South Park Casualty Count: Coon & Friends Take On BP
Judging from the first eleven episodes of the season (and especially last night's installment which revisited Cartman's Coon & Friends superhero group to take on the BP oil spill), it appears South Park's reign on Comedy Central has cooled after fourteen seasons. Good run, fellas! Sadly though, Trey Parker and Matt Stone have exhausted their arsenal of cutting edge humor and surprisingly on-point attacks on ridiculous pop culture fads and personalities. Take a look at which characters were slayed most viciously in last night's "Coon 2: Hindsight." Courtney Love and Tony Hayward, you may not want to proceed.
When last night's episode began, Cartman had reassembled his fictional superhero gang which included himself as Coon (a half man, half raccoon who bosses around his friends), Mysterion (Clyde), Toolshed (Stan), Iron Maiden (Timmy), Tupperware (Token), Mosquito (Kyle), Mintberry Crunch (Bradley), and Human Kite (Kenny).
When they hear of a local fire, they demand that their faithful butler (Cartman's mom) drives them to the accident site, only to be out-heroed by a local superhero, Captain Hindsight, who flies to the scene of the crime and quickly points out all of the mistakes that were made leading to the fire. Satisfied with this superhero hindsight, the firefighters leave the scene. Consequently 14 people burn to death.
Jealous of Hindsight's attention, Cartman hatches a plan to get Hindsight on his own superhero team. "All we need to do is get pictures of Captain Hindsight naked with Courtney Love," reasoned Cartman. "Then we'll tell him that if he doesn't join [Coon & Friends], we'll release them on the internet."
Meanwhile, a BP drilling boat causes another leak in the Gulf ("Oh don't tell me we did it again!"). Tony Hayward changes the name of the company to DP (Dependable Petroleum) but then promptly drills another hole into the Gulf. This time, the hole causes a pack of freak alien creatures and Cthulhu to attack the area.
When Cartman admits that he has no concern for the people suffering from the BP oil spill, Cartman's superhero friends rise against him and make Coon & Friends a democracy. With their new form of government, the group organizing an event to raise money for the BP victims.
In a tribute to A Clockwork Orange, Cartman attacks the rest of his Coon superhero gang to reassert his leadership while "The Thieving Magpie" plays in the background.
Even after this, the Coon gang convinces Cartman's mother to ground him for profanity and arguing with his friends. Meanwhile, the Coon's gang departs to finish off Cthulhu once and for all.
Casualties Claimed at the Hands of Matt Stone and Trey Parker Last Night:
Tony Hayward, BP, Tom Cruise, Courtney Love, Brett Favre, the news media (who constantly live in the past, reviewing how and why disasters have occurred but not moving forward and adequately punishing the people responsible).
Kenny's Cause of Death:
N/A.
Best Insults:
"Mom, you're the Coon's faithful butler. Take us downtown now." -- Cartman
"What could possibly be worse than a fire that kills 14 people?" -- Cartman, before South Park smash cuts to a BP oil spill scene
"Tell Brett Favre that he should have never sent actual pictures of his schlong." -- Captain Hindsight
"BP. We no longer f*ck the earth. We DP it." -- Tony Hayward
Movieline Rating:
5/10
Comments
South Parks reign is cooling down? I feel critics feel they get cool points when they trash talk something amazing. you are an idiot, Matt and Trey are unstoppable and seem to almost have complete control and freedom over their show. Just because you probably get butt fucked by a rich man doesn't mean you are awesome. I would just like to say from the bottom of my heart, I'm sorry... Sorry that you exist.
I have to agree with Mr. Reese. South Park remains on top because it is consistently funny (sometimes b/c of jabs at people who deserve it, sometimes just because they show the earth and moon with a drill in each orifice, or a Louisiana shrimper talking). Julie Miller should probably pick a new career or kill herself, whatever is easier....
I also agree with Mr. Reese. Last night's episode was the tits. And that 'A Clockwork Orange' reference!?? -- spot on! I thoroughly enjoyed the episode. "I'm sorry.... I'm sorrrry... I'm sorry!
hahaahaha
I completely agree with everything said by the commenters above. The author of this article needs to stop stating her opinion as fact. Clearly South Park is still on top with no signs of slowing down. And where did Julie Miller discover that Mysterion is actually Clyde? That is a complete and utter lie. It has never been revealed by anyone who Mysterion actually is, as stated on the official SouthParkStudios website. Please don't post until you learn how to write something worth reading.
I think talking shit about SP is the cool thing to do these days. Trey and Matt have done a better job keeping this show consistently funny than The Simpsons has, imo. Im not trying to get into a Simpson vs. SP debate... but all Im saying is I would rather watch SP than the Simpsons these days.
got to love south park, weird how they showed BP as.. well English ... rather than British (4 countries people) and.. weird they were even english at all.
Most of the issues with a certain american spill, well it was built by americans. BP is a company, most of the employees were american. Are american.
