the folks who get to read the comments win, too.
Did we learn nothing from Kyle’s fight with Mr. Hankie.
Just noting that many people who jump on somebody who comes to a South Park thread to slag it…go to a Big Bang Theory thread to slag itI would wager there are very few of us on here who have never gone one thread and said “this thing sucks!”
Really? “ThePeeTree Fartin” is calling other people out for being immature. Go fuck yourself.
Damn you’re mad someone criticized your cartoon show.
Sounds like someone ran out of meth! Don’t get so triggered, snowflake.
I think you misspelled “namaste.”
People who like funny shows? You know the ones, they have what’s called a sense of humor.
South park stopped being funny in 2008.
Namaste, brah.
I C what u did there…
You should get your Buddha Box checked, bro. Your anxiety’s showing.
Uh, lots of people….
LOL YOU MUST BE GAAAAAY
Lots of people. It’s really popular. You on the other hand are clearly a miserable douche.
Me. This show is funnier now than it was back in the day.
People that like humor. Thats who you cunt.
And you sound emotionally stable and not at all thrown off by someone not liking your cartoon show. Keep up the great work!
Waaaaghhhhh
avclub is filled with alt-right kids. South Parks audience.
Basically a bunch of people that are smarter, happier, and alot more fun than you
Ok, whatever you need to tell yourself to keep from getting angry at someone not liking a cartoon. Very healthy.
Keep proving me right, pussy 😉
Pussy? I guess I’m the closest thing to that you’ve ever come across.
Only a stupid pussy like you would write that 😉
That’s it buddy, let it out. Show us on the doll where the bad man who doesn’t like South Park touched you and made you so angry. It’s ok, he can’t hurt you now. You don’t have to lash out just because he touched your tender butthole, and you secretly liked it. It’s ok.
You fail again, stupid pussy 😉
Not surprised someone that thinks South Park is funny also uses SomEcards as a “witty”response. Don’t you have reruns of Matlock to watch, Grandpa?
Hey, I’m not a 12 year old boy.
Who the fuck uses a screen name no one but a 12 year old boy would choose and then criticizes people for watching a show he thinks is only for 12 year old boys???Wait, are you a 12 year old boy who doesn’t want grown-ups watching his favorite show, thereby making it uncool for 12 year olds to watch?Why don’t you go back to playing Fortnite and Minecraft and leave the adults alone, at least until you grow some hair on your balls. M’kay?
Why don’t you go back to playing Fortnite and Minecraft and leave the adults alone, at least until you grow some hair on your balls. M’kay?
You should change this to “grow some hair on your ass”. Cause everyone has an ass. Assuming this person has balls would make a PC baby cry.
This whole thing has gone better than planned. Thank you for your impotent rage, it’s like an energy drink. Watching you guys lose your tiny minds over someone hating a cartoon is priceless.
Who the fuck uses a screen name? No one.Most people have a username. Unless you think Ku Klux Klam and LadiesandGentlemenTheFabulousHumanStain are given names.P.S. I tidied up your comment for spelling errors. No need to thank me.
I chose the name to make fun of Demetri Martin fans on a previous post. Most people don’t put a high level of importance on screen names, mainly because we aren’t emotionally stunted man-babies who blow their asshole out from anger at someone not liking a cartoon. Stay gold, dipshit.
Stay grey, childish, lonely, miserable, no-life trolls.
You, apparently.
Aw bless your heart. Please try to explain to the class how you ended up with that conclusion, you sweet simple child.
Smarter people than you who don’t crap out verbal diarrhea like “who watches this show” Fucking narcissist.
Who the fuck comes into topics for shows they don’t even watch so they can do a whiny troll dance? Then again who names themselves PeeTree Fartin unless they’re a 12 year old boy?
Anybody catch all of the PC Babies awful names? I know at least two of them were ones people usually use for dogs.
I heard three names: River, Hayley, and Emery. Shockingly, not all of those names are gender-neutral! Between that and PC Principal manspreading in one scene, the cracks in their progressive facade are beginning to show! I’ve gotta say though: they actually seem more like real, fully-fleshed out characters at this point, rather than just a straw man (and a straw woman, of course!).
