South Park: Season 15 Premiere

jason stives reviews the the debut episode of South Park‘s 15th season …

Some could easily say that South Park has seen better days. The past few seasons have had its setbacks and occasional dry spells.

However, in the fast pace world we live in, South Park is fresher and more on target with its audience then most animated shows have been in recent memory. Indeed as much as an institution as it is, The Simpsons have seen better days, and Family Guy has greatly become a hit or miss show hindering on how blunt it can get its jokes across.

One would find it very hard to argue that in 15 seasons, South Park has had one of the greatest evolutions in any animated show in television history. For a show that started out as a crudely-drawn, foul-mouthed lynchpin for the FCC, it has since become the cornerstone for pop-culture commentary. Each season always has a stand out episode, sometimes it’s the opener. However, I highly doubt this season’s opening episode, “HUMANCENTiPAD,” will be carried over as an instant classic, but it sure tries to be.

This isn’t to say it wasn’t funny or even mildly memorable but like many episodes of South Park, you can filter out the memorable and the forgettable. The episode focuses around the phenomenon of Apple products, and its constant strive to be better each year. Kyle, an iPad user like the rest of his school, is taken away by the Apple company to be involved in Steve Jobs latest experimentation in Apple technology, mainly because he complied to the Apple terms of use. He is suddenly involved in the creation of the HUMANCENTiPAD, (a blatant rip off on the Dutch horror phenomenon, Human Centipede). It’s possible that this story line wasn’t necessary at all, having one too many mouth to butthole jokes, but it moved the episode along none the less.

South Park has always shined when addressing fads immediately, and they no doubt covered their bases here. The Apple terms of use joke was spot on and couldn’t have been more bittersweet. The observation that no one reads the terms of use agreement is accurate, once again showing the SP crews’ ability to grab a hold of its viewers conscious quickly and delivering on screen without being insulting.

While the episode is definitely on the ball in regards to focus on the subject, the laughs were few and far between. Unfortunately, as all good jokes go, they get taken a bit too far and go on much longer than they should. In this episode the crowning achievement of humor was that of Cartman’s constant insistence that his mother is constantly trying to f*#k him over after she refuses to buy him an iPad when he is outed for not having one. It’s great for the first series of jokes that Eric puts forth culminating in a hysterical tantrum in Best Buy, but after taking his tirade to The Dr. Phil Show, the joke has worn out its welcome within 10 minutes. It detracts greatly from the theme of the episode and doesn’t really apply well to the episode after awhile.

But let’s be honest, we don’t watch South Park for the social commentary, although we are very aware of what it’s saying. The laughs that encompass a barrage of swearing and poop jokes into 24 minutes is what matters, and sadly, while this show held a lot of the above elements, they were unnecessary.

It may be this expectation now that we always expect South Park tackle something topical, but needless to say, it’s done on a blunt and subtle level, compared to how shows like Family Guy tackle most issues in a very concise and obvious way. In any way, there is always room to tackle multiple trends and still be funny, but when it’s all said and done this episode was funny even if the viewer will most likely forget about it by next week.

Rating: 7 out of 10

All Images Credit: Comedy Central

All Images Credit: Comedy Central