Review: South Park “Not Funny”

Did this week’s South Park live up to its episode title?

Spoilers Below

This week’s new episode of South Park, “Not Funny” is another necessary part for this season’s arc. There were parts I really liked, but also aspects of this season’s plot that are maybe becoming a little tiresome, and finding me looking forward to its end (next episode?) I also want to know the conclusion to all of this.

Cartman’s girlfriend is trying to help Elon Musk with SpaceX, and her emoji decoding becomes useful yet again, as Butters insists he doesn’t want to steal her away from Cartman– since that’s what Eric suspects. At the same time, Gerald is still in Denmark with the other trolls, and people back in South Park are worried about their internet histories being exposed.

President Garrison is being played by all sides, of course– just as someone in the real world is– and he is initially planning to bomb Denmark at Mr. Slave’s urgings. However, in a strange twist, Garrison talks to Kyle and is played yet again.

At the end of “Not Funny”, we find out that there are yet more ulterior motives at play, and everyone is Rickrolled again. Ike and Kyle have to figure out what to do, as Sheila blames Ike for all the trolling.

This week, I can’t help but feel some of this is becoming tiring. There are a couple of good spots in the episode, and the cliffhangers are epic– but something is lacking. Sometimes I still miss one-off episodes of past seasons that were just funny in and of themselves and not embedded in a serial season/arc fashion. The past episodes that focused on all the kids, for example (and where is Stan lately??)

Maybe some of the new directions in South Park stem from the fact that Matt and Trey are growing up, and they’re trying new things. But maybe my disillusion rests with how the current social and political climate just isn’t funny. We’ve all been trying to find humor in everything, but we’re all tired, and things are cliche, and we’re all getting old. (Ha.)

But still, “Not Funny” was a decent, satirical and highly ironic episode with good spots. I’m trying my hardest not to be a cynical old guy here.