(S12E06) South Park, along with the rest of the country, has lost the Internet. As a result, Randy Marsh takes his family on a trek to California to find it.As someone who is an Internet addict, I certainly can understand the dilemma of this situation. I don't think we could go back to being a society without Internet, much as we can't go back to being a society without phones, television or cars.
As someone who works with the Internet for his day job, I had some problems with the simplistic way that it was presented. The Internet is used for much more than shopping or e-mailing (or, indeed, porn). Entire industries rely on it. The only part that struck me as truthful was seeing people live in a Great Depression-type state without the Internet.
There are several subtle ironies in this episode. The Great Depression happened as a result of the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The South Park Depression happened as a result of the Internet crash of 2008. Also, without the Internet itself I wonder if South Park would have become the phenomenon that it is.
I don't think this episode was a satire of any particular show or movie (although there was a glaring reference to Close Encounters of the Third Kind), but there were historical references to the California Gold Rush of 1849 and the Great Depression. They even used the cinematic tradition of presenting that context in black and white.
One of the characters in the show was stating about how he couldn't wait to e-mail someone, and my first thought was "if nobody has Internet, who'd read it?"
The episode focused on the Marsh family with minimal appearances by the other kids (although Kyle had a critical role in getting the Internet back). Stan's sister Shelley remains her usual sadistic self. Grandpa didn't say anything. He didn't even call Stan "Billy."
At first, I thought Shelley's Internet boyfriend Amir was one of those middle-aged Internet stalkers (which may have led to another Chris Hansen episode). Let us not forget that 12-year old Shelley once dated a 23 year old in the "Timmy 2000" episode . However, we eventually learn that he's a normal kid around her age and as usual, Internet relationships are awkward when put face-to-face.
I love how they presented the Internet as a giant wireless router, which is probably what it looks like to the general public who have one in their household. Kyle used the same solution to fix the problem as most of the tech support people at my ISP tell me to do whenever the Internet is down. It's always the simplest solution.
I've got to say that Randy's Internet habits are disturbing. I don't know a single guy that would masturbate to women vomiting in each other's mouths. And he's very loud. I loved how at the end he was dressed in an American-Indian costume and speaking of the Internet as if it were a limited resource like oil (which was a parody of a 70's commercial).
At the end, Randy was given the honor of the money shot. And what a money shot it was! Last year, he took the world's biggest poop and now this. The man has more bodily secretions and less dignity than any other cartoon character I know. However, that scene was a hilarious punchline to an otherwise lackluster episode.
Overall, a good if not great episode. I didn't think it was as good as last week's with the Penis Mouse.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
4-17-2008 @ 12:10AM
Ian said...
"Grapes of Wrath," dude dressed like Peter Fonda, and Randy dressed like Sashin Littlefeather. You missed like...three quarters of the references. You fail the internet.
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4-17-2008 @ 12:13AM
GeoBQn said...
"I don't think this episode was a satire of any particular show or movie"
Grapes of Wrath!
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4-17-2008 @ 9:37AM
rndmnme said...
Yeah, I dunno how it could have been more obvious. Brad obviously hasn't read many books, and apparently, hard to believe this, watches a lot of TV, because this moving is on a few times a year on AMC or something or other.
4-17-2008 @ 12:25AM
Noah said...
Ectoplasm
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4-17-2008 @ 12:37AM
John said...
Overall, a rather lackluster review of a good if not great episode.
No offense, but did anyone tell you Mr. Trechak that beginning a sentence with the pronoun "I" doesn't make for good writing?
And who cares if they didn't portray the internet industry in a grand, socio-economic manner. The episode was based on a joke-idea. If Trey Parker and Matt Stone starting documenting how peoples' lives rely on the internet (which is a very small portion of the population), not only would it have been unfunny but it would have
b-o-r-i-n-g.
Try to take yourself and your profession a little less seriously, guyyyyy...
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4-22-2008 @ 5:39PM
Jim said...
He's not your guy, buddy!
