Review: South Park ‘The City Part of Town’

Spoilers Below:

So far South Park has commented on political correctness, Donald Trump, and a few other issues in quite opinionated ways – especially with Trump getting raped and killed and that jazz. But it’s important to remember that not all SP episodes take strong stances. Some just concentrate on the characters in a fun little story, others still involve social commentary but just kind of make fun of everyone without being preachy in any way. This is one of those episodes.

Jimmy Fallon made fun of South Park for being a town full of shithead country bumpkins (because of presidential candidate Garrison) and the residents decided to try to improve their image by taking the worst part of town and turning it into “Sodosopa,” a trendy & hip new neighborhood. All of this was mainly because they wanted to impress a Whole Foods rep in an attempt to get a store.

Meanwhile, in order to earn money to live in his suddenly more expensive hood, Kenny got a job as part of the City Wok child labor force. The manager tried to make the restaurant trendy as well, much to the chagrin of the businesses and patrons of Sodosopa. Just as the angry mob stormed down to destroy City Wok, the Whole Foods rep told the town they were approved for a store, due to the effort put into displaying “an exaggerated sense of social consciousness.”

Kenny quit his job and used the money he earned to buy his sister a doll. As he went to sleep, people could be seen dining right outside his bedroom window.

In Case You Missed It:

1) “Hi, I’m Randy Marsh and I’ve been PC for almost two weeks now.”

2) The commercial for Sodosopa advertised it as having views of “historic Kenny’s house.”

3) I love that Kyle Kinane is the voice of Comedy Central commercials, because I love Kyle Kinane.

4) Ha, Craig’s face when the mayor called him a homosexual.

5) The manager of City Wok called Kenny “Dennis” four times.

6) Does South Park get paid every time they mention Red Lobster in an episode?

7) It occurs to me that the City Wok manager’s main shtick has a slightly different effect now that you can say “shit” on TV.

As I said earlier, this was a “make fun of everyone” episode, and it did a great job at that.

It started out made fun of the people of South Park for being what they kind of are – hillbillies. Then it made fun of locals that try to make their town better by getting a Whole Foods. It made fun of Whole Foods for being elitist. It made fun of poor people for sometimes being lazy. It made fun of hipsters for being phony. It even made fun of Kyle for making speeches. But how did it end? With a sentimental moment. Not always what you’d expect from South Park, but it had a nice message. Life can be tough sometimes, but hard work eventually pays off. Or at least that’s what I got out of it.

But what this installment didn’t do, was take a big stand on an issue. It didn’t say Whole Foods is an evil corporation that overcharges customers with inaccurate weights (they do.) It didn’t say townspeople looking for their city to become trendy are horrible people. It didn’t say new “cool” business succeed at the expense of the longstanding ones. It didn’t make hipsters or trend followers look like total douches – though it made them look a bit dumb in the commercials (in which they’ve once again successfully mixed live action with animation) for Sodosopa, The Villas at Kenny’s House, CtPaTown, and Whole Foods. And it didn’t bash the poor and tell them to suck it up either. It pointed out a few humorous and critical things for each group, and didn’t try to change any minds.

In the end, all it did was make us think about society for a second, laugh for a while, and remember that the South Park guys are still master storytellers.