Doogan's Views - Friendly Faces Everywhere

Sorry I took a day off, but I had to be reverent of the special day - Season Premiere Day. Last night's premiere was actually pretty great. Not a bad way to start Season Eleven: topical, stupid and funny as hell. And of course, Cartman stole the show.

Let's jump into the next in our nine part series...

South Park: The Complete Sixth Season
2002 (2005) - Comedy Central (Paramount)

The Episodes

Freak Strike, Jared Has Aides, Asspen, The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer, Fun with Veal, Professor Chaos, The Simpsons Already Did It, Red Hot Catholic Love, Free Hat, Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society, Child Abduction Is Not Funny, A Ladder to Heaven, The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers, The Death Camp of Tolerance, The Biggest Douche in the Universe, My Future Self n' Me and Red Sleigh Down

Season Six is quite possibly the best overall season of the show's history. Trey and Matt really found their voices, their political and social satire were dead on and Butters found his super villain alter ego. Picking five (or six if you agree with my fave) episodes was even harder that season seven, here each and every one of the above could be argued as being worthy of inclusion. But suck my balls, this is my list. To quote a great thinker: "Whateva, Whateva! I do what I want!"

The Top Five

The New Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer: Though some really great episodes preceded it, I have to say this is the first super episode of the season. The boys, amped up about the new T&P film Asses of Fire II: Attack of the Cramps, learn that the trailer will premiere sometime during the Russell Crowe: Fighting Around the World show. Set down in front of Stan's TV, right before they can get to the first commercial break, Stan's sister Wendy lets them know she needs tampons, and if she doesn't get them, then she'll make them watch Buffy with her. Off goes Butters on a grocery errand. While Butters is away, Cartman decides that the color is off and, while fidgeting with cables, BOOM goes the TV and off they go in search of another house to watch the show at. En route to Kyle's house, they bump into Butters who rejoins them as they head to their next TV, but Kyle's little brother is watching The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour and doesn't want to give up his favorite show. When Kyle snatches the TV, Kyle's dad steps in and gives the TV back to Ike. Once again, they search for a new TV, heading to Chef's (where they encounter a plasma with AI programmed to destroy all humans), Cartman's (where they endure fumigation) and Butters' (where they couldn't go from the beginning because, as Butters later reveals, no one was home). I guess I should pop in here and state that what's really funny about this episode is the Russell Crowe show-within-a-show the kids have to endure in order to get to the commercials to see the potential trailer. The show is brilliant as it lampoons Russell's seemingly over the top need to pick a fight. Joined by his friend Tuggy the Tugboat, Russell sails 'round the world picking fights with people in China, on through the Bronx and even going so far as to fight a man WITH cancer because he can't fight cancer itself. He even sings a song from his new album, which causes Tuggy to shoot himself in the head. It's just perfect in its execution, and makes this episode one of the better of an already stellar season. The show's execution is also fun, in that it's told in real time with the commercial breaks of the Russell Crowe show being the commercial breaks of the South Park episode. When the trailer doesn't air when we return from break, the kids riff on how upset they are about it. In the end, like most trailers we can't wait to see, it's over-hyped and a royal disappointment. But for the boys, it's totally worth it when they finally see it, if for the journey alone.

Professor Chaos/The Simpsons Already Did It: I have to give a tie to these two back-to-back episodes. Especially since one instills a new character into the canon and the other acknowledges the legacy of a show South Park may in fact eclipse at some point, even if only in terms of the writing. As I said in my review of Season Eight, South Park might already have more "great" episodes that Simpsons. Sacrilege you collectively cry? Sure. Yeah, I'm an envelope pusher. I'm a rebel. DVD was invented just because I refused to rewind my VHS tapes when I returned them to the store. I wasn't kind. But I'm not a hater of The Simpsons at all. I still love it. I watch every episode as it airs on Sundays. I buy each season the minute they come out on disc like every one of you. But in a world where The Simpsons already did it, they are starting to repeat themselves. And as time goes on, it gets painfully more obvious. But hey, we're not here to throw darts at The Simpsons. We're here to salute South Park. In these two episodes, Butters truly comes into his own.