=op
Obviously the Tony Hayward connection.
Thanks for perceptive articles such as these. Anyone who has not been living under a rock and has viewed the earlier seasons of SP will know how terribly the standards have fallen.
Earlier, you had episodes such as Rainforest Schmainforest, Jakovasaurus and other random episodes that were, at end of the day, laugh out loud funny. Pop culture references were brief, cursory and just that - references. South Park was able to make episodes on SP being turned into a LA type of town during Chef's Chocolate Balls and made fun of Satan and his relationships in othe episodes. NONE of these episodes relied on a pop culture references. Most SP fans who are impervious to logic defend this phenomenon by saying that Trey and Matt acknowledged as much when they made the episode of "The Simpsons Did It". Really? Well then why carry on? Let's call it quits and spare us mish-mashed, regurgitated, stale pop culture parodies as episodes.
Britney, Dark Knight, Tom Cruise, Jonas Brothers, High School Musical and the list just goes on.
SP was always great when it came up with random episodes and did not have to resort to basing their ENTIRE episode on what happened a month ago.
I don't blame Trey and Matt though. They are at an age where they have lost touch with the age group of 15-28 and are no longer attuned to what is funny to them.
I would be very surprised if Comedy Central renewed their contract again. Guys, hang it up. Your first 8 seasons (especially the first 4) were pure magic. Don't make us remember you as something that has overstayed his welcome. It's like watching the coolest kid in the class desperately yearn for recognition and pathetically scouring for a laugh.
Obligatory Anti-Semitic Slur: Kyle being the Human KITE
Those who can, Trey & Matt do, those who can not, Julie, critique those who can!
Wow Bony STFU you have no idea what you're talking about. Just because you type a lot of words in a comment box doesn't mean you have anything worth saying. Typical female goes on and on without really saying anything that's true. Anyway it was probably the best show of the season so far although the Snooki smush smush was pretty friggin funny too. How can you not laugh your ass off at the Earth getting double penetrated(porn reference, maybe that's why women don't get it) and later gangbanged?
And that kid's obviously getting his attention. I'm not defending South Park here, but you act like South Park literally is dying, when in actuality, it's really only dying for a few people out there. South Park is more popular than ever, and with episodes like these, they're going to retain their popularity. I'd honestly be surprised if Comedy Central didn't renew their contract. Currently, South Park is one of the, if not THEE, most popular show on their network. Not renewing South Park would cause a huge loss of money for them. Please don't try to state your opinion as a fact, because just because you didn't like the episode, doesn't mean everyone else didn't.
The sexual harassment panda song, "Who lives in the east 'neath the willow tree? Sexual Harassment Panda! Who explains sexual harassment to you and me? Sexual Harassment Panda! Don't say that, dont touch there, don't be nasty says the silly bear, hes come to teach you whats right and wrong, sexual harassment panda!
I think Matt and Trey have got bored with it and are leaving most of the work to the 'production team'
I am a huge south park fan and have been since I was eleven. If anyone insulted it I would basically kick them square. I understand your point about the pop culture references vs. Gereral south park humor very well and agree to it. If you look back on south park episodes about 20 years from now say you choose to watch "The ring," or "Elementary school musical" or "New Jersey" or "Insheeption". You will be like okay how is this supposed to be funny? But then you watch "Pink eye,"
or "Cartman's mom is a dirty slut," or "cheroeke hair tampons" or "earth" or "Fatt butt and pankake head" or "club houses or "tweak vs. Craig" and start laughing your ass off... I still watch every new south park and love the effects they are adding but it is kind of over powering the humor. I am in love with both Matt and Trey, and looking forward to their musical in 2011!!! I just really wish they would do a totally random episode that revolves around all FOUR boys NOT Butters (Who I personally thing caused the show to stail a bit) and has perfectly NO pop colture references it'll all be good. It's like Epic movie, or meet the spartans. If you watch those now you'll be like "lame...."
I LOVE YOU SOUTH PARK NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
XOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXOXXO
ummm. did the author even realize that southpark took DP and made it into double penetration?
southpark is still the king. the episode was absolutely hilarious.
You dont even have the characters right. mysterion is kenny, the human kite is kyle, and mosquito is clyde. Come on now... get it right
Get your stuff right man...mysterion is Kenny... South Park is still the king
i dont know who wrote this but he must not watch a lot of south park because its still funny. even betters than the old episodes. and for the writers info kenny is mysterion. shows how much he really knows about the show. dont talk what u dont know
Southpark is fuckin' awesome and that's because it is i'm sorry for any muthafucker at disagrees with me it has it's bad episodes and good ones and that's that sure southpark has obviously crossed the line lot's of time's but they do it for free speech and that's what their about i like southpark it's not bad just a bit rude to rude for T.V and that's all i gotta say
The fact the this so called author couldn't even get the characters right, tells anyone with half a brain all they need to know.
Awesome show!