Nostalgia fuels war in a timely episode of South Park
It was only a matter of time before the show commented on Russia's invasion of Ukraine
TV Reviews South Park
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, plenty of journalists, academics, and world leaders have characterized the attack as being motivated by Vladimir Putin’s fear of his own mortality. Whether or not that’s an oversimplification of his rationale is beside the point—it’s in the air.
Even just today, Yale intellectual history lecturer Marci Shore described the autocrat on CNN as “an aging man facing his own death [who has] decided to destroy the whole world.” It’s a statement that could easily function as a logline for tonight’s episode of South Park.
Alright, maybe that’s a stretch. Mr. Mackey may not exactly be destroying his very small world in “Back To The Cold War,” but he’s definitely upending it in an effort to—as we eventually discover—stave off the inevitability of growing old.
At the top of the episode, he’s seemingly gone into full-on panic mode over the Russo-Ukranian crisis, ordering the students of South Park Elementary to conduct regular duck-and-cover drills in the event of a nuclear attack. But it soon becomes apparent that Mr. Mackey’s getting a bizarre kind of enjoyment from the idea of a Russian conflict, as it gets him nostalgic for the Cold War years of the 1980s. Once the students are trembling under the gymnasium’s bleachers, he begins stiffly cutting a rug to Wang Chung’s “Dancehall Days.” When we next see him with PC Principal, he’s sporting a piano-key tie.
From there, Mackey’s paranoia spirals out of control—not out of genuine fear, but rather an unconscious or subconscious effort to keep the new Cold War (and thus his superficial throwback vibes) going. First, he grows suspicious that PC Principal could be a Russian spy. Then he’s sneaking into a horse stable after he learns that Butters Stotch’s rival in dressage (the boy’s latest interest) happens to be Russian. Mackey finds willing allies in Butters’ parents, who are trying to sabotage their son’s equine opponent and claim a metaphorical American victory over Russia a la Rocky IV in an upcoming competition.
Trey Parker and Matt Stone cleverly shroud the episode’s climax in archaic tech theatrics straight out of War Games, showing that, even as Mr. Mackey coordinates with the American military for a possible counter strike against Russia (he believes the country is going to use a Stotch win as a reason to attack), it’s all part of his goofy fetishization of the past. Aesthetically, there’s nothing threatening about his acts of intrigue because he’s become a child playing dress-up.
He finally realizes this while talking to his mother, who, during a conversation in his childhood bedroom, reminds him that the initial Cold War involved a staggering amount of fear and death, and isn’t something to be nostalgic for. “It just felt good because it was familiar,” she wisely tells her son as she talks him down from his metaphorical ledge—albeit in her own version of the dopey Mackey drawl.
On its own, the heart-to-heart between the Mackeys functions as the latest piece of South Park wisdom—a reminder that, when we long for our supposed halcyon days, we’re often only remembering the good parts. In that way, “Back To The Cold War” feels in conversation with episodes like “Member Berries” (which also used nostalgia as a justification for atrocity) and the now-classic “You’re Getting Old” (which, in a complete inverse, showed Stan recognizing the deterioration of nostalgia in real-time).
And yet, in relation to the rest of the episode, the Mr. Mackey/Mother Mackey conversation feels like it’s missing a beat. When observing her son’s behavior, Mrs. Mackey immediately jumps to talking about his fear of aging—a topic that, up until that point, hasn’t come up once, even though it ends up becoming the thesis of the episode.
It’s a tricky balance. To be fair, Mr. Mackey isn’t supposed to be self-aware enough to acknowledge the true root of his Cold War nostalgia. So it makes sense that the idea of mortality doesn’t get mentioned out loud until the scene with his mother. At the same time, it might be a harder-hitting conclusion (which Parker and Stone seem to want it to be) if the audience knew earlier on that his nostalgia wasn’t coming just from a place of whimsy and longing, but also a place of great pain.
The hiccup in Mr. Mackey’s emotional arc by no means ruins the episode. There’s still plenty of filthy barnyard humor with Butters’ horse, Melancholy (who’s far more concerned with shitting and fucking than prancing), and the overall message of “Back To The Cold War” rings true in both a historical context and a modern one.
“I know how it is when you’re getting old,” Mr. Mackey says in a TV address to the Russians after Butters does indeed win. “You start getting aggressive because your dick doesn’t work the way it used to.”
Thousands of miles away, a shirtless Putin solemnly agrees. I don’t know enough about him or Soviet Union history to say what’s truly in his heart—if he’s actually invading Ukraine because of reasons having to do with age and, as South Park proposes, impotency. But the final stretch of “Back To The Cold War” does get at one very simple, universal truth: men always have and always will start wars for very stupid reasons.
Stray Observations
- Dressage really is the perfect Butters sport.
- Parker and Stone have perfected the way different species poop over the years. Every time Melancholy did so, the stuff just fell out of his body with little to no effort from the horse. Just like real life!
- The parody of Sting’s “Russians” at the end was a nice touch. Did I hear the lyrics correctly as, “I wonder if Russians get diarrhea from heroin, too”?
- Update: A couple of you have pointed out that it’s “Erewhon,” not “heroin,” which of course makes much more sense given the scene in the stable with the Stotches.
- Did anyone catch the Dino-Riders action figure on Mr. Mackey’s childhood dresser?
- I was thrilled to see Mr. Garrison still saddling the students with his romantic woes. More Rick, please.
- It looks like this episode makes South Park the first scripted television show to address the war. Pretty wild.
- “Putin? It was just a little noise when I pulled out. Nobody was pootin’, okay?”
54 Comments
If you don’t mind I’ll just be posting gifs from Jojo out of context…I would appreciate it if you please only reply in Jojo gifs
In the words of our Saint Dasha, “do you like have worms in your brain?”
Jojo is – at the very least – insensitive to the LGBTQ+ community. You should really feel bad about supporting that kind of media.
How? Never watched Jojo but from all the random stuff I saw of it online I honestly thought most of the main characters were genuinely LGBT+.
Tell me more, please. I’m asking in full sincerity.
Tell me more, please. I’m asking in full sincerity.
Not to mention the nazi protagonist that’s meant to be likeable and funny! Tsk, tsk. Absolutely unbelieveable.
So you’re telling me that a performatively woque edgelord can’t keep his wokeness straight? Shocked, I tells ya.
You should really feel bad
So because Pucci and Dio, who are the antagonists of their respective arcs, were in a relationship that somehow makes it homophobic? Never mind that the idea of same sex relationships are never vilified and Queer-coded villains have existed in pop culture for almost a century now and that the LGBT community has embraced some of them .But please do try to say two villains being gay is just as bad as a show that openly encouraged it’s audience to regularly use homophobic slurs..I ain’t condoning how the Jojo handles the Nazis in Part 2 though. It was made in the 80’s by a Japanese man who in all likelihood engaged with Nazi atrocities yo the extent of watching the equivalent of Hogan’s Heroes. But that’s no excuse and, unlike you South Park fanboys, I acknowledge Jojo’s flaws rather than pretend they don’t exist.
I don’t think anyone here would argue that plenty of South Park episodes have had really questionable and problematic elements – Trey Parker & Matt Stone have plenty of regrets themselves.
I think the difference is that they still make fucked up takes to this day. Like are we forgetting that only a few years ago they were comparing trans women competing in sports of their respective genders to Randy Savage competing in women’s sports?The problem I have is that the sycophants blindly pretend that the show is immune from criticism because they make poop and dick jokes or “They Mock Everyone!”.At the very least Jojo never mentions the Nazis again after Part 2. As for the accusations of homophobia: There is queer coding in almost every Jojo character, mainly because Araki’s main influences for Jojo is glam rock.
Or you could just…not click/comment on South Park articles. I’m not a Marvel fan but you don’t see me on every article feeling a need to comment, nawmean?
You’re a fucking loser and you should be banned
…. why?
It was partly something to do with the idea that I can’t say anything nice about South Park so I’d talk about something I actually liked and partly running on little to no sleep for about a week. This is probably the last time I do this since I’m tired of being the guy who hates South Park
The parody of Sting’s “Russians” at the end was a nice touch. Did I hear the lyrics correctly as, “I wonder if Russians get diarrhea from heroin, too”?I had the captions on and it was was “diarrhea from Erewhon”. As far as I can tell from Googling it’s like Whole Foods, only more so.
When the Stotches were in the stable with Mackey, they had a bag marked Erewhon and said they had planned to feed it to the Russian horse to give it diarrhea. The ending was a callback to that.
Yeah, it was Erewhon. Which I had to look up, and apparently it’s a trendy, luxury L.A. organic food market chain.
Whats going on with these hidden reviews? Has South Park coverage been banned from the main page? Bit Putinesque.
Nah, not hidden. They adjust the home page as needed, but using the “lastest” tab gets you the newer stuff just fine if that’s what you’re after.
I seeee I take it all back!
Also (some time ago) the Reviews subsection of the TV section lost its handy drop-down list of shows, because why should the vampire horsefuckers who own the site make it easy for readers to find and read articles. Often now it’s easier to search from outside. (Though I did find this review from the site search.)
I loved seeing Mr. Mackey’s mom. And I gotta say, adding the slide whistle sound effect every time Butters’ horse got an untimely boner made me laugh like an idiot.Oh, and Laserface should be banned for spamming anything South Park-related with a barrage of unrelated GIFs from whatever he’s been jacking off to lately. As if Kinja sites weren’t already a mess to navigate at times, then he adds this bullshit because he has an obsessive hatred of South Park even though he claims not to have watched it for a decade…
Second on banning Laserface. It’d be nice to have discussions about episodes without him spamming stuff and then dismissing comments when he’s called out for it. Not sure why it’s allowed?
Hey I just wanna say I’m sorry I dismissed your comment. It was a genuine question and I should have engaged with you but I didn’t and now I feel like an asshole.Truth is I’ve been trying to keep my distance from the site for the past month or so because the place was just getting at me. I figured that people hated it when I called out criticizing South Park and so decided to take a “If you can’t say anything nice” approach and talk about things I liked. And running on no sleep kind of gets to you and well…that happened.But that’s no excuse for dismissing your comment since that came much later frankly you’re right and I should stop posting on South Park threads.
Thanks for following up, I appreciate it. Honestly yeah – do what’s best for you. I know it feel likes online we have to comment on everything, and everything is some sort of battle or something, but it doesn’t have to be. Look at the things you like, interact with the things you like, and avoid the stuff that doesn’t bring you joy. That’s SUPER hard around these parts, since the tone of most things here now is “here’s why you should be upset” but that’s more symtopmatic of all online discourse nowadays anyway.For what it’s worth – I don’t necessarily “agree” with a lot of what South Park says/has said about cultural topics, but it’s entertaining and maybe a bit nostalgic to still watch it, since in its heyday it was a really fun show. There’s still glimmers of that now and then which is what keeps me coming back. But totally get why people wouldn’t like it, so to each their own.
It takes a concerted effort to be singled out as the consensus most-annoying commenter on an entire website.
There was a time when I would’ve said it was Recognitions, but he’s thankfully been a much less frequent presence on this site as of late. But Laserface has been steadily climbing the ladder of annoyance!
recognitions is so bad my brain has trained itself into selective blindness when it comes to his posts. His middle school-depth political tirades are practically parodies, so I’m pretty sure I’m not missing anything.
Boo.
His feckless little protest postings are kind of cute in their way.
I’m sorry. It started mostly as a way to distance myself from being “The Guy who Hates South Park” by trying to post threads on South Park with stuff I liked and be more positive. And, combined with a week on little to no sleep, that post happened. I think South Park and the politics it espouses are garbage but I really shouldn’t be attacking people for liking it. I try to only really criticize sycophants who act like the shows Libertarian politics don’t exist because they make poop jokes but sometimes I slip up.Like I love Jojo but even I don’t condone how the show handles the fucking Nazis in Part 2. There’s no way to justify having a major supporting character be a Nazi Major who massacres an entire village be framed as a hero in the end. I don’t try to find a way to make some bullshit excuse. I wanted to be more positive because people kept getting upset with me. Honestly would be best if I just stop posting to articles on South Park.
I’ve been curious for a while about why you choose to comment on a show you dislike so much that you don’t watch it. I get if you’ve chosen to disengage because you don’t like Trey & Matt’s politics – I personally disagree with some of the conclusions they come to in the name of attacking both sides equally, especially in “Team America” – but I also come to South Park knowing that it’s a series whose video game had me perform an abortion on Randy Marsh and then fight the Nazi zombie of an aborted fetus, so their takes good and bad make me laugh hard. It just seems to be an odd way to circle the drain of the day, coming back here week after week to hammer at a show that had an epically wrongheaded take on climate change 16 years ago.
I’d say just block him, but I looked and found that you can’t block people on Kinja.
“Putin? It was just a little noise when I pulled out. Nobody was pootin’, okay?”
Sometimes I think I’m a mature adult. Then I hear a joke like this and realize I’m not as I’m laughing like a 13 year old in the back of the class
I made the same comment in the latest Jackass review. There’s nothing wrong with just base-level lizard-brain humor done well. I’d be more worried if I couldn’t laugh at it anymore.
I haven’t watched South Park in years, but I remember watching it with a friend of my sister’s at my sister’s house, the Mr Hankey Christmas Episode just howling with laughter and my sister came in the room and wanted to know what the hell was going on. Let’s just say we were both north of 30 at the time. Sometimes dumb crude humor is just what a person needs.
Completely agree! I think there’s a weird truth to that kind of humor that taps into our primordial instincts. Or maybe dicks and farts and shits are just funny.
Some of my favorite comedies have an even blend of “smarty jokes and farty jokes”.
It looks like this episode makes South Park the first scripted television show to address the war. Pretty wild.Most scripted televisions shows are already in the can, unlike South Park, which is notorious for finishing episodes at the very last minute and sometimes even missing air dates. Maybe that’s why there wasn’t a new episode last week because they wanted to address the war.
They usually have one or two planned breaks in the season which is what I assumed last week was.
I was amazed the first time I read that. Apparently it’s been the case almost as long as it’s been on air. You’d think with the time involved creating animation you wouldn’t have a choice but to plan way ahead.
But that’s the beauty of their simplified animation style. It isn’t just a stylistic choice — it allows them to make an episode very quickly.
It looks like this episode makes South Park the first scripted television show to address the war. Pretty wild. I mean, does SNL count?At
any rate, this episode was a little bit on the eh side. B- for me, I
think. Some really funny bits – I was dying at the horse sex bits – but
it was sorta missing that certain something that would bring it
all together and make it pop. Not entirely sure what. Maybe an extra
subplot or something – the PC Principal bit probably could’ve been
expanded on, or maybe even something with the four boys, who haven’t
really been having too many adventures together this season despite the
COVID specials building them up.Also, it seems like a
really missed opportunity for them not to just go full Saddam Hussein
with Putin and give him the JPEG for a face treatment. I felt like they
were kinda building up to that gag as well a little bit.
Did they show PC Principal’s real name before this episode? I like how it’s Peter Charles, literally making him P.C., Principal.
Apparently it was shown before in the AV Club’s favourite episode, “Board Girls”
I kind of love how consistent this show is in some of its running gags. Evil men (Osama bin Laden, Trump, Putin) do evil things because of tiny dicks. Hipster food establishment (Chipotle, Erohwon) cause massive diarrhea. Adversaries can be defeated (Nathan, Russian-Descended Dressager) through hilariously over-the-top animal rape. In a weird way, it’s Parker and Stone’s subtle way of combating nostalgia for their own product.
Mackey sounds more normal now. Earlier in the season ,he didn’t sound quite right. Odd.
I’m kind of disappointed that we didn’t get any jokes about the Russians themselves being ordinary citizens. I mean I suppose we got Mackey spying on them eating Hamburger Helper but that was about it.
Waiting for Randy Marsh to start a Support the Ukraine weed line.
DinoRiders needs a reboot. lol.
It’s sci-fi war and dinosaurs.
How is that not an actual thing?
Seems like Putin has overdosed on ‘member berries recently