In Professor Chaos, Butters is kicked out of the Stan, Kyle and Cartman gang after joining up with them following Kenny's permanent death at end of Season Five. The boys stage a reality show-like contest to find a new fourth friend, so Butters creates an evil arch nemesis for the people of South Park, hell bent on destroying their fragile society. First plan: Drown the town using a garden hose. He unleashes his diabolical plan via the Jumbotron at Coors Stadium. Mass hysteria does not ensue. Second plan: Destroy the ozone using aerosol cans. Yeah. No. Butters is joined by his new sidekick and fellow friend reject Dougie, who, as General Disarray, offers the title of the next episode as his catch phrase: "The Simpsons Already Did It." Knowing that things aren't working in his plan to destroy the humanity that shunned him, Butters starts planning more elaborate schemes... each already hatched by The Simpsons' writing staff. After a marathon viewing of each and every episode of The Simpsons, Butters comes up with something they never though of. That's when a commercial for a new episode appears announcing Bart doing the exact thing Butters plans to do. His sanity stretched to its limit, Butters sees everyone as a Simpsons caricature and runs screaming, only to bump into the boys who are at the tail-end of their adventure. It's a convoluted plot but ends with (A) Ms. Chokesondik dying which was foretold in Professor Chaos' climax, (B) confusion over Sea Men and semen and (C) a reference pulled from a Treehouse of Horror episode which fully shatters Butters, proving once and for all that all story ideas have already been done by The Simpsons and it's time to look elsewhere for story theft. Advice even The Simpsons should listen to. Next up...

Free Hat: As a geek, how could you not love a friendly poke at Spielberg, Lucas and Coppola, with a baby killer named Hat McCullough thrown in, plus a story climax that's a parody of Raiders? I dare you not to laugh.

Child Abduction Is Not Funny: No it's not. But in South Park, somehow everything is. Media oversaturation has destroyed the parental calm that usually hovers over South Park (yeah, right). With all the school shootings, terrorist attacks and child abductions, the parents of SP are scaring their kids straight. On the night Tweek and his parents run a safety drill, Tweek is visited by the Ghost of Human Kindness, who turns out to be a pederast luring Tweek into his van. Next comes the child helmet tracking devices and a Great Wall built by Mr. "Shitty Wok" Kim. Of course, now that there is a Great Wall, there simply has to be Mongolians. So yeah, Mongolians attack, and soon the kids join them without the parents even noticing. This is a great episode because there are just so many true South Park character and thematic moments in it. Oh, and Mr. Kim is great as always, and of course all of the socio-political jabs are well-executed. This may not be the "funniest" episode but it defines the show very well.

The Death Camp of Tolerance: Now that Mr. Garrison is out and proud, the school realizes that the demotion he gained last season could get them sued, so they turn around and promote him one grade higher than he was before the demotion - the Fourth Grade. When Garrison learns that he would have been able to sue, he tries his best to get fired. Enter Mr. Slave, Garrison's new boy-toy: A leather clad bear who lisps "Oh, Jesus Christ" as his catch-phrase. When Mr. Slave has a gerbil named Mr. Lemmiwinks shoved up his ass by Mr. Garrison, the boys tell their parents that their teacher is gay and doing gay things. Shocked at what they perceive as intolerance, the kids are sent to the Museum of Tolerance where "Intolerance will not be Tolerated." There they are forced to make arts and crafts under conditions not unlike those in Schindler's List (this footage is also in black and white). But the true comedy comes from the journey Lemmiwinks takes through Mr. Slave's bowels, aided by the spirits of animals who've perished there before (The Frog Prince, The Sparrow Prince and Catana Fish), all set to the tune of a song parody of music heard in the Rankin/Bass productions The Hobbit & The Return of the King. Will Lemmiwinks become The Gerbil King? Tune in and find out.

Doogan's Fave

The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers: From one Tolkien joke to the next, this is my favorite episode of the season just because it's so f---ing funny. The boys are playing Lord of the Rings, when Stan's dad asks them to take a copy of the movie to Butters’ parents' house so they can watch it. With the kids out of the house, Mom and Dad settle in to watch Back Door Sluts 9, the single most evil piece of porn ever produced. But when Lord of the Rings comes up instead of anal sex, they realize the tapes got switched... and the Stotches are about to see something bad. Stan's parents jump to action, only to find that the tape has already been delivered. Feeding off of the kids playing LotR, he sends them on a journey to retrieve the tape, as it "holds an evil power." But the kids are too late. Butters has seen the tape and essentially turns into a horndog version of Gollum, uttering “my precious” when the tape is taken away. En route to bring the tape home, the boys are confronted by Sixth Graders who want the porn for themselves. Realizing the true nature of evil the tape contains, and seeing its effect on people, the boys seek council with their peers. Token volunteers to watch the film, and upon returning declares: “I'm out” and walks away. Now the boys have only one choice: Return the tape to the video store (Two Towers Video) to break the cycle of evil. But will Butters, the Sixth Graders or the Bailey Harry Potter fans stop them? No, no and certainly not.

The audio and video quality is once again about the same as all the others sets in this series. I was very pleased with the mini-commentaries for these episodes however. They're all very funny and, considering the level of goodness this season holds, Trey and Matt are in rare form, offering a lot of great insights. Best of all, we learn their stance on Russell Crowe (they're friends with him and admire his cinematic work immensely - but not his music.)

Program Rating: A
Disc Rating (Video/Audio/Extras): B+/B+/C+

Next up: Season Five

Doogan
todddoogan@thedigitalbits.com
Atlanta, GA 3/8/07