I remember them mentioning Riley, River and Harper among others; they were definitely all gender neutral.
Despite there being 5 babies, 6 names are used. They are Riley, Bailey, Bumper, Harper, River, Emery.
Are you math-shaming that family?!
South Park heavy-handed? No way.
This episode felt a little too alt-right for my snowflake millennial ass. Come at me. Trey’s loving his fart smell too much.
The white people with dreds made me laugh, but I wonder if they really think people protesting what’s happening at border are PC babies
Yes theyre pc babies.These people are crying because we dont let hordes of illegals storm our border.
Yes. Yes they fucking ARE. Eff you guys and your open borders. If you want to see consequences of open borders, got o Los Angeles. Its a dirty expensive overcrowded city full of people who dont speak english and YES, that is a BAD thing.
Waaaaaaaghhhhhhh.
For sure you should only expose yourself to views that exactly match your own. That’s how you grow as a person.
I don’t know that it’s possible to be too heavy-handed about the negative effects of people constantly on their fucking smartphones.
100 stars.
I noticed a goof in the scene with Cartman in the road where the background was flipped so the ”Tom’s Rhinoplasty” sign was backwards.Anyway, it was a fun episode and I’m interested in seeing how much of it carries over into next week’s, if anything.
I noticed that too. Also i’m no expert on South Park weather, but when looking at his phone Cartman says it’s going to snow. Then later they are playing outdoor soccer and at a water park wearing shorts. Then towards the end there are people skiing in the snow. Which is it?
It’s South Park, there’s always snow, except for like a week in July.
doctor diagnoses him with anxiety, which he defines as “an excuse to be lazy and lame to everyone around you.”This may be my least favorite type of metahumor around these days. The joke that is set up as satire, but then instead of using a a legitimate-sounding definition of anxiety that skewers the way people abuse medical terminology for their own selfish purposes, it just plainly says what they think about it, presumably meaning to satirize the use of satire, but with no actual artfulness or effort. This is second only to sitcoms that use a group commotion then have one person say something plainly at the end after everyone else has stopped talking. They do that a lot on Family Guy, and it’s usually a really piss poor joke.
I may not agree, but thank you for your considered response. Please teach the rest of these people how to critically think.
I feel like Stone and Parker might have had a point, if they hadn’t licensed their show out as a mobile game already last year. So, again, fuck these two selfish nihilists right to death.
You sound like a super fun guy.
Weren’t the people in the episode doing social things on their phones like email and facebook while ignoring real-life social opportunities outside their box? I may have missed it, but I didn’t see anyone playing a mobile game.
They’re mocking themselves all the way to the bank. Score!
Calvinballer – great name!!
It’s just another freemium game. It’s not like you’re giving your money to Canada or anything.
No one anywhere cares what you think.
Fuck off loser
Americans are thick headed. You have to lay the message on thick. If this was an art house movie then it would be best to be subtle. But this is a animated TV show and sometimes you got a smack a person upside the head
Anxiety has ruined my life. I’ve dropped out of school three times, tried meds and doctors that didn’t work, can’t hold a job unless it’s something reclusive that lets me work at home, and my quality of life over all is pretty poor. I guess I just needed to wait until the 22nd season of South Park to tell me to get over it! Of course! Never once in my life had I considered that! I wish this episode aired back when I had a panic attack that kept me awake for 9 days. I was considering going back to a doctor too but now I don’t need to. It’s good to know Trey Parker will have a job waiting for him as a doctor if the South Park thing doesn’t work out.
Does he actually think people with crippling anxiety think that no one else has any amount of anxiety? Of course they do. But there’s a big difference between butterflies in your stomach and feeling like you’re literally about to die because of how intense it feels. I mean I accepted a long time ago that people without crippling anxiety just don’t get it but it’s still disappointing to see again.
It’s a garbage episode and it’s surprisingly lazy considering this is what followed two episodes of admitting they were wrong. I would think they’d start researching things a little more but I guess not.
