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South Park: Super Fun Time
(S12E07) While the kids are on an educational field trip to a living museum called Pioneer Village, Cartman forces Butters to sneak away with him from the class to go to the amusement center located nearby. While they're having a good time at the amusement center, a group of thieves break into Pioneer Village and take the class hostage. Hilarity ensues.This episode is the last of the first half of season 12. South Park will return later in the year with seven more episodes.
The episode was cute, but it just wasn't their usual standard of sharp satire. This seemed more of a "silly escapade" in which the boys get themselves in a strange situation. It was more for character development than to make a statement about the world. Every set of seven episodes has one which the creators start to animate in advance to give themselves a mid-season break. This seemed like that episode.
Having been to Colonel Williamsburg in Virginia where the actors similarly never break character, I can testify that it can get annoying sometimes. However, I don't think the folks in Williamsburg would keep in character if terrorists threatened to shoot them in the head. I did find it amusing how the actors immediately went back to being real people when the 5 o'clock whistle blew (a statement about the working world if there ever was one).
There was some parody in the episode. It was as if Die Hard and Ferris Bueller's Day Off happened side by side. "Franz" was obviously a parody of Hans Gruber. Cartman and Butters played hooky and went on an adventure similar to the one taken by Matthew Broderick and Alan Ruck (Cartman even paraphrased a line from that movie). Cartman's "Super Phun Thyme" song is a parody of a song from that movie as well.
When the terrorists picked out Kenny as a hostage, I half expected them to kill him in a retro moment (as was done in the final episode of last season). Then I realized that's what the writers would expect me to expect, so he was probably going to live for this episode. It seems that Stan and Wendy are still together since that episode, so some things remain consistent (including Mr. Garrison's tendency to be more concerned about his own welfare than that of the children in his care).
Between Butters' refusal to stop holding hands with Cartman no matter what punishment he received and the Pioneer Village workers' refusal to break character, the theme of the episode could be interpreted as adherence to duty no matter what implications arise. Or maybe it was a just an unintentional coincidence.
Favorite lines from the episode:
- Cartman's reaction to Kyle's rejection of his partnership: "Jesus, what did I ever do to you?"
- Cartman's exclamation: "Oh my Jesus Christ Monkey Balls!"
- Craig's line: "These Pioneer Village workers are really committed to their job."
- Cartman's line to Butters: "It's okay, Butters. You can't help being a douchebag."
Overall, the first half of season 12 was a bit of a let down but still better than 99% of the stuff on television. Imaginationland from last season is still tough to top. Perhaps these episodes will get better in repeated viewings. One of the major strengths of this series is how well the humor holds up over time. I attribute that to the wit and intelligence of the writing.
| Excellent. I'm H.I.V. positive of this. | |
|---|---|
| Fair. It had its ups and downs. | |
| Poor. I hope they can do better in the second half. |
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