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South Park: Le Petit Tourette
(S11E08) I love this show. The genius of it is that it deals with topics intelligently through its seemingly superficial display of toilet humor. The writers go out of their way to show both sides of an issue. It would be very simple (and probably not as ground-breaking) to go into the Hollywood formula of the liberal view, but Trey Parker and Matt Stone hate that Hollywood culture and it shows in every episode.
Where to begin?
Let's start with the uncensored profanity that littered the program (I hadn't heard such flagrant abuse of the "s"-word since the "Standards and Practices" episode of the show a few years back). Since this episode dealt with Tourette's Syndrome and Cartman's abuse of the fact, the profanity flowed as freely as if the program itself had Tourette's. This is the stuff of brilliance.
I loved how Cartman, upon realizing that he could say whatever he wanted by faking Tourette's, sang "I have a Golden Ticket" from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as if he found the way to make himself truly happy. South Park has always been prodigious in its invention of new profanities, but Trey and Matt really outdid themselves with terms such as "titty sprinkles" and "Mexican stinky balls".
I've already seen the Tourette's Syndrome equals profanity gag in other sources, such as the movie Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo (performed by one of my favorite improvisational actresses, Amy Poehler). I trusted South Park to deal with the topic with more intelligence and I wasn't disappointed. My first thought on seeing the topic was "Tourette's doesn't necessarily mean you shout curse words", but this is explained later in the episode when the audience is introduced to other children with Tourette's.
What else? I loved the ironic justice of Cartman losing all his inhibitions and suddenly spouting every secret he ever had shows what it must be like for sufferers of the disease. It also gives some depth to Cartman's character, which has, with a few exceptions, tended to be one-note evil. To a degree, he was actually a target of sympathy in this episode.
I hope I wasn't the only one laughing my ass off when the parade of pedophiles, upon realizing that they were appearing on Dateline, shot themselves (do all child molesters carry pistols on them?). Even funnier was host Chris Hansen's response: "Not again."
As mentioned, this is the stuff of brilliance. I eagerly await next week's episode.
| Titty sprinkles | |
|---|---|
| Mexican stinky balls | |
| One of the others |
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