Seriously though, the episodes have been getting better and better this season, but (and with no offense intended), I don't think the reviewer is equipped to catch all the nuances that South Park throws out.
Are you reviewing the show because you enjoy watching it, or because you have to?
4-17-2008 @ 12:48AM
Corey Atad said...
Your review is so off the mark. This was one of the best episodes they have ever produced. I could not stop laughing because everything they were saying was so disturbingly true.
I lost control the first time when everyone was trying to get the news and couldn't think of what they used to do before the internet and then Randy shouts "TELEVISION!"
And I think I must have ruptured something when I was laughing like crazy at the Grapes of Wrath parody. "And by the time the loading bar was only half-full they was dead." Oh man. Awesome.
I think this is one of the best satirical episodes they have done. Totally lampooning our society's reliance on the internet, particularly for useless things like email attachments, iChat-ing, and porn. And it totally gets right how our culture has become obsessed with using the internet constantly for everything all the time. And what's more, the episode was hilarious from start to finish. By far the best this season yet, and in my opinion probably in the top 10 or 15 episodes ever.
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4-17-2008 @ 1:08AM
morsemoose said...
what a terrible episode. it was stupid. i've really gotten into this season and this was a major let down. it wasn't funny and it was very hard to watch.
4-17-2008 @ 1:45AM
Matty said...
The biggest problem of the episode was the lack of humor. There were some clever references and all, but I wish it would have been a bit funnier. Oh well. The rest of the season has been very good, so they deserve a little slack.
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4-17-2008 @ 1:46AM
Jake said...
That was too funny. The ungodly wireless router is the internet. They shoot at the internet and the only thing that was missing was a reference to the tubes that Senator Stevens talked about last year.
Seriously though, as a student that is going for a BS in network tech, and just being all around geeky, I thought this was a wonderful episode. it was VERY funny.
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4-17-2008 @ 3:25AM
az1324 said...
For the speech at the end I thought the parody was of Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground.
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4-17-2008 @ 3:51AM
R said...
This was one of the worst reviews I have read on TV Squad. Not a lot of effort put into this one...
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4-17-2008 @ 4:00AM
THEoCUBAN said...
Brad you are an idiot and too full of yourself to understand the average viewer.
Grapes of Wraith! HEllo? No references? Dude you should stop using the internet. If the internet is your life, you suck at life.
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4-17-2008 @ 5:04AM
Smiley said...
Worst. Review. Ever.
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4-17-2008 @ 6:07AM
LordPaul said...
Hmm, I thought this episode was underpar.
Not unfunny, but not laugh out loud like Britney or the penis mouse.
But then I seem to have liked all the episodes that the majority didn't this season.
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4-17-2008 @ 7:09AM
mj said...
Classic Grapes of Wrath. And it was Henry Fonda, not Peter. Even in black and white. And yes, Close Encounters. The fact that only a child could fix it is a classic joke, too. And South Park couldn't make it without the internet? I was watching South Park before I even HAD internet. Plus, Randy spouting about over logging (on). A little environmental dig, there. Maybe not belly laughing, but smug grin.
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4-17-2008 @ 8:02AM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Remember the giant cloud of Smug that wiped out San Francisco? It ate this episode, too.
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4-17-2008 @ 8:39AM
laura said...
"One of the characters in the show was stating about how he couldn't wait to e-mail someone, and my first thought was "if nobody has Internet, who'd read it?""
Wow, and I mean Wow, the insight to this review is mindboggling.....
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4-18-2008 @ 1:25AM
Paul said...
I agree. Worst review ever.
I'll stay away from South Park reviews from now on.
4-17-2008 @ 8:53AM
John Howard said...
This is easily the worst review I've ever read around here, and that's saying something.
Of course they presented the internet in a simplistic way, it's South Park. If you expect them to present things fairly and seriously, you're a moron. They only have a half hour, they can't really get into the complexities of the internet, or e-commerce. And if they did, it wouldn't be funny anyway.
This was a great episode, the great references, the representation of the internet as a giant Linksys wireless router, the internet porn simulator. It was all great.
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