South Park Episode Commentary: Sarcastaball

If you love the NFL and South Park, the mid-season premiere was an absolute blast. If you love Randy Marsh, this is another classic episode that rightfully belongs in an eventually fantastic compilation set of his adventures.

The fact that the show is written, animated and completed in less than a week has always helped it stay relevant, but this week, it’s more relevant than ever.

The continuing drama between the NFL and alumni over head injuries and replacement referees is focused on, with a beautiful irony and a hearty use of sarcasm. As a matter of fact, the entire episode is full of it. Pissed that his favorite sport is being “toned down,” Randy ends up leading a revolution against violence in the NFL, mainly due to the ineptness of the entire country. The result is a new sport, created by Randy that thrives on being nice and of course, staying safe.

The social commentary is fantastic here. Could Trey Parker and Matt Stone actually be saying that the entire country is filled with ignorant, overtly sensitive weaklings who have no idea how to communicate?

Yes. And they’re absolutely right. There’s a huge problem with parents raising soft kids and the government being concerned about the safety of professional athletes. So much that they’d rather waste time and resources on that, than fix the things that need the most repair, such as the economy and foreign relations. In typical Parker and Stone fashion, they pull zero punches, without mentioning any of the problems. It’s simply classic.

Away from the mockery of the NFL, Butters’ part in this episode is ridiculous. Going from zero to hero, Butters deals with his newfound fame and continues to cope with an issue with “wet” dreams. This opens the door for one of the weirdest situations in the history of the show. One you would have never expected Eric Cartman to play a key role in. It appears that Butters’ “mojo” or “creamy goo” is the official sports drink of this new sport.

Only in a Trey Park world would this make perfect sense.

Lets just say you’ll laugh and want to throw up at the same time.

Typical, yet unbelievable, the mid-season premiere of South Park in undeniably perfect.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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