I’m not going to try & make out like I know how you feel but for what it’s worth you have my sympathies…I’m familiar with a number of people who suffer from conditions that wouldn’t necessarily be apparent to a casual observer but none the less succeed in wreaking a pernicious influence on their quality of life that is at best of a magnitude it is difficult to adequately convey & at worst literally life-destroying…I would never begrudge those for whom pharmacology or medical intervention provide a path to solace but where they do not, in particular, I have great sympathy for the difficulty posed by needing to find a way out of the seeming dead-end that leaves one facing…may your tomorrows treat you better than your yesterdays…
Did this episode give you anxiety?
I’m surprised the PC Babies didn’t take offense to the cultural appropriation of the Buddha.BTW, Of course the “PC Babies” theme song was this:
HOLY FUCK i forgot about this show.
That ep was nothing but filler: D-.
Whenever I’m teaching, this is always a huge problem. Kids don’t want to look up from their phones for fear of losing a match of Fortnite, and parents dole out the same excuses every time—”well, I don’t want to keep him from his friends,” or “it’s the only thing that calms him down,” or “I can’t do anything about it anyways.” South Park hit the nail on the head of a real problem that apparently no one seems to think us a problem, and that you’re all defending your phone time so vehemently is indicative of a much wider problem.Here’s a test: leave your phone in your room. Leave the ringer all the way up for your phone for emergencies, but turn all other notifications off. How long are you able to go without touching your phone? How long before you think about your phone?
I actually thought most of this season was good (or at least better than the past few shitshow seasons). But this episode was utterly insufferable bullshit. SP has this huge blind spot where they simultaneously make fun of people for being upset about things while also being upset about things. In the same episode we get hammered over the head with how pissed off the writers are at smartphones, but at the same time they make fun of people who would prefer the word ‘pussy’ stop being used as a slur. It’s completely hypocritical logic to the point of being incoherent. Plus, this is yet another episode of the show misrepresenting PC culture. I’ve rarely if ever heard anyone get upset about white people with dreads. They’ve set up the PC family as this weird straw man onto which they can project their (increasingly) old-man-yells-at-cloud sensitivities.I’m not even going to touch the anxiety thing. After the man-bear-pig episodes, I thought maybe the rest of the season was headed in a worthwhile direction. Nope. This show will always be what it always was: something I thought was great when I was 16 and has pretty much stayed in place since then.
“I’ve rarely if ever heard anyone get upset about white people with dreads.”https://www.cnn.com/2016/03/31/living/white-dreadlocks-cultural-appropriation-feat/index.htmlhttps://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/evbjz7/we-asked-white-people-with-dreadlocks-whyhttps://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/zac-efron-dreadlocks-dreads-new-hair-look-cultural-appropriation-instagram-hairstyle-photo-a8435211.html…Hopefully you get the point. It’s 2018, of course there’s plenty of people who bitch about them being a form of cultural appropriation.
“there were PC babies at the mexican border” the fuck did you just say Matt and Trey?
triggered.
Waaaaggghhhhhh
Something that offended you!
You should protest this outrageous statement!
There has been a really strong thread this season of people ignoring the real problem. Everyone ignores school shootings. Everyone ignored the scooter epidemic. Everyone tries to ignore the problems with the Catholic Church. Everyone ignores global warming. Now, everyone ignores everything. I just wonder if they’re going to be able to make it all dovetail, or if they even realize they have a theme…
I wondered that a little, myself…I kind of hope they do…all that #cancelsouthpark stuff & all had me half-thinking they might be looking to make a wider point that whatever criticisms the show might legitimately deserve the idea that if it hadn’t been on the air all these years we wouldn’t be noticing a somewhat distopian aftertaste to some of the current flavours of the month is something of a straw man in its own right…
The ‘scooter epidemic’? Really?Yeah it’s right up there with the Spanish Flu.Get a life.
In the context of the show it was a large problem that got out of hand because it was ignored. (Not so much in reality.)
