Doogan's Views - Gonna Have Myself a Time

So just as we post our review of Season Eight, good news jumps right at us. The Hollywood Reporter tells us that Comedy Central is making an HD version of the South Park episode Good Times with Weapons available on the Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live). You can download it for free starting today and until March 20. Then from March 20th and up until April 3rd, if you buy a 360 from Best Buy, you'll get a free HD-DVD of the episode with the console. Pretty sweet, if you ask me. I guess that means we can expect HD versions of later season sets eventually.

With the good news, out of the way, let's dive into Season Seven in our backwards look at the show.

South Park: The Complete Seventh Season
2004 (2006) - Comedy Central (Paramount)

The Episodes

Cancelled, Krazy Kripples, Toilet Paper, I'm a Little Bit Country, Fat Butt and Pancake Head, Lil' Crime Stoppers, Red Man's Greed, South Park Is Gay!, Christian Rock Hard, Grey Dawn, Casa Bonita, All About the Mormons?, Butt Out, Raisins, It's Christmas in Canada

This was a hard season to nail down to just five. I liked a lot of these. But since I have to, here goes...

The Top Five

Cancelled: Fulfilling a promise made during a commercial break from Season Six's Free Hat episode, Cancelled begins with a remastered, almost shot-for-shot remake of the first episode Cartman Gets an Anal Probe.

With the help of Chef and a scientist named Jeff (not so loosely based on Jeff Goldblum's character from ID4, who makes idiotic yet accurate leaps in logic), the kids learn that the anal probe in Cartman's ass is actually a satellite beaming a reality show called "Earth". The grey Visitors responsible show up, abduct the kids and bring them to their headquarters of their broadcast station, where they learn that "Earth" has been cancelled because humans now know they're on camera. With no choice, the kids head to the planet Fognl to talk the media masters of the universe, the Joozians, and get them to change their minds. Will they be successful? Find out here. Best moment: the cycling through of friendly faces the boys can identify with, ending up as a taco that shits ice cream.

Fat Butt and Pancake Head: This is probably one of the best episodes ever. I swear, I laugh every single time I hear the words taco and/or burrito thanks to this episode. Tasked with giving special reports on cultural diversity, Kyle and Cartman each give a speech. Kyle's is thoughtful and informative. Cartman's is a hand puppet made to look like Jennifer Lopez (pronounced Yenifer, as she can't pronounce J's in Cartman's impersonation), who sings about eating tacos and burritos. The crowd and the judges go crazy and award him their highest price: a $20 gift card good at the local mall. Kyle is furious, but Cartman insists, unlike every other time he's tried to pull one over on them, that his hand is truly possessed. "Yenifer" talks Cartman into spending the money on a music video for her new song “Taco Flavored Kisses.” Once finished, the video makes its way to the music industry where Jennifer Lopez's real agent hears it. Of course, he loves it and fires JLo and rushes to sign up "Yenifer." Naturally, JLo doesn't take any of this lying down and heads down to South Park personally to let the new young thing know who's boss. That's when JLo's beau, Ben Affleck, lays his eyes on the new Jen and falls in love. I could go on, but I won't. See... Ben Affleck make love to "Yenifer"! Marvel... at the vocal stylings of a little boy’s hand! Gasp... at the true identity of “Yenifer”! Just who is Mitch Conner, and will he ever dream again?

South Park Is Gay!: Metrosexuals. Gotta love 'em. What to say, what to say. Uhm, okay... this one is simple and easy to narrow down. Two words - Crab People!

All About Mormons?: A new kid (Gary) and his family arrive in South Park and, because he's so damn nice, the kids send Stan to beat him up. But instead of a fight, Stan gets a dinner invite, where he learns that Gary and his family are Mormons and sincerely nice people. When Stan discusses what he learned about The Church of Latter Day Saints with HIS family, his father gets pissed off because he thinks they're trying to convert him. Of course, after he shows up to kick Gary's father's ass, he learns about LDS and how goddamn nice the family is, bringing his family into his new found religion. At the end of the day, Stan confronts everyone about the nonsensical history of LDS and how there's not a lick of empirical proof defending the religion. The humor comes out of the segues the story takes when the Mormon family tells the stories, and the sing-song narrator framing each story. In the end, I think I truly appreciate the humor of this episode because I had a friend who was a Mormon and, though he thought I was making fun of him, I asked a lot of questions about his religion and genuinely learned a bunch about the church and the people in it. Gary's speech to Stan at the end makes a lot of sense and could stand in for any religious person who's just trying to be nice.

Raisins: The concept here is the best part... a Hooters-like bar for kids with little girls exploiting their budding sexuality. But ultimately the episode is about love. Stan loses Wendy and turns Goth because of it. And Butters falls in love with a waitress named Lexus only to have his heart torn in twain (haven't we all). There are a million jokes here, but Raisins ends up one of the funniest character study episodes of the season and one of my favorite... but not near as favorite as...

Doogan's Fave

Casa Bonita: It's Kyle's birthday and he has four tickets to Colorado's premier Mexican restaurant Casa Bonita. Everyone is excited, most of all Cartman. But Kyle has some bad news: Because of all the taunting and anti-Semitism, Cartman is not invited. Butters will be going in his place. Cartman of course hatches a plan. He tricks Butters into thinking a meteor has hit the Earth and hides him away. Kyle, distraught that his friend is missing, cancels the trip and Cartman has to make Butters believe all humanity is lost. Setting up him as the last man on Earth, Butters now lives in a junk yard. Cartman gets his wish and goes with the boys to Casa Bonita in place of the lost Butters, but en route, Butters is found and Kyle's parents are alerted that Cartman is being looked for in connection with the abduction. It's a mad dash as Cartman runs through Casa Bonita, reliving all the fun he has had in the past as the police case him through the restaurant. It ends with a jump off a cliff and the acknowledgment that all the scheming and manipulation was totally worth it. Next time I'm in Colorado, I'm so going to Casa Bonita.

For those who worry about such things, the video and audio quality on these discs is about the same as Season Eight. Also included are the usual mini-commentaries by Matt and Trey. That's it for this volume.

Program Rating: B+
Disc Rating (Video/Audio/Extras): B+/B-/D

Next up: Season Six

Doogan
todddoogan@thedigitalbits.com
Atlanta, GA 3/6/07