Review: South Park “Naughty Ninjas”

Spoilers Below

Officer Barbrady is fired after opening fire at the school on a Latino-girl for no real reason. As a result, the former officer is eventually rejected by the town and is being evicted with a really sick dog. Problem is, he isn’t the only cop in trouble, as the rest of South Park’s Police Force is ordered by the mayor to not fight crime. But, what about the homeless problem?

Meanwhile, the kids are playing ninjas, but resemble the terrorist outfit known as ISIS due to their uniforms and their affinity for high-level martial arts training in run down neighborhoods. The adults get wind of this and FLIP. With the kids gaining notoriety from ISIS overseas, the adults turn to the one guy they think that can help…Barbrady.

The officer has already shown that he can shoot kids with the best of them, so heads over to the ninja-ISIS headquarters and opens fire. Too bad, because the mayor fires him again, but Barbrady looks to be part of something MUCH bigger of which it looks like we’ll find out more next week.

Our Take

There’s a lot to take in on this week’s episode. I’m blown away that the network let these guys produce an episode with ANYTHING having to do with ISIS which can be a sticky situation depending on the day of the week. Moreover, the producers maybe got a bit more obligatory with their take on cop violence against racial stereotypes, but it looks as though they are putting together something much grander than that for next week.

In a totally unrelated instance, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Babbrady, almost getting somewhat misty-eyed when we watch him come home to chill with his sick dog. For the first time we saw a sort of sweetness from the character which is largely unfounded with the other characters of the series.

Speaking of which, as funny as it was to see Cartman try to squirm out of a responsibility, but I actually think referring to stuff as “gay” nowadays has become even more taboo than ISIS. I’ll be curious to see if any more fall out comes from this week’s episode as time goes on.