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