Review: China IL ‘Displays of Manhood’

Spoilers Below

Baby Cakes invites Pony to a rousing game of Dungeons & Dragons in exchange for Taco Bell, and even though at first she isn’t a fan, Pony takes a liking to it and makes quick friends with the rest of BC’s guild after he kills him. BC doesn’t like it, and he plans on fighting back! BC does just that by summoning the fucking thing from The Land Before Time and getting a banishment sword of whence to fight back from a mountain made of penises. An epic battle ensues that sees BC and Pony do battle in the parking lot.

Meanwhile, Frank challenges Muhammad Ali to a fight at China IL so that he can show everyone that he’s a man and while the history professor thought the greatest of all time was going to decline, instead the challenge is accepted. Frank tries to get out of it, but finds out that collagen may be his way of not only surviving the fight, but winning it. Unfortunately, the two combatants are so out of shape that no punches are thrown and we really just meet a bunch of celebrities.

Eventually, Pony and BC show up in the middle of the ring and BC defeats the only woman member of the D&D club. This officially makes this group illegal in China IL because the previous woman was hospitalized.

While everything is going on, Steve is at his apartment telling his first date about all of his sexual conquests dressed as a doctor’s patient. The girl leaves kinda annoyed, leaving Steve at home with nothing to do.

I know nothing about Dungeons & Dragons, so I can’t even begin to tell you anything about the game, but I loved the idea of an epic battle spilling out into the middle of a boxing ring and ending in blood. The premise was none too dissimilar to the ‘Black Friday’  or ‘Make Love, Not Warcraft’ episodes of South Park, or a lot of other South Park episodes for that matter, in that the respected shows featured characters that go a little too over-the-top when it comes to some games and as a result people die and friendships are ruined. That said, the dramatic embellishments of the fan base are not far off, because as someone who knows people whom spend their days playing D&D and Warcraft, I can attest that this episode’s exaggeration is not far off.

Frank’s portion was also very South Park-esque in that we got maybe the grossest depiction of Frank that I’ve ever seen , and the very notion that he would fight a dude with Parkinson’s is hysterical. Moreover, this was one of Brad Neely’s finest ‘Frank’ performances as it appeared as so he really had to do some different things to make his character some how crazier than normal. That’s not easy with Frank whom is by far the most esoteric of the cast, but Brad pulled it off.

And yes, Steve’s contribution could be seen as nothing more than glorified interstitials that just got in the way of the other two way more developed story lines, but the twist ending for me probably should have been expected, but I still got walloped by it.

You may have noticed earlier the episodes of South Park that I named and the fact that they were both Emmy nominated with the ‘Make Love, Not Warcraft’ episode actually winning an award. That wasn’t by accident, and Rick and Morty season two better bring it because it’s down to this show and Lucas Bros. as the best of the year so far.