REVIEW: SOUTH PARK “Raising the Bar”

Cartman owns up to being fat and decides that driving around on a scooter is his right. Kyle sees that Cartman isn’t the only one who finds no shame in his unhealthy lifestyle. Meanwhile, Cartman discovers he has a rival in America’s Sweetheart, Honey Boo Boo.

Spoilers Below

Cartman finally admits it….after years of Kyle telling him so Cartman now admits his fatness after seeing a bunch of fatties rolling around in a hover round up and down the aisles of Wal-Mart. But hey, if you can’t beat ’em…join ’em! And that’s exactly what Cartman does, he gains a few extra pounds and gets himself a ‘Rascal” and now he doesn’t have to use his legs like a sucker. In fact, Cartman is so fond of his new toy that he goes to a job and gets him to institute new regulations to make the acceptance of fat kids more prevalent. It’s not enough that Cartman gets to cut theme park rides and slow down traffic. Now, Cartman wants to be able to shit like everyone else so the government tells home owners to make houses more handicap accessible which of course costs millions and sends citizens into disarray causing them to knock down anyone in a rascal. To prevent this, rascals everywhere are affixed with new tip assists that pick up fallen fat people. Kyle thinks this is ridiculous and thinks this is another one of Cartman’s cries for attention.  It’s here Kyle is then introduced to the fattest attention-whore of a girl there is…America’s daughter, Honey Boo-Boo. There can’t possibly be any bar lower than this right??

Welp, let’s give it to James Cameron and his big fucking boat to find out. As the multi-millionaire Hollywood movie blockbuster director ensues on a deep underwater journey to see where the lowest bar is set and raise it. Eventally, James sinks deeper than any human before only to find Randy Newman protecting the lowest set bar  and hoping no one raises it.

To help show Cartman of his true colors, Token comes up with an idea. Like, let’s follow around Cartman and film a documentary showcasing the fat kid’s line of bull shit and get it on TV. Unfortunately, Token wasn’t exactly upfront about his intentions, as he edited the doc piece in the style of a new docu-reality series entitled “Fatty Doo-Doo”  complete with a theme song as done by resident asshole Randy Newman. Kyle is pissed! He goes to  his partner Token who tells him that white trash TV sells good advertising. Worse, Kyle finds out that if he keeps going with it he’s going to kill Cartman as recently Boo-Boo just had a heart transplant courtesy of a slaughtered local mud rolling hog.

Cartman finds out about his new show that premiered and sicks his lawyers after Token with a ‘cease and desist’ notice to cancel the show. Fortunately, the ratings went poo-poo on “Fatty’s” premier going up against Boo-Boo and this sets off Cartman to find the bitch and wage war. And who better to call in a crowd and moderate said battle then Michelle Obama, who provides a Boo-Boo vs Poo-Poo spaghetti fight for everyone to see! Eventually, the fight just goes on and on with no clear winner . Eventually, a feeling comes over the crowd that uplifts their spirit and decide that obesity is a problem and that’s the real fight. Proven so by Michelle’s hammering of Cartman in front of everyone.

What triggered the sudden mood change??? James Cameron raised the bar to  its highest level in years.

Soo, did Matt and Trey admit that  years of controversial television which is now at its head with a show like Boo-Boo, was brought on by the inception of South Park??? Hmm…..That said, overall I feel like I’ve seen a lot of these plot points before including the Simpsons episode “King Size Homer” where Homer got really fat so that he can get a scooter and go on disability. Also, we are getting another log in the “Cartman does something stupid, and Kyle reacts'” file which wouldn’t be necessarily terrible if the plots were funnier. Yea, I love trashing Honey Boo-Boo just like everyone else, but we got a preview earlier this week talking up a “Cartman vs Boo-Boo” showdown which we got, but because it was advertised as such I found myself just waiting for the fight to happen, and even then it wasn’t one of the better South Park fights.  Formulaic, not funny, and predictable aren’t adjectives anyone normally uses when talking up South Park which ironically enough sets the bar for this episode quite a bit lower than we are used to.

(6.0 out of 10)