The hit song was the most silly part of the episode, not because the PC Babies wouldn’t write a song about white guys with dreadlocks, but I simply don’t believe any record executive these days would sign people who play musical instruments.
then get a construction site shut down (the school being built wasn’t planning to focus on racial issues enough)This is wrong!! The PC babies are crying because the viaduct is State funded and not County funded and the State was unwilling to fund race relations education programs. They find it hypocritical.
You missed the point Hugar: everyone is glued to their phones and keen to the latest outrage so much that it’s debilitating, and this his been largely orchestrated by PC types. It’s only now that the rest of the population has their heads in boxes and are totally checked out of reality/not interacting at all that the hyper-doctrinaire PCP & SW can actually enjoy themselves without being offended. That’s how the PC can “get a break” these days LOL.
Maybe Matt & Trey aren’t trying to make some kind of deep social statement about people glued to their phones, and are just trying to make a joke about it?
The PC Principal/Strong Woman stuff got so tired before the end of the first episode when they met, and they just keep making the same “we can’t be together because we’re PC!” joke over and over (and over) again. We get it South Park writers, being PC means you can’t make lazy jokes as often, but goddamn stop whining already or come up with some new material about it. The ‘pussy crusher’ ep was great but it’s been years now, that PC horse is long dead Matt/Trey, let it RIP.
PC police feeling the burn.
negatively Affected. not effected. things affect other things, and impart an effect on them.
Sounds like someone’s vag was bruised. Did South Park make fun of something very important to you and your life? Poor thing.
Meh
I have watched this show for a very long time, and this is the only episode every to have upset me. Anxiety disorder is not the same as the healthy amount of anxiety people experience in their day to day lives. Anxiety disorder is having too much anxiety all the time, and sometimes with no cause. You may wake up everyday and feeling like you’re heart is going to jump out of your chest, thoughts crowding your head, and not even know why. So much so, why even leave bed? I love this show, but fuck this episode. I’m sure the creators probably weren’t intending to pick on people with real mental illness, but they did a poor job of making that clear.
Yes, it was ok when they made fun of everyone and everything else but now they are attacking me!
damn i really really loved this episode. Mostly cause Cartman was on FIRE in this one. HE had so many awesome awesome awesome one-liners. and the entire PC babies gag was hilarious. Thought this episode goes in the top 3
How did PC Principal and Strong Woman hear the PC Babies on the radio when they were wearing Buddha Boxes?
“negatively effected” – It’s affected, not effected. The subject “effects” and the object is “affected”
Thank you for your service. Maybe you should be the one writing the articles.
It’s almost like Matt & Trey don’t even care about how a millennial blogger thinks the show should be written.
This is the best new episode of any show in years and the most relevant
cultural statement to air on television in a generation. It’s so
brilliant and must-see that I want to watch it again with my children so
they can see it too, and I’ve never let them watch anything with edgy
language in their lives, but this is just too important and the
language in this episode is justified by the context. Trey Parker
deserves an award for writing this episode, and it’s something I hope
everyone gets a chance to see. If you don’t get how brilliant it is, you are attached too much to your own cell phone yourself to fully appreciate the affect it has on your life and the life of those around you.
They didn’t take the smarphone jabs far enough could’ve gotten a resurrected Steve Jobs into play and had weed defeat him the same as Bezos later on… and it’s true, you adolescent tools always on your phones, especially texting 100++ times a day, are developmentally disabled. I suppose people said the same about kids that grew up during the proliferation of cable television but at least that didn’t go with you everywhere, kids still went Out Side and Did Stuff besides staging something for a youtube video. I digress.
I’m reading through your South Park reviews, and I have to tell you, you judgements on their “messages” are so off-worldly. Instead of focusing on just was it funny or not, you struggle trying to see if they were “right” or “heavy handed”.I believe your constant wanton righteousness is impeding you from enjoying the show. Moreover, I think if SP creators made an episode and included you in it, your character would be out of touch with context, misunderstanding jokes by reading too much into them.SP is for having fun, laughing! And god knows that overthinking is the best poison against laughter.I don’t need to, but for you – I suggest you smoke a couple of bongs before watching each episode. Or, stop seeing the world in terms of right vs wrong. It’s boring vs funny! Wake up.