I've said this consistently the last few years. Over the past decade South Park went from occasionally doing "issue" episodes, to frequently doing them, to now almost exclusively doing them.

The idea that South Park is supposed to be primarily this current event satire show is so just this weird cultural perception thing that happened. That's historically not what the show was at all. Look back at the first 5-10 seasons and very few of the episodes deal with issues or current events. It was more about these kids and this small town doing outrageous and outlandish things, lots of over the top ridiculousness but with a ton of legitimate wit.

However they would occasionally do an issue episode it was usually outstanding and get a lot of publicity, because it was an inspired, well thought out idea.

As the show has morphed into doing almost exclusively issue episodes, they are now often feeling half thought out, rushed, or uninspired. This is because they are clearly forced. You can tell they feel obligated to make an episode about an issue, even if they don't have a good idea for one.

They should go back to just making funny episodes, who cares if they don't address every single current event issue. Only do issue episodes if you have a great idea for one.

I agree they are usually funny, but hearing they same ones repeated the entire episode doesn't feel very fulfilling. It's almost like you can tell they were spit balling ideas for the episode's theme and once they came up with 1 or 2 funny ones they just build the whole episode around repeating those gags without really flushing out a real plot or theme or anything else interesting.

I liked Cartman making fun of his girlfriends voice

Agreed.

They somewhat acknowledged this after last year, where they said they felt compelled to comment about Donald Trump every week. The problem is I'm not sure they realize it isn't just Donald Trump but any current event. If you feel forced to comment on something it is never going to be your best work.

lmao top 10 episode

i have to rewatch the first cartman song

Amazing episode. Very worthy of a rewatch.

"I'm going to take the pledge."
NO ONE CARES!

Pretty funny episode. President's tweets and Cartman's songs were amazing.

I didn't like the whole Craig + Tweak gay relationship angle though. Where did that come from? And why did characters keep mentioning that they were homosexuals (this happened 5+ times)? I couldn't tell if it was a bad joke or if Matt and Trey are just catering to the politically correct crowd now. I found it distracting, especially since SP's timeline has barely moved forward during the entirety of the show, so for them to be gay all of a sudden makes no sense.

This looked like one of the old good episodes of South Park. Pretty good even though I feel like they had a magic 8 ball with all the current themes going on and just put them all together. when they did that in the past it seemed more organic.

there's an entire ep talking about them being gay, so it wasn't out of nowhere. I do agree it wasnt funny though.

"Tweek and Craig" is a great episode from 2 seasons ago. (S19, E6). Go watch it now. The episode actually has a lot to say about PC culture too (beyond the in-your-face-ness of PC Principal). If anything, the presence of PC Principal the past few seasons demonstrates the opposite of what folks usually mean by "catering to the politically correct crowd".

Seriously? that was obviously intentional humor in itself

Ah I forgot about the Craig x Tweek episode. I guess I was just caught off guard by the continuation of a storyline that wasn't recent.

lol, that episode was so dark

top 10 this season?

After the first ep I was worried about the quality of the season, but the second one kicked ass. I hope Heidi will become more assertive.

I hope Heidi goes completely away.

I'm not finding the Cartman/Heidi dynamic to be paying off at all. They have invested pretty much 2 whole seasons in it and there's really nothing to show for it.

Cartman was funnier on his own.

it's good to raise awareness about distracted driving and it's great to do it by brutally killing a bunch of random kids on your show, i think south park is the only show that can get away with that bit

Not sure I agree that "they invested two whole seasons" - at least, I don't think it has ever been at the expense of Cartman doing his regular Cartman things. Even while they were together in S20 he was still his usual sociopathic (and hilarious) self. The Mars subplot is probably the best example.

I agree that the current Heidi + Cartman dynamic should not have a long half life.

LOL loved Cartman's first song...I was singing along by the end. the President's tweets were hilarious and I loved seeing North Korea pouring over maps of Tweek.

Thought this was the funniest part.

I really enjoyed the last song and the episode as a whole.

On a side note, I have to start watching Broad City. My DVR takes about a minute of it after South Park and it looks fantastic

it is

+1

Cartman's second song was good. It was like he was a cartman version of b rabbit from 8 Mile lol.

I also chuckled with how PC Principal was saying "entrée vous" while doing bicep curls.

Great episode and I laughed a good amount.

yeh, matt and trey are at their best when they are doing songs